You're overvaluing your players. Classic homerism. Just look at what Johansen, Hall, Oshie, Kessel, Hamilton, etc. returned in trades....

Steinosaur: Good comparisons. The Avs fell in love with their own draft picks and overpaid many of them. Just not getting production from some of the second tier guys (lack of money to spend on them?). and their top paid guys have just got too comfortable in a middling to poor situation.

I'm not even a fan of the Avs, so...

And Duchene is better than everyone except Hall on this list. Those are terrible examples because Johansen was a one for one deal for an upcoming superstar Dman to a contender. Oshie is not nearly as good. Kessel got back an (A-) prospect and a (B-) prospect and a couple of high picks. So thanks for proving my point. Hamilton is a Dman, so can't really compare this, but for the sake of proving you wrong, he was traded for three high picks. Hall, on the other hand, was traded for a (B+) Dman to a rebuilding team. The Oilers got a underwhelming return that they could have got a heck of a lot more from, so that's an outlier.

I disagree. Not many of those situations are really comparable. Johanson got Jones so its really not helping prove over value. Hall was traded by a team that was desperate to get the type of player they got. Also considered a terrible trade by about every fan base. Kessel holds some weight as he was a great player on a bad team as evidenced by his play on Pit. On top of that he had a really expenaive contract which are harder to move. In the end he still got Kapanen and a first round on top of other assets. The. You have an RFA who wouldnt sign with his team and was traded for slightly more than the expected offer sheet. You're better off looking at something like the Ryan, Carter, and Richards trades.

hahaha @ "good comparisons"...

look above...

Don't know if you agree with my analysis or not on the trades, but that's exactly what I was thinking for the "comparisons".

I think yours are workable. At least as starting points.

true true

They're proving they're losers. How is this overvaluing them? One or 2 of them need to go... along with Sakic

Never knew 3 players make a team. Hmm... interesting....

Kessel: He wasn't even the best player on his line. Yea he could score, but he was such a defensive liability, he couldn't be called great that much or often not even good. I know folks get all memorized by his stats, but he played on every power play. Actually the trade was Kapanen (a 22nd overall pick) and Pittsburg's 30 overall, and the Leafs gave back a Pittsburg's 60.(acquired previously) The other poor pieces evened out as insignificant. So the trade was Kessel was more of a cap dump (I know it was better than cap dump) but Kessel was dreadful value at 8.0m for the Leafs. Good for Phil and the Pens he found the light in Pittsburg.
I'm saying that if the Avs think they are going to get 6.5m value for McKinnon, or 5.5 for Landy they likely will be waiting a long time. It just takes one team to make a deal, but those two guys especially have to prove their long term worth because they aren't doing it now. After this season, Duchene (who apparently is playing well) may be more of a rental with his contact expiring in summer of 2019.

You can't lump Colorado's core into 1 blanket statement. MacKinnon is a stud that they should not even think about trading. Landeskog is a good middle 6 player who has some offensive ability but his production will almost always seem underwhelming compared to talent/expectations. Which leaves Duchene, who is a very talented but very streaky scorer. His trade value would have been sky high if they traded him this past offseason but being on a bad team almost always drags down anybody's value, regardless of how well he is or isn't playing.

All 3 of these players have individual values and individual potential trade partners and it's not just a situation of "Avs should blow the whole thing up because they are bad."

Also, none of these guys have anything to do with Phil Kessel. Phil became the clear "fall guy" for the Leafs struggles (even though he still lead the team in points) and Pittsburgh was able to capitalize on this to get an elite player for way less than any player of Kessel's caliber should be moved for. Avs haven't really designated their "fall guy" yet. If I had to pick 1 to trade, I'd say Duchene because he'll fetch a larger return than Landeskog

BombSquad: Players should always be obtained for their expectations for their new teams, not what for what they have done in the past (a good thought to have for UFAs) too. You call, MacKinnon a stud, well you might very well be at some time, but he been inconsistent enough that he doesn't deserve that title now, especially at 6.5m.
I've had the discussion about Kessel for a long time. I real don't think Phil was the fall guy for the Leafs, but if others may think so. Phil had elite potential, but he was not an elite player for the Leafs. He went long stretches where he was average to poor player. I'm talking the contribution on the ice what it takes to makes his team better. And don't get mesmerized by point totals, Phil played with the Leafs best forwards...JVR and Bozak and played every PP. Great for Phil and the Pens that he became a true NHLer. He rarely....very rarely played as well for the Leafs as he did last year, especially in the playoffs with the Pens.
On another note..Avs have 24m, 33% of their cap in top their 4 four players. As a group those 4 guys better be the stars of their team, other wise, with 19 players making 50m, the Avs will be middling at best.

Why should duchene command more than an elite prospect in return? He's an expensive elite player, why would a team give up an elite prospect who would have a cheap manageable contract for 3-5 years.

I'm a habs fan, I think straight up sergachev would be more than enough for the Aves to move duchene. Based off your price the trade would be more like Sergachev, De la Rose, and "a couple mid round picks".

I wouldn't even trade sergachev for Duchene straight up, it would cause too much cap trouble and hurt the future of the team.

But what you said just proves my point about Phil. He is the same exact player he has always been, the only difference is that he is no longer expected to be something that he isn't. Maybe you had a different opinion of him than most Leafs fans but after reading Steve Simmons and a bunch of other Leafs bloggers/writers it's pretty obvious that most of Leaf nation blamed Phil for pretty much everything. You traded a guy who is usually good for 60+ points per year for hardly anything valuable and yet most Leaf fans were still happy. That says "fall guy" to me

Sorry, Bomb Squad you get mesmerized by point totals and not quality of play. I watched him as a Leaf and and a Pen and certainly he wasn't the same player. Not even close last year I don't think Phil could be considered a "fall guy" when he was not playing close to his 8m salary.
That been said, if you have every read my blogs from way way back....I said I like Phil as a person. Apparently his teammates liked him. If ever I was picking a non contact league, Phil would be among my first choices, but as a NHL winger, the way he played for most of his last two seasons as a Leaf, his overall play mediocre at best. It was time for him to go. Leafs got cap relief and the Pens got a good player last year, gee, he should have won the Conn Smythe.