Alternative Universe Avs (NHL w/ fictional players)

[BirdWatcher]

Let's pause a moment to give some praise to Sam Olson, a 34-year old Right Winger who we picked up off waivers in February and who I'm pretty sure has flown completely under the radar here so far. He appeared in 30 games for us this season, scoring 4 goals with 8 assists and with a respectable +4 and 62 average game rating.
He played very well today in St. Louis, albeit in a losing effort, as the Blues swept the Avalanche out of the playoffs.









All in all, though, it was a good run and exceeded my expectations at least. I think it should satisfy our new owner (Stan Kroenke sold the team in the offseason to Robby Jones).

And now we will start looking forward to the off-season, the draft, reloading the team for next year's run for the Cup.

Over in the Eastern Conference the New York Rangers lead Ottawa 2 games to 1.

Next post will update those results and preview the Stanley Cup Finals.

[BirdWatcher]

Of all of the teams to qualify for the playoffs this year, surely the one considered least likely to win the Cup was the Ottawa Senators.
And, now, having dispatched the New York Rangers in 6 games they are going to have a chance to do that. All they need to do is defeat the St. Louis Blues in the Finals.



If there is an advantage that Ottawa might have (other than crazy luck and possibly team-of-destiny vibes) it is that they are completely injury-free at the moment. On the other hand, they have a distinct disadvantage in net. Their starting Goalie, Barry Shaw (and for those who don't have any history reading my threads, I have to pull for Barry's, being one myself) is a half star player who had a GSAA of 1.29 in 47 games this season. His GAA was 2.67 and he had a save percentage of .911. All pretty good for a half star player, but for a starter on a Stanley Cup Finals team? Yeah, not so much. Backup Goalie Ben Gross has a chance for a good career eventually. He is only 19 and has room for growth. But this year his GSAA was -8.33 in 37 NHL games, with a 2.98 GAA and a .902 save percentage.
The Sens best player is 29-year old Kelly Schneider, who saw his points total drop from 74 in '20-'21 to 60 this season and his +/- fall from +3 to -4. Veteran Center Norbert Hach, at age 35, saw an even steeper decline, from 82 points in '20-'21 to 44 points this past season, albeit in 12 fewer games played. The Senators are mostly an older team and this might be their best chance for a Cup anytime soon.



St. Louis, as we saw earlier, is led by veteran Stephan Hrdlicka, a tremendous veteran 2-way forward (RW). The Blues young Goalie Eugene Springer is also still developing, but he's considered a 3-star player right now and has stats to back that up. The Blues also have a number of first-year players on their roster from the most recent entry draft, highlighted by RD Tommy Cote (sorry, don't know how to do the two accent marks in his name here, but they exist). Cote was the 4th pick of the draft and put up 49 points in his rookie season (17 goals, 32 assists) though with a -13 goal differential. St. Louis has a chance to contend for the foreseeable future.

And of course they are the favorites to skate away with the Stanley Cup.
So naturally Ottawa will probably prevail.

[BirdWatcher]

And sure enough, Ottawa sweeps St. Louis to take the Cup!

[BirdWatcher]

As we approach the offseason the Avalanche are in pretty good shape, having come off a season in which they nearly collected 100 points and made it to the Western Conference Finals in the playoffs.

The bulk of the core of the team is signed at least through 2024, including RD Sherwood Sharp (2027), LW Brian Hughes (2026), LW Tommy Lockhart (2024), C Jeremy Kelley (2025), C Nikolay Ivanov (2025), RW Aleksandr Dugin (2028), and RW Aleksandr Yermolayev (2025).

A few of our recent draft picks seem to be developing pretty well, with our best prospect now being last year's 2nd round pick, RD Craig Woodard. The guy chosen in the 1st round, C Clark St. Croix, was acceptable on the 4th line at age 18 this year and while he doesn't look like a superstar in the making he does profile as a very good player in the NHL once developed, likely at least a 2nd line starter.
There are also indications that our 4th round pick, RD Gerald Murray, has a chance to develop into a solid 2nd or 3rd line talent and with a knack for the big moment. He remains protected but unsigned but is likely to be signed to a contract by the team before the next season.
The same may also be true of ultra-durable LD Adam Martizes, our 5th round pick, who has old-school defenceman skills that could make him at least a solid 3rd liner or 7th defenceman in the NHL.

