Personally I think this trade goes through. Especially if the Sabers are out of the race.
Looks good

Thanks. Trading roster players for a rental is a bit tricky but I thought this one made sense. I wouldn't mind Staal for a bit. Maybe even another one year deal if he works out.

It makes a whole lot of sense. Especially considering the summer we're about to face...

I would guess Buffalo gets more than an overpaid bottom 6 player and a useless 3rd round pick for staal at the deadline.

You might be right. Compher makes too much but is a useful player. Still, I probably would have offered a second if Colorado had one.

In the end I don't think it's too crazy off. Obviously it depends on how Staal performs and if there's a better offer.

I'm a little confused on Paytern going on waivers. Are we saying Cole wouldn't have been claimed? Any ideas from AVEs fans?

My opinion: Cole may have cleared due to his high salary, but teams definitely would have been interested if they could afford him. Pateryn is more of that replacement level guy where it's more trouble than it's worth.

I also think this means (1) they are gaining confidence in both Byram and Timmins, and (2) Johnson is probably ready to go.

Finally, I think part of trading Cole was to essentially do right by him and allow him to play. Burying him on the taxi squad would have significantly hurt him on his next contract, but that's pretty much what they were looking at with Byram emerging as an every day guy. Pateryn, on the other hand, is probably getting close to league minimum regardless.

That's fair. I guess I just see other teams with injuries (like PIT who needs another Dman right now and is familiar with Cole) and there would be no retention. I understand this isn't major moves...nor does it impact how good COL is as a team. Just thought it was a bit odd that COL is retaining and now Pateryn is waived.

Yeah the retention wasn't ideal. I guess it was necessary to get the deal done though and doesn't appear as though it will be problematic. If Pateryn clears I think they accomplished their goal.

Trading Cole was always about capspace, and if Sakic could have moved him without retaining anything he would have done.

If Pateryn gets claimed that's fine, as it frees up another $1.175m in capspace. If not, then we have some cheap RHD depth. Either way not too bothered.

I do wonder if waiving him has anything to do with a potential Timmins trade though. Trading Timmins and then waiving Pateryn would be risky as it would shorten our RHD options a lot. But getting Pateryn through waivers first ensures that we keep that RHD depth going forwards even if Timmins is moved for a forward.

Typically you wouldn't want to weaken the roster, but instead add players at the deadline. But moving Compher would create a lot more flexibility moving forwards so it would be worth it I think. Especially with an actual C coming back.

Pateryn was basically just the contract Sakic had to take back to be able to move Cole and create some capspace. If he gets claimed then Sakic will have cleared $3.45m in capspace for free essentially (albeit retaining $800k).

Avs will save another ~$1m from Pateryn being on the taxi squad so it makes perfect sense. He shouldn't play again this season unless there are injuries.

That's fine. What I was getting at though is IMO Cole is a better Dman and more likely to be claimed. Other teams will gain cap space through out the season OR quite possibly have players get injured unfortunately. Again, not huge deltas. COL still has a REALLY good team either way.

Cole is better than Pateryn yes. Does he get claimed? Maybe.

But there's two things to consider:

Firstly, it's not really a direct Cole vs Pateryn comparison. It's Cole vs Pateryn + $1.2m in capspace. And in terms of the Avs roster, it was basically Byram vs Cole. Cole had to go, and it's extremely likely that Sakic shopped Cole around to various teams for free or for a late round pick, but retaining $800k was the best he could find. Not exactly a good market to be moving cap after all.

Then there's the veteran element at play. Sakic has a reputation for doing good by his veteran players. He could easily have waived Cole, but likely no one would have taken on $4.25m in cap, so Cole's value would have tanked and he would have been buried in the taxi squad.

Recall how Vegas basically gave away Schmidt for nothing due to capspace. It's pretty optimistic to think that some GM was going to bite on Cole on waivers.

O no doubt, I wouldn't make the trade without a 3C coming back. It'd just make decisions this summer somewhat easier, though then you have to look at adding a 3C out of UFA which likely won't come cheap

Staal is a pending UFA so in this trade you're going to be looking for a 3C in UFA regardless. With Compher gone you'll have $3.5m opened up though. And I'm not so sure that the UFA market is going to be that crazy. Teams are still struggling with the flat cap after all. Reckon Bonino could be had in UFA for a reasonable caphit that's lower than his current caphit for example.

One thing I actually like about this move is that Staal will likely only command a one year deal after this year (likely at a pretty affordable price). If Colorado works out, that one year could be with the Avs. That gives Newhook, Bowers, and even Jost one more year to work their way into 2C/3C/4C roles without committing to anything long term.

I'm not so sure Staal would want to stay in Denver. He has his cup already, and built a house in Minnesota so he'd probably want to be somewhere around that area. As an Ontario native I wouldn't be surprised if he followed in Spezza and Thornton's footsteps to sign with Toronto either. Denver is a long way away from home.

Might be right. Winning is fun though, and it may be desirable for him to stay. If not though it isn't a huge deal. They look elsewhere, internally or externally to replace him.