I'll admit that this is starting to get a bit frustrating. If the Avs were just truly bad I would know that my plan wasn't working and that I needed to try something else. But it feels like we are always just on the brink of being a very competitive team. We just can't quite get over the hump. And so I'm not sure whether to basically stay the course or to tear it down and start over.
The Goalie situation at least does seem to have settled into a good groove now and this month we were able to extend both our starter,
Loren Sweeney, who is turning into one of the best Goalies in the NHL (2nd in GSAA this year at 22.69) and backup
J.T. Soronzonbold, who hasn't been very successful in his 7 games played but has good potential.
And our young first forward line is working out as planned, with
James Nelson at #4 among Centres on the Positional Ranking lists (hey, wait, it's spelled Center on here?), and LW
Travis LaFreniere and RW
Matthew Watts playing even better than
Nelson this season.
Some of our weakest players this season have been aging, veteran former stars
Brian Hughes and
Sherwood Sharp.
This month we also signed C
James Nelson to an extension, giving him exactly what he asked for which was 4 years at just under $5.6 million a year, which was less than we expected to have to pay our biggest star.
Loren Sweeney inked a 5-year, $3.3 million per contract. Backup Goalie
J.T. Soronzonbold was signed to a 3-year $770K extension.
Joni Bjorkqvist, who has been our best defenceman, was extended for 3 years at just under $3.8 million per year.
And the surprisingly productive LW
Ken Rechlicz agreed to a 5-year, roughly $3.75 million per year deal. And C
Lance Williams re-upped for 3 years at $2.8 million per.
The financial picture is still pretty good- the Avs have the 31st lowest player payroll this year and we will have veteran
Brian Hughes and his $7.4 million contract off the books next year.
Decisions still need to be made regarding C
Bobby Newsome and RW
Bill Reynolds, neither of whom have been very good this season.