So, having said all of that, there are some tough decisions to make about players who are UFA's this year.

Here is a list of our upcoming free agents:




With the great depth we already have among defencemen and the youth we have as prospects, Robin Larsson, who is 30, could be allowed to test the market. On the other hand, Larsson is a 1st assistant captain, remains a good player and one of our toughest characters (high aggression, high bravery, high determination). There is also a sense that he isn't a guy who prioritizes pay and he's a big game performer. It would be great to keep him, if it makes fiscal and hockey sense.
Probably the best player who can be a free agent this offseason is 31-year old LW Lukas Nordin. While it would be great to keep Nordin, there is a sense that he is looking for a big payday. And even more troubling, he was out the last few months of the season due to a Grade 3-B concussion and isn't expected to be ready to resume activities for another month or two. Not keeping Nordin would likely mean needing to target at least one less expensive 3rd or 4th line LW'er in free agency as Sam Olson's contract is also expiring. (He was a nice pick-up for us, but he's 34. I'd rather work on the youth movement.)
Another tough decision is RW Antoine Poliquin. Poliquin is 32 and had some injury issues this year, only playing in 45 games. But he's a mostly reliable player and another big-game producer. On the other hand, he is another player about whom it is believed that he will be holding out for more money than we might want to pay him.
If we keep fellow RW Jason DeSantis, who is considerably younger and had a nice little season as a 4th line forward we will likely need to let Poliquin walk. It doesn't look like DeSantis will ever have the skill needed to be anything but a 4th line player so it once again means we will need to find an economical role-playing 3rd line RW to fill the gap.

The other thing that I am trying to be mindful of here is what next offseason might look like. As I mentioned early in this thread, I really am not very confident about my understanding of or skills in managing a salary cap. So far I've felt my way through it and somehow managed to stay on the right side of things (stay balanced, fiscally). But this coming season is the last under contract for Goalie Terry Ross, LD Terry Dingle, RD Michal Lezak, and C Aiden Keene. We will almost surely want to keep at least 2 of those players beyond next season, and ideally all 4. So that needs to be factored in to decisions we make this offseason.

We can always hope to get an impact player in the 1st round of the upcoming entry draft but since we will be drafting nearly in the same position (possibly in the exact same position- I'm not entirely sure at this moment) as last year, that isn't likely. But it might at least help give us a feel for the next 2-5 years.

[BirdWatcher]

So having thought it out in the previous post, I decided Robin Larsson had a combination of skills and leadership that I couldn't afford to lose from the team, so he has been extended.



With the free agency filing date approaching, my feeling is that I will let all the rest of our possible free agents take their chances and figure that I can find some cheap acceptable alternatives on the market.

That doesn't of course preclude the possibility of trying to bring back someone like Olson or DeSantis later if they are still available and it makes sense.

[BirdWatcher]

The Avs got shut out in the end of season awards, but since none of our players (or other personnel) were in the running that came as no surprise.

[BirdWatcher]

Our star RD Sherwood Sharp was named a Second Team All-Star for the season.
So there's something at least.

[BirdWatcher]

Well, this makes things even a bit more interesting:





And thus we say goodbye to 38-year old Center James Joyal, freeing up a chunk of money and opening up more playing time for prospect Clark St. Croix.

This does mean we need to find at least three forwards to sign before next season.

[BirdWatcher]

Although the Avs were not anticipating going after any big name (and certainly not big dollar) free agents this offseason, we did for a time toy with the idea of signing 26-year old RW William Thornton, which would have been a signing on roughly the same level as last offseason's signing of Sherwood Sharp. Ultimately there was a bidding war and we decided it was too rich for our blood and the talented young 2-way forward ending up re-signing with the Los Angeles Kings.

The Avs then turned their sights to 27-year old RW/LW Cedric Langevin, an offensive forward with strong playmaking skills (and reportedly low greed). And while there was a bit of negotiation involved Langevin did in the end sign a 3-year deal to join us in the Mile High City.




