No

Johansen is looking just fine! Why would we move him out for someone twice his cap hit? And Benning isn't exactly an upgrade from Gurard bro. And the picks make no sense. Avs decline

RJo is awful dude, has been for awhile. He was literally a cap dump from a non-playoff team that immediately replaced him with ROR. Not only is he terrible offensively, he's worse every where else and incredibly slow. You'd be replacing him with a player who costs more because he's worth more, and because you should be a contending team who has a glaring hole at 2C now and for the distant future. Benning wasn't meant to be an upgrade on Girard, though the difference in cap should offset the difference in RJo and Hertl.

Bumping Byram up to replace Girard rather than limiting him to 3rd pair minutes means your defense may not take much of a hit at all, while your offense gets way better now and for the foreseeable future. Avs would be delusional to decline this given their championship window....

For the reasons stated above

Probably easier if you just make one response next time, but see my reply.

RJo has looked great in training camp. In fact, I've heard some Preds fans say they're having trade remorse over it. He looks 100% to me and I have no doubts he'll be good. Besides, if he's so bad, what makes you think SJ would want him? They're trying to get better, not worse.

As for Byram, we already have him elevated over Girard. We keep Girard to provide JJ with the speed he lacks. No need to dump him rn.

You've heard some Preds fans say they're having trade remorse after watching 2 days of his training camp with the Avs? Uh, yeah - that's obvious BS as we both know. SJ would not want him, they would want the futures and the future cap space because they're rebuilding and Hertl fits the Avs timeline much better than theirs, hence the package I proposed.

Also you're not dumping Girard, but regardless paying your 3rd pairing D top-pairing money while bringing in Drouin and RJo to your top 6 is just awful cap manaagement.

Hertl’s really good but that cap hit probably means that Toews walks in free agency.

The cap is essentially a wash with this trade. If anything, it means he's more likely to re-sign because the left side would be less crowded.

RyJo isn’t awful he was miscast as a 1C and overpaid and let’s be honest the Preds made a regime change and they took that unique opportunity to not only move RyJo but buyout Duchene the insanely puzzling thing there was the decision to then sign ROR. RyJo as a true 2C has true potential especial if he is paired with Rantanen because he is a facilitator not a scorer and at a cap hit of $4M you have to do it.

Byram isn’t 3rd pairing and isn’t being blocked by Girard, that’s not ever been the case. COL mixes and matches their whole lineup and the true test of where a guy lies isn’t on paper on a depth chart but in their TOI and Byram’s 21:53 clearly shows he isn’t being blocked but is only being held up by his availability.

As for Hertl that contract is not something the Avs want anything to do with especially considering they are actively trying to re-sign Toews and Rantanen is coming due soon.

ROR is an upgrade on RJo, why is that puzzling? Playing 2C vs 1C is not going to improve a guy's stats. Rantanen would help anyone but that makes the 1st line even weaker than it was already with the loss of Landeskog. Regardless of how you shift them around, the point is that you'll be paying one of your D too much to play 3rd pairing minutes. There are 3 pairs and 6 D, obviously two of them will end up on your bottom pair. If the Avs want nothing to do with the contract of a good 2C, then they won't be getting one anytime soon. Would certainly be a novel approach to team-building to think the center position isn't important to success...

Girard isn’t 3rd pairing stop being hung up on listing guys on a depth chart. Paying Drouin and RyJo less than $5M combined isn’t awful cap management it’s a masterclass in cap management. If the Avs just get what those 2 have averaged per game playing with lesser teammates they’ll get over 100pts in production. Yes they are gambling a bit but for what it costs it is a very very good gamble, plus they aren’t tied to either long term if it doesn’t.

You have 3 pairs, what are they? We're discussing salary cap allocation here, I'm not getting hung up on anything. Your last point really just shows you haven't done your homework at all. Drouin hasn't scored 8 goals in a season since 2018-19. 8 goals dude.... He hasn't scored more than 27 points since 2018-19 either and he's awful defensively. RJo is also awful defensively, offensively and is 31 now. So yeah, not a good gamble at all - not even close.

That’s just a bunch of double talk. You don’t think getting to play on a PP unit with MacKinnon, Rantanen and Makar and pulling easier matchups because of those teammates ISN’T going to increase someone’s production? LOL. And you’re such a slave to a depth chart you want to call a guy who averages over 20 minutes a game 3rd pairing. The fact of the matter is that the Avs top 4 defensively is Makar, Toews, Byram, and Girard they literally play more than 75% of the game.

