The Off-Season Game Plan: The Colorado Avalanche Edition

In which I realize I can't possibly have a life and keep up to Scott Cullen, who does these over at TSN and gets paid. So I do it for fun and practice.

The Colorado Avalanche aka The Return of the King Year 3

It was the best of times. After several below par seasons, Avalanche all-star Joe Sakic reached out to another former Colorado all-star. King Patrick Roy returned to the NHL after a semi-successful training session in Junior as father/coach. While he successfully jumped back into the NHL, his two sons have found truer callings and conveniently forget to send him Father's Day cards (maybe, what do I know?). Post note Bobby Nadreau no longer pretends to be invisible to avoid conflict.


King Roy arrived in Denver with his customary flash - losing his shit in his first (?) game with Bruce Boudreau.
The team reacted as he hoped and it went on to become the Cinderella story of 2014, losing to the Minnesota Wild in a tight 7 game first round playoff match. They far exceeded expectations and were poised to be the young team the Edmonton Oilers weren't. Would there be a sequel to this Cinderella story in 2015?

-No. The Avs missed the playoffs...again.

Head Coach

Patrick Roy - despite his famous first game temper tantrum, Roy was relatively silent last year. Look for him to try to relight that fire early in the season. If the Avs are around 500 in December, his job is safe for another few years. And let's face it, in today's NHL it's pretty easy to be 'around 500'. Basically, the Avs would have to linger around Arizona Coyotes territory for Joe to make a change at head coach. Don't look for that to happen.




Forwards

Jarome was constantly feeling he was living in a glass cage
in his now sold Calgary home

I guess the Avs felt they needed some veteran leadership so they went and signed Jarome Iginla last year who proved his weight on the stats sheet, leading all Avs in goals and tying team captain Gabriel Landensomethingorother in points. Daniel Briere, not so much. However, the Avs have a nice mix of young and old talent at forward and more than a few lunch-bucket players to make up the bottom half of the line-up. They just need those guys to bring some bigger lunch buckets to work this year. Iginla won't be around forever, unless he keeps scoring 25+ goals a season.

Defense

Colorado's defense caught up-ice again...

Goalies love defensemen so it is a bit of a surprise Roy hasn't really advocated for any big-name/big body veterans like an Adam Foote to anchor the blue line. They do have a solid power play man in Tyson Barrie, who raked up over 50 points last season, double that of the next defender. An intimidating force on the blue line would do wonders for Varlamov's ego and sight lines. As of today, Johnny Oduya, Francis Beauchemin and Barret Jackman are rumoured to be looking for new homes.

Goalies

Seymon getting his Patrick Roy face on

Look, if you are a decent NHL goalie, ie; Seymon Varlamov - have a capable back up (Reta Barra) and your head coach is a goalie hall of famer with attitude and can relate to your difficulties and small defencemen, the confidence is going to be there. Just let him see the puck a bit more. And quit taking penalties.



My #1 Priority - getting a veteran blue liner  ****Avs sign Francis Beauchemin****

My #2 Priority - finding out who Jarome Iginla's protege is going to be.

My #3 Priority - keeping Joe Sakic away from snowblowers.