Having added 2nd line talent, we turned our sights towards cheaper role-playing forward options and landed on 29-year old (turned 30 since then) LW/RW Jack McCaffery. McCaffery provides a little defensive depth on our forward lines for very little payout. And like Langevin he is very durable. Unlike Langevin, who is seen as wilting a bit under pressure, the far less talented McCaffery does have a reputation for being a big-game player.




Thus far these are the only free agents who have been signed and having now completed the entry draft (next post) it appears that if we make any more signings at this point it will just be at the fringes and to add some injury call-up depth to our AHL affiliate. (Which is to say- spoiler alert- we have at least two new draftees who look like they can make the active roster to start the season, and even be valuable starters.)

[BirdWatcher]

One of my stated goals in this thread is to not just report results of my fictional player NHL universe (understanding that this is likely of little interest to most people) but to be process-focused as well. What I hope might be somewhat more interesting to others is a peek into the learning process for an FHM and relative Hockey newbie.
To that end, before I go into any details about the recently completed NHL Entry Draft in my league, I wanted to step back to the bigger picture issues around this, particularly as it relates to my lack of knowledge and experience.

First just a small embarrassing admission: having not taken the time to look up the NHL Entry Draft rules and with my experience being almost exclusively in baseball and OOTP, I was under the mistaken impression that outside of the draft lottery slots the draft order would run from worst regular season record to best. So I imagined that my Avs would have a pick at roughly the same spot as last year if not slightly better. What I didn't realize is that, having made it to the Western Conference Finals, we actually would actually be picking later than all but the two Stanley Cup Finals teams.

Another, but more long-term, area of learning curve for me is around scouting for the draft and development expectations, as well as the decision making process of when to sign draft picks to contracts, when to assign them to our AHL affiliate, when to bring them up to the Avs active roster, etc.
And while I've done some research on the various FHM-related forums and in the game manual, I'll admit that this is the sort of thing that I also like to mostly learn by doing. (And by failing, for a time at least, until I start to get the hang of it, when the failing will hopefully be at least less spectacular than at first.)

So, looking back at my first Entry Draft, my first two picks, Clark St. Croix and Craig Woodard, are the only two to be signed to contracts yet and both started this past season on our AHL affiliate and ended the season on the active roster with the Avs. And both acquitted themselves pretty well at age 18. In both cases our scouting level for current ability is A while our scouting level for potential ability is a C. And, to jump ahead a bit, that is also pretty consistently the scouting levels for the players we chose in the most recent draft.
Which brings me to my point about scouting and my learning curve: it seems like I need to focus a bit more on strengthening our scouting staff, particularly as it relates to potential ability scouting.
It seems pretty clear that St. Croix and Woodard are both NHL-caliber (and NHL-ready) players but what is unclear is whether they will live up to their star player potential (both are listed as having 4.5 star potential by our scouts, though also by other public scouting sources/consensus) or whether they will be merely adequate starting players in the league.
Either way I will be pleased enough with early results but obviously I have a lot to learn yet in this area of the game.
And I'm pretty far out at sea in deciding what to do with my other 5 draft picks from that first draft: when to sign them to contracts, when to send them to our AHL club, when to add them to the active roster. Just feeling my way tentatively at this time.

Which brings us to this most recent draft, which at first glance appeared like it might contain more high-end talent than last year's.

Before I move on to the next post where I will discuss our draft picks, let's look at the top 2 players chosen in this draft:

With the first pick the Toronto Maple Leafs (who had a .500 record last season, finished in 5th place in the Atlantic Division with 82 points, and really moved up in the draft lottery) chose Left Winger Kyle Eisbrenner, who profiles as a strong two-way forward with great determination and big-game impact. If our scouts are to be trusted, Eisbrenner could have a fantastic rookie season as he looks like nearly a top-line player already.




The next pick in the draft went to the New Jersey Devils, who chose Left Winger Francis White. White is a big kid who profiles as being very durable and has very good speed and looks to be a more offensively minded forward.




Next post will start to look at Avs picks in this draft.

[BirdWatcher]

Before I spotlight our picks in this most recent draft, let me state that early indications are that not only was the top-end talent stronger than last year's draft, but the draft pool overall was much deeper and more talented.

Of course, that is just an initial impression and how it works out over time is still anybody's guess.

