Giguere's Signing of Sakic overshadowed by Tangauy Trade
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by user Madproof9
The Article
A day after announcing that he wants to keep the same line-up as last season, Avs GM François Giguère made a move that already makes me miss Pierre Lacroix. With the trade of Alex Tanguay to division-rival Calgary, he just threw away one of the staples of the organization.
One year ago, the Colorado Avalanche were trying to figure out how to keep together one of the greatest line-ups (on paper) in the history of the game; Joe Sakic, Peter Forsberg, Rob Blake, Milan Hejduk, Adam Foote, Teemu Selanne, and Paul Kariya were just a few names on that list. Yesterday, only three of those names were left.
Sakic, Hejduk, and Blake, along with Tanguay, are the faces of this organization. Sakic has been around since the beginning, Hejduk and Tanguay since they were drafted in the late 90's, and although Blake has only been around 5 years, he will be known forever as an Av, and his #4 will one day hang in the rafters.
The question last year was Forsberg, or Tanguay and Hejduk? In the end, Tanguay and Hejduk were seen more important to the organization than Peter Forsberg. "There was a possibility of offering more to Forsberg and parting with some of the younger players, like Tanguay and Hejduk, but I don't think the fans would have been proud of me for that," Lacroix said.
Kariya, Salanne, and Foote were gone already, and now Forsberg was gone because of Tanguay and Hejduk. This move made is seem like these two players were the future of the organization, which is (was) exactly what they are (were).
The new NHL is now made up of fast, good, young players. Tanguay is the trifecta. One of the teams leading scorers, and only 26 years old, Tanguay would have, and should have remained as one of the go-to guys of the organization.
Giguere re-signed Sakic, which was the priority, and also made it seem like Giguere was on the right track. This move not only makes me think twice about his power at GM, but also makes me shutter to think what else he might pull off in the future.
Responses to What Everyone Around Denver is Saying
I've seen many points on discussion boards, and talking to people around Denver, as to why the trade is good, but I don't agree with any of them:
1) "With a big time player such as Tanguay probably looking for a BIG contract (my guess is between 4.5 - 7.5 million), we probably wouldn't be able to sign the players we wanted while staying under the cap (i.e.: Blake, any big free agents, etc...)."
Joe Sakic, arguably one of the top 5 players in the league, and one of the top 20 all time, just signed a contract for $5 million. There is no way Tanguay would even try to get more money than that. Most players would give up money to play where they want for who they want. A great example is Paul Kariya and Teemu Salanne, who both signed for $1.5 million for a chance to play in Colorado. That was $8 million less (combined) than they would have made had they stayed with their respective teams.
2) "We had the 4th best offense in the NHL last year, and a terrible looking defense (especially for a team looking to be a playoff contender)."
Tanguay is a HUGE reason we had the 4th best offense. If you subtract Tanguay's statistics from the Avalanche last year, and add Leopold’s, the Avalanche would rank 15th, right in the middle of the pack. If one player makes that much of a difference, he should not be just tossed away (that's the way I see it).
3) "We opened up quite a bit more cap space, making it possible to sign Blake, 1 or 2 half-decent forwards (maybe better than Tanguay) for a cheap price, a high caliber defensemen."
We only opened up less than $2 million. Tanguay made $3.2 million last season, while Leopold mad $1.5 million. Blake won't make very much, if any, more than last season; in fact, a player like him might actually take LESS money (just like Sakic, who will make over $1 million less than last season). We could sign 2 or 3 players at the introductory salary, but in reality we will probably only be able to sign one other player for the $2 million saved on Tanguay. In addition, the cap is rising over $5 million next season. We could have kept Tanguay, and still had over $5 million to spend on new players.
4) "If we were to sign Tanguay and Blake, we would most likely see little changes for the Avs in 2006/07 season (mainly because we would be really tight to the cap)."
Again, we automatically get $5 million more because of the cap increase, plus the $1 million from Sakic. In addition, little changes isn't a bad thing. Giguere told the radio station in Denver that he would put up our team from last year against Edmonton or Carolina, and thinks they would be equals.
5)"We got two 2nd round picks in the deal."
Cool, so for giving up one of the best players on our team, we got two prospects whom may or may not pan out to be anything good. They will probably be traded off in the future anyway.
Date
Sat 06/24/06, 9:46 pm EST
