RUMOR: 26-year old forward to Montreal
Garrioch stated that no trade has been made because the Avalanche is looking for a top defenseman, a top prospect and a top draft pick for Duchene which, for many teams may be a little too much. Duchene only has one season left on his 5-year, $30 million contract, which means that his trade value couldn't go up any higher than it is now.
Last season, Duchene struggled to notch points when he had a career low of 41 points and a plus-minus rating of -34, but chemistry with newly acquired Nail Yakupov could finish by bringing things back to normal.
Earlier this year, speculation was that everyone except forward Nathan MacKinnon was on the trade block. However, Montreal seems to be the frontrunners for a Duchene deal as if a deal were to accur, Galchenyuk would be sent with a high end defenceman to Colorado for Duchene. Based on what happened in the latter half of the preseason, it makes sense as to why Alex Galchenyuk could be moved. He was originally meant to play on a line with Phillip Danault, but that didn’t seem to be working. After watching how well Danault, Paul Byron, and Andrew Shaw played together, it may be the better choice to have them as a line.
Speculation has also came abroad as the Columbus Blue Jackets would offer forward Boone Jenner, defenceman Ryan Murray and a 2018 2nd round pick (CBJ) to acquire Dutchy.
Earlier this summer, reports came out of Colorado that Duchene's agent was seriously unhappy with Avalanche's general manager Joe Sakic as he rejected a blackbuster trade from the New York Islanders that was meant for the Isles to acquire Duchene.
Snow had an offer out to the Avalanche, with Hamonic and the Islanders’ 2018 first-round pick as part of a package for Matt Duchene, Colorado insider Adrian Dater stated during an interview.He also added that two NHL sources have stated that Pat Brisson, Matt Duchene's agent, who is also New York Islanders' captain John Tavares' agent, is seriously unhappy with the former Colorado superstar.
On the other hand, Sportsnet's Eliotte Friedman believes that Duchene may not leave Colorado after all as the team is going 3-1-0 at the start of the season.
I think it's a great question. Winning cures all evils, noted NHL Insider Elliotte Friedman when presented with the topic during a Friday morning radio hit on Calgary's Sportsnet 960. I can’t say that’s the case right now. They took the 'A' off him. If that was me, I would be annoyed at that. I think they’re still looking to trade him.Colorado is likely still a couple of years away from being a playoff team, though, and trading Duchene for a package of players and picks may help expedite the process.
I get the sense that what is going on here is that I think they're going to hold him for a bit – I mean, famous last words, I'll hang up and he gets traded – but I think they're going to hold him for a bit. But what I think they're going to do is they're going to do some pretty heavy scouting of team prospects. I think it's possible now that teams may not want to give some stuff up off their roster, so I think what they could be doing is looking at some guys who may be in juniors or the NCAA or the minors. Guys who are legit prospects, but simply aren't ready yet or aren't at the NHL level yet. And that takes time. I did get some indication this week that that could be happening.In four games this season, Duchene has two goals and 3 assists.
But they are playing pretty well, continued Friedman on the Avalanche. I'll tell you, the Jost kid looks really good. The Kerfoot kid looks pretty good. Yakupov looks pretty good. I know a lot of people are going to need convincing on that one. But I think the one thing is that they've got a bit of youthful infusion. I do think that last year they grew stale and that played out as they really went to the bottom of the league. But I think that now all of the sudden I think some of their veterans have looked at some of their younger kids and said, "You know what? Some of these guys are pretty good." As for Duchene, that's a lot of water to go under the bridge. I mean, there were a lot of hurt feelings and angry feelings on both sides. I would say it's unlikely that that goes to a point where he doesn't want to be traded anymore, but stranger things have happened. So I would say unlikely, but I wouldn’t say 100 percent no.If you were the GM of your team who would you trade to acquire the star forward?
Post a Comment