With the Avs first pick, 29th overall, we took Left Winger Milo Holland. The big Texan kid has already been signed to a contract and the plan is for him to start the season on the Avs active roster. He projects to be a 2-way forward with his defensive read skills a particular strength. He has solid leadership skills, very good stamina, excellent checking skills, and plus puckhandling abilities. For such a big young man his strength and aggression ratings are quite low. There is also a concern that his game may wilt a bit under pressure, but overall he should be a talented addition to the team.


Our second round pick was Right Defenceman Josh Hishon, the lone defenceman we took in this draft as it turns out. Like Holland, Hishon has already been inked to a contract and is expected to begin the season on the Avs active roster. Unlike Holland, there is a pretty big gap between what our scouts think of Hishon's potential future and the consensus take on this. If our scouts are correct, we got a steal here, and if not, well, he should still be a solid starting defenceman. While he has 2-way defenceman skills, he is particularly strong defensively with excellent stickchecking, good defensive positioning, solid defensive read abilities, etc. Then again, his offensive read skills are even stronger and his shooting range is tremendous. He has great determination but most of his other mental ratings are not great. But other than strength (and fighting) his physical ratings are quite good, especially his stamina and balance. Hishon looks like he could be another fine addition to an already very strong defencemen corps for the Avs. But also possible is that our scouts are wrong about Hishon and he is merely an adequate role-player in the NHL.



The Avs 3rd round pick was durable Right Winger Bill Reynolds.
Bill Reynolds was one of my college English Lit professors and for a time was my academic advisor. A kind, geeky man with a high, funny, not very manly voice, he also had a sneaky, wicked wit when you got to know him. His wife, Maura, taught Latin (I took one semester with her, learned little, and had great fun). Less outwardly geeky, fairly attractive, and with a default setting of affectionate sarcasm, she was (is?) a gem of a woman. I miss them both and hope they are enjoying a blissful retirement in their golden years.
But I digress. The Bill Reynolds we chose in the 3rd round is actually an ultra-durable, even if undersized, young Right Winger out of Irvine, California. Reynolds profiles as a 2-way forward with strong stickchecking skills, good passing ability, strong defensive positioning, and solidly above average physical skills across the board.
He might be NHL-ready right now, but no decision has been made on that yet and he isn't signed to a contract at this time.



The Avs 4th pick was Denver-metro native Bobby Newsome, a 2-way Center/Centre whose strength is, well, strength. Although he is relatively short he is solidly built and has plus bravery, stamina, and physical strength as well as great checking skills. Offensively his biggest strengths are in the areas of screening, passing, and puckhandling. Newsome is another player where this is divergence between consensus perceptions of his potential and the Avs scouts beliefs about this. But he looks like someone who can bring value to the club in the future (if not even later this coming season) and has a skills set that is not well represented on the team in it's current makeup.



The Avs had 2 picks in the 5th round, having traded for San Jose's 5th round pick. With the first of these they chose Left Winger Ken Rechlicz. The general consensus view was that this was an excellent pick by the Avs but our scouts are bit less high on Rechlicz' future than others are. But either way, Rechlicz is another forward who projects to be at least an average NHL'er in time and possibly more. As is standard for Avs forwards, he projects as a 2-way player with strong checking and defense read abilities and good passing.



Next post: the rest of the Avs picks this year.

[BirdWatcher]

We will conclude our look at the most recent Entry Draft by taking a look at the rest of the players the Avs chose.

Starting with our 2nd pick of the 5th round, Center/Centre Lance Williams. Williams is particularly strong on the defensive end, with good checking skills, solid defensive read, positioning, and stickchecking abilities. Offensively his strength is getting open and he does have some shooting accuracy but little shooting range. Stamina is another strength. On the negative side, none of his mental ratings very strong, though his leadership and professionalism are the best of these.



In the 6th round we took yet another Center/Centre (I really need to figure out how I want to handle the spelling on this ), Scott Sarauer. While Sarauer is farthest from being NHL-ready of the players we have looked at thus far, he does profile as a solid future NHL forward with plus defensive skills, good speed and stamina, a team-first attitude, and decent offensive read abilities even if most of his offensive ratings are under-whelming.



