Just my take: It's time for the Colorado Avalanche to trade Gabriel Landeskog

Ask 20 hockey fans the same question and you’ll get 20 different answers. While most sports fans are an argumentative bunch, hockey fans stand on the shoulders of giants in that department. One thing Colorado Avalanche fans can agree on however is that the team is not very good. But where the dividing line comes crashing down is what to do about it. To this question, you’ll get 20 different answers and everyone will assume the other people in the discussion are morons.

Does the team become a seller as it continues to struggle to get out of the basement in the Western conference? Or does it stand pat like in recent years and hope things turn around? I’m pretty sure the current management was not inspired by seeing Pierre Lacroix in the building the other night for the 20th anniversary celebration and didn’t start cooking up some kind of old school, block buster move. Partly because it would be hard to get the Kroenke’s to cough up any extra money but mainly because they don’t have many parts to deal. But the team has to do something because wishing for things to turn around in one hand and pooping in the other is turning out about as expected.

So I propose this question that I doubt will get 20 different answers but I know will be about as popular as talking Corsi with someone over 50: should the Avs trade Gabriel Landeskog?

I think so.

I just about fainted the other night when Landeskog was a late scratch in the game against the Pittsburgh Penguins. No one came out and said it, but a possible trade involving the captain was definitely on everyone’s mind. It ended up being an injury and I pulled my ¾ finished “Trade Landeskog” piece out of the digital trash can and kept going.

Landeskog seems an unlikely bit of trade bait simply because he’s the captain. He’s also young, perceived as a premiere talent and still has five years left on his contract. But he’s also been fairly ineffective for a second overall pick, and doesn’t seem to be helping a struggling team at all this season. He’s got all the right tools, but it doesn’t seem to be working out for him in Denver. He’s the perfect trade bait to an actual contending team.

Granted, Landeskog is not the only reason the Avs are terrible. Far from it. But he’s certainly someone they can part with at this point and get the rebuild going. The Avs don’t have much else to offer in a trade and Landeskog is really all they can spare. No team would want anyone else from this squad other than Matt Duchene and Nathan Mackinnon and let’s hope the Avs have the sense to hold on to them like grim death.

Landeskog isn’t exactly a pure goal scorer, and the hockey snobs will remind you that points aren’t always the determining factor of what a player offers. But at this stage if you can point to anything Landeskog is doing that is actually helping the team, I’d like to hear it. Impact players impact a game and if you’ve watched this uneven season so far, it’s safe to say 92 hasn’t done much to change the fortune of the Avs. And holding on to him may come back to haunt them if he goes further in the tank.

And what about trading a captain? It happens all of the time. Colorado’s own Jarome Iginla was the captain of the Calgary Flames when he was traded to Pittsburgh. We have this romantic notion about captains like Joe Sakic and Steve Yzerman who no one would have ever considered trading. But they were also impact players who were the life blood of their respective teams. Is Landeskog the life blood of the Avs? Hell no. I’d argue Matt Duchene means more to the team and more to the fans than Landeskog ever will. Landeskog would probably do well on an established contender, and captain or not, if he doesn’t make a difference right now for the Avs, he can help them get better through a trade.

What to trade Landeskog for is the question that won’t get 20 answers, it will get 100. We could write another 900 words on whether the Avs should trade its captain for defense or more defensive offensemen and we’d still never come to a consensus. But everyone needs to look in the mirror and realize that despite being a beloved member of the team, Landeskog’s tenure as an Av is sputtering. And while his trade value is still relatively high, the Avs need to move him because he’s the only lucrative asset. The Avs have tried to allow the team it has assembled come together over the last few seasons and it’s just not happening. As much as we don’t want to admit it, it’s time for them to become sellers.

We can all see where this season is headed. And while I don’t pine away for the free-wheeling, Pierre Lacroix era because it’s not realistic these days, I do hope the current management realizes that sitting on a player like Landeskog isn’t going to pan out and that they need to make a move. There isn’t 20 different answers to this question, there’s only one.