avs decline

They arent trading graves pre expansion draft, and Virtanen is not a fit on the Avs.

I've seen this trade so many times and I don't understand how it benefits the Avs at all. Compher and Graves have both been better than Virtanen this year and RW is the Avs deepest position with Rantanen, Burakovsky, Donskoi, O'Connor, and Kaut (and Compher but he's a part of this deal too) all under contract for next year. Virtanen just doesn't fit, plus the value in this deal is kinda lopsided too. I'd rather just have SEA take one of those guys in the expansion draft

100%. You're going to lose someone decent, so just deal with it. No point selling low on 2 guys and then still losing someone decent.

This is true. This trade is really just putting two ideas together: ) is trading for Graves since he is a good defensemen than the Avs just don’t really have room for with toews, Girard, and Byram in the left side. 2) is saving the avs some cap by taking the less expensive player on Virtanen instead of Compher. One year less and one million less cap hit. Both I think are 4th line on the Avs anyways.

If the Avs aren’t looking to make those kinds of moves then I guess e Canucks will have to look elsewhere

I get the impetus of this, Vancouver gets a top 4 dman, and a solid middle 6 forward, COL gets a lot of cap space. Virtanen is tough sell though, with at a minimum perceived attitude issues, and production that literally went in the toilet. Compher is a whipping boy for a lot of Avs fan but he is producing some now, effort has never been an issue with him and Bednar I think has finally figured out he is much better on the wing and can play center in a pinch not the other way around.

What about dropping Virtanen from the trade entirely. Just a 2nd for Compher and Graves

That’s even worse. COL HAS to lose somebody in the XD, singular. Graves is a popular target on here, people think they will accept something cheap for him but don’t take into account they still have to lose somebody else to Seattle they are focused on the well they will lose him any way theory and not the COL has to lose someone part. The easiest least painful thing to do is let Seattle take him and move on. To move off that somebody is going to have to pay COL to alter their XD plans. A 2nd in a crappy draft doesn’t do that.