Our final pick of the draft, and one of the last players picked period, could possibly end up being a surprise star in the future. Swedish Right Winger Oskar Axelsson has a chance to develop into a good playmaking, 2-way forward with his passing skills being his current biggest strength. He also has excellent acceleration on the ice though his other physical skills are a bit lacking.



All-in-all it appears that it was either a pretty fair draft by the Avs (we rose from being the 29th ranked system for prospects to the 21st on the strength of this draft) or if the Avs scouts prove to be mostly right even better than that. It will take years (game universe time) to truly evaluate, but I am cautiously optimistic.

And, ultimately, this is where a good deal of the fun in playing the game comes for me, even when it leads to disappointments.

[BirdWatcher]

Unsurprisingly most of the top picks in the most recent draft are getting signed to contracts by the clubs that took them, including first overall pick Kyle Eisbrenner, 3rd overall pick Gabe Waller (who looks extremely injury-prone), 5th overall pick John Haig, and 8th overall pick Daniel Hextall.






It will be interesting to see which of these young players makes the biggest impacts on the standings this season.

[BirdWatcher]

The first month of the 2022-2023 regular season was an odd mixed bag for me as the G.M. of the Avs.
In terms of my behind the scenes management work, I think I earned a solid F. Clearly I haven't mastered this monthly budget balancing act very well yet. Last season I tried to be careful to conserve points/funds for the offseason but when I got to the end of the fiscal year we were in the red. And now one month into the new season we remain so which means that our players are not happy with me as we are not spending any money on player morale, we are not boosting attendance through any promotional spending, and we are starving our scouting support budget.



In addition, I learned the hard way (not sure how I got into the 3rd season before realizing this) that I can only get my protected players under contract prior to the regular season, or I have to wait until my next opportunity next summer. With some early injuries and with at least a few of our recent draftees looking NHL-ready, I really could have used some depth down at our AHL affiliate. I can only hope that another year where they are won't hurt these prospects development.

Then there was the on-ice performance of the team. We lost our first three regular season games and I was beginning to feel like an abject failure.
Then a funny thing happened. In spite of poor morale and young, unproven players getting regular ice time, the team absolutely took off, dropping one game in OT and winning 11 games over the course of the rest of the month.

Perhaps the most most impressive win was late in the month when we traveled to take on the Calgary Flames, who at that point were leading the Western Conference. We beat them 5-1.



In addition, we beat up on the Detroit Red Wings (off to a horrible start) at home, 6-1. We took care of Arizona 6-3 on the road. And we finished the month with a 5-2 win on the road in San Jose.

We end the month with the most points in the NHL.



The two recently drafted rookies, LW Milo Holland and RD Josh Hishon, are both off to good starts to their NHL career and have already apparently surpassed their counterparts from the previous draft, C Clark St. Croix and RD Craig Woodard.
Aleksandr Dugin (7 goals, 10 assists) and veteran Brian Hughes (6 goals, 10 assists) continue to be the points leaders on the club. Nikolay Ivanov (5 goals, 11 assists) has also been on fire.



With an excess of talented defencemen, the Avs traded 31-year old LD Tomas Kovar and the rights to 19-year old RD Ash Naurato, who was our 7th round pick in the 2021 Entry Draft, to the Calgary Flames for their 4th round pick this coming summer. (Basically we needed to clear roster space for injured RD Michal Lezak to return to the active roster from the Injury List.)



It was a crazy first month and I feel like I did quite a bit wrong but at least our on-ice performance seems to indicate that I haven't completely messed up the team just yet.

[BirdWatcher]

Yesterday I had a copy of Rob Vollman's Stat Shot delivered to me and I'm thrilled to find that the first chapter is entitled What's the Best Way to Build a Team? and is particularly about roster management in the salary cap era. I'm only a handful of pages in so far and already have learned a great deal that will be helpful.

That might seem a bit tangential but it is exactly what this exercise (this thread) is about and it fits in with my learning process and tough decisions that I will have coming up at the end of this season, if not before. With several key players having contracts that expire after this season, including both of our Goalies and the two young talented defencemen who I inherited, Thomas Dingle and Michal Lezak, as well as Center/re Aiden Keene, it will be helpful to have some guiding principles to build on in making decisions about which players to try to extend and who to trade or allow to move on in free agency.

