The Avs were never going to fill their hole on D through free agency.
What they did wrong was to let another hole develop at forward, and then use their resources to try to plug that instead of addressing the hole they had already.
If they had re-signed Stastny, and then (biting the bullet) traded one of their young star forwards for a good solid defenceman, they might be in a playoff spot today. And depending on the trade, they might still have had the cap space to sign Iginla as a complementary piece.
__________________
WARNING: The preceding message may not have been processed in a sarcasm-free facility.
‘You see in Calgary, [Ryan] Huska is no joke. It’s good. He’s really set on a specific model defensively. If you can be reliable, you have the freedom to play offence.’
—Ethan Wyttenbach
|