Girard is still likely going to get moved as it looks like we have a better chance at getting Toews to take a discount than a lot of us first thought. I would say that when we do move Girard it will likely be for futures and not much else. We need to preserve cap as much as possible. Which is why we are taking the risks of Drouin and RyJo. Our system (and our coach ) has been able to help guys find their way again more often than not, and even if we can only get .5 ppg out of both of those guys that should be enough to keep us competitive. If they are able to go above that .5 ppg pace (which I think one of them will), we could be looking at another cup opportunity. If one of them completely fails, we have Tatar who can jump into the top 6 and even Colton could bump up to 2C and still give us Compher-like numbers. Hertl is an awesome player, but I think our overall goal as a team has to be that a younger player will step up into that 2C role in the next few years so we can keep our core together through their early thirties.

If he gets to play with those guys then yes, they would help increase his PP production. No, that does not help the 2nd line, or the powerplay, or the team, it might literally only help RJO's PP stats. OK so thanks for that, this means you have a 31 year old Josh Manson making $4.5 mil on your 3rd pair for the next 3 years, which again, is a misallocation of cap space. No amount of mental gymnastics or sleight of hand can make the money you invest in your 3rd pair, at the expense of your forward group, justifiable or capable of success in a cap league.

Which younger player would that be? This entire comment is wishful thinking to say the least.

Your confusing production and Availability, you went and looked up aggregate scoring and made a decision. You want to knock them for availability fine that’s legit, but the fact is that if both scored at the same rate they did last year and played a full season they combine for almost 90pts. Guys being bad defensively cracks me up, they both had +50 CF rates for meaning more shots on going on goal than against. You want to talk salary cap allocation and you’re advocating spending nearly double what Drouin and RyJo will make for one guy and not end up with as much production. Hell I’ll buy you a beer if RyJo and Drouin don’t significantly out produce what Hertl does this year.

You’re hung up on the depth chart defensively plain and simple.

Kovalenko looks primed to take a spot in the top 6 somewhere, although he is a winger. We need to see how Callum Ritchie develops this next year, but he could be a candidate in 2025-2026. Jason Polin out of WMU has shown some good traits early on as well. The reality is that we will go with RyJo for this year and likely next as well and we're paying a fine price for that player. After that we'll need someone to step up.

Also you seem pretty fired up in the two threads about this team. If you want to know why us Avs fans aren't, it's because we've already had a cup win in the past two years and we feel grateful for that. Even if we can't get back there soon, I'm just happy to watch this core and this team for the next 5-7 years. Management has been incredible and personally I'm going to keep being happy watching this team compete.

What are you on about? Drouin for 875k and ryjo for 4mill is terrible cap management??

Yeah Manson is a misallocation of money but it’s something you survive this because Toews and Byram are underpaid. No team is going to have perfect allocation injuries happen, guys under produce, but I’m willing to let the front office who has done an exceptional job of pro scouting and targeting guys who have blossomed once they came here (Nichushkin, Lehkonen, Graves etc…) then to overpay for expensive guy that depletes assets and cap space.

No, I'm saying he hasn't scored 8 goals in 4 years, that's all I said. That's due to a combination of both production per game played and availability, but we're talking about 8 goals here. Not 30, not 20, 8 goals. In 4 years. He scored 2 goals in 58 games last year. 2 goals, in 58 games. I'll just repeat it a few times for emphasis I guess. RJo scored 12 goals in 55 games, also awful but Hart trophy level compared to Drouin. And no, combining those two players for that production is not impressive at all. Your 2C last time you guys won the cup outpaced both players combined, by himself.

Well, yes - both individually, but also because you're playing them in your top 6 as a result of your cap management decisions elsewhere. You grasping this? You have a limited amount of cap space to spread among your roster, that's what's referred to as cap management.

You depleted assets and cap space to overpay your 3rd pairing defenseman. Because he's a capable top 4 D you could trade one of your other top 4 D to acquire assets and cap space... you get where I'm going with this? How did you acquire the 2C from your cup run?

Honestly the Avs are probably just better off keeping their pieces and seeing how it goes, that Hertl contract isn't going to age well and there's only a year and a half age difference between RyJo and Hertl, RyJo is one season removed from a 60 point season and 60ish points seems to be Hertl's average which isn't that great for $8.1M.

Also if they trade Girard they lose their top 4 D insurance, if one of Byram, Toews, Makar or Manson get hurt and Girard is gone who's stepping into the top 4 to fill those minutes, JJ or McDermid? Benning isn't a guy you want in your top 4 if yore a contender.