Speaking of managing the budget, with the second month of the season now over the balance sheet is looking a bit better but I have tried to be even more cautious in my approach to spending on things like player morale, scouting support, and promotions and arena operations.




On the ice, the team leveled off a bit in November but remains one of the top teams in the NHL.
Here is a look at current standings:



As you can see from the image above, in the continuing game of Goalie leapfrog on the Avs it has been David Mencl's turn to once again gain dominance and he has been tremendous thus far. In Terry Ross' 14 games he has a record of 7-5 with a GAA of 2.76, a save percentage of .909, and a GSAA of 0.61, all by far the worst numbers in his Avs career up to now, though there is a good deal of season still ahead of us.

Here are some team numbers for the Avs:



Clearly our strength has been in limiting the number of shots on goal and consequently goals against us this season. We aren't great with the advantage nor in killing penalties but this second part is mitigated by our ability to avoid taking penalties better than any other team in the league. If we are to maintain our good season though it is likely imperative that we get better on special teams and just in goal scoring as a whole.

[BirdWatcher]

Goalie Terry Ross stepped up his game in the month of December and the Avs have two of the best Goalies in the game in spite of neither of them having that reputation. Of course, much of the credit is likely due to the great defencemen corps and good overall 2-way play of the team.

Rookie Left Winger Milo Holland is certainly proving to be capable on both sides of the ice and is having a fine season thus far.





The Avs remain one of the best teams in the league as the calendar flips to 2023. Here are the current standings:


Rookie RD Josh Hishon was recently named most underrated player in the Player Poll. Hishon hasn't been playing well recently but all development signs are positive and he should have a bright future with the club.


No big changes on the economic front. Here is the monthly report:



And the general team statistical report:



As you can see, the Avs did pick up the goal-scoring pace a bit this past month and also solidified the PK approach, though our PP performance remains below par.

Edit: Oh, and I forgot to bring to attention that 28-year old LD Luke Bosum is tied for the team lead in goals with 14 and is 3rd on the team in points with 26. This goal total, in just 40 games, surpasses his best single season total which was 12 in 2020-2021 with the Montreal Canadiens, when he played in 81 games.

[BirdWatcher]

The Avs were a bit up and down in the month of January and while they retain 1st place in the Central Division, just barely over their biggest rival Winnipeg, they drop to 3rd overall in the Western Conference.
And whether it was one of the causes or simply one of the symptoms of this uneven play for the team, the Goalie tandem also had some real ups and downs this month, with David Mencl having some struggles early in the month and Terry Ross getting more starts, at first successfully, and then Ross too had some stinkers later in the month.
On the season, Mencl has now appeared in 25 games with a 17-7 record, a 2.18 GAA, a .922 save percentage, and an 8.75 GSAA (0.36 GSAA/60) all of which would put him on pace for career bests.
Ross has appeared in 29 games, with a 16-10 record, 2.55 GAA, .916 save percentage, and 5.40 GSAA (0.19 GSAA/60), most of which, particularly the GSAA numbers, are on pace to be worse than he has been the previous two seasons.

The Avs have been mostly free of serious injury this season and that is not an insignificant factor in their good play. Currently Clark St. Croix is out with what a severe calf laceration that he could play through but to be safe with this young former top prospect he is on the Injury List. At this point it appears that he might not be fully recovered for 2-3 months, so we are hoping that with a complete shutdown he might heal a bit more quickly or at least will avoid more serious injury.

The All-Star Game was this month and the Avs didn't have any participants. This made me think about something I just read in Vollman's Stat Shot: "whether a team is built around scoring goals or preventing them, whether it's based on a few franchise players or a well-balanced lineup, or whether it is linked to elite goaltending or generational scorers, goals are goals."
Partly because of the team I inherited and partly as a personal philosophy, the Avs fit into the descriptions above most accurately as a well-balanced lineup. Sure we have a few standout players in Brian Hughes, Aleksandr Dugin, and Sherwood Sharp (the first two I inherited, the third I signed as a free agent) but we don't have any of the league's biggest names. We have a deep group of competent role-players, we have been built from the defencemen corps forward, and our team contains a majority of balanced two-way players.

Here are updated standings and stats leaders and team stats:

[BirdWatcher]

The year 2023 is so far not proving nearly as friendly to the Avalanche as 2022 was.
The team continues to slide down the standings and although a playoff berth is still very likely, it would be nice to see some sort of uptick before the regular season ends.

We did make one deal prior to the trading deadline, getting 39-year old Center/re Christian O'Ferrall from the Dallas Stars and sending them 37-year old LW Florian Artner and the rights to 19-year old C Matt Christian, who was our 6th round pick in the 2021 draft and wasn't considered a viable future Av. In O'Ferrall we get an old but extremely durable and still talented offensive forward who is in the last year of his contract. He was basically acquired as insurance with St. Croix still out and like O'Ferrall, Artner is also eligible for free agency at the end of the year. The Avs needed a bit more fire power and had some cap space to work with and the Stars were trading from depth and freeing up some budget space.
And O'Ferrall hit the ground running (skating?) scoring 3 goals in his first 2 games with us and getting his 24th assist of the year in his 3rd game. Unfortunately, all of them were losses for the Avs, though the first two in shootouts.



The Avs also were tempted by some quality Goalies on the trade market, both of whom have expiring contracts this year. Part of the reason we were tempted is that we approached David Mencl to try to sign him to an extension only to have him let us know in no uncertain terms that he had no interest in even talking to us about this and wished to test the open market in the off-season. Having been rebuffed first by Mencl, we then approached Terry Ross, who was much more congenial, and he did sign a budget-friendly 2-year deal. With new contract in hand, Ross had the 3rd best selling jersey in February.




At the very least we know that there will be more than one good Goalie on the market this coming summer, and we will almost surely need to sign someone who can complement Ross at the least.

Updated standings, etc.:

[BirdWatcher]

With the regular season rapidly winding down, I'll keep this post short.
Not that much has changed. The Avs continue their uneven play in 2023 but also remain solidly in the playoff picture, with almost no chance (I haven't crunched the numbers so it is possible that we are a lock).

A look at updated standings and a team overview:




The only current injury is to RW Aleksandr Yermolayev, who is day-to-day but game unavailable with bruised ribs. Veteran recent addition C Christian O'Ferrall continues to play very well for us. Given that he has a reputation as a big game player hopefully that will continue into the playoffs. 30-year old LW Tommy Lockhart (15 goals, 26 assists, +8, GR: 69) has been playing well and has probably been one of our best players flying under the radar all season. Same is true of free agent acquisition RW Cedric Langevin (12 goals, 30 assists, +15, GR: 66), who I haven't mentioned much but who has been a good addition thus far.

[BirdWatcher]

A season that began with the Avs looking like world beaters ends with them amassing about the same points total as they have the past two seasons.
Which is not a bad thing, necessarily, and with a win against Nashville (shootout victory) in the last game of the season for those two teams, the Avs finish in 2nd in the Central Division and get home ice advantage in the first round of the playoffs against those same Nashville Predators.
The Avs enter the series without the services of their best defenceman, Sherwood Sharp, who is serving out the last 3 games of a 6-game suspension. We are also without another of our best defencemen, Michal Lezak (who admittedly had a disappointing season), who is suffering from a strained shoulder and might not be able to play for another week or two.
On the other hand, Nashville currently has 5 players on the Injured List, 3 of them who won't return in time to play in the playoffs, even if Nashville manages to go all the way to the finals. The most important among them is their team Captain (and Colorado native) RD Marvin Wynn. They also have at least one key player, LW Reggie Ladd, with a day-to-day injury that is affecting him (lacerated hand).

Here is a look at the final standings and basic stats leaders:



As you can see, Chicago ended up being the best in our division and they are led by arguably the best player in the game in LW Fletcher Patton. Should we get past Nashville we will likely have to face Chicago next, unless Winnipeg can pull off the first round upset. The best team in the Western Conference was the Calgary Flames, who had the best Goalie tandem in the league.



Over in the Eastern Conference the best team was the New York Islanders, following up a conference-best 108 point season in '21-'22 with an dominant 125 point season in '22-'23. Even more impressively, nobody in the conference comes even close to their +116 goal differential, with the second best being New Jersey at +26. (Then again, Calgary finished with a +162 goal differential in the Western Conference. Next best was Vegas at +63.)


Playoff matchups:



Let's take a look at some end of season basic stats for the Avs: