1990 All Over Again!

A few quotes that stood out to me from the June 4th presser to introduce Greg Sherman and Joe Sacco:

Greg Sherman:

"No shortcuts"

"We feel very confident in our young players"

Joe Sacco:

"Lay that foundation for our success and watch this team grow into a contender, again"

In other words, its going to take some time, be patient folks. (Sorry, Adrian)* Avs aren't going trade for Vincent Lecavalier. The Avs aren't going to be in the Marian Hossa / Jay Jay Bouwmeester / Marian Gabroik / Dany Heatly / The Sedin Twins sweepstakes on July 1st.

*And while I'm at it, hell no, I wouldn't pay to read your blog / how nice of you to say that only our moms read these blogs)

Sounds like Lacroix & Co has come to the conclusion that the Avs are the early 90's Nordiques all over again. We're going to build through the draft. We're going to stockpile and develop young talent.

Let's review how the franchise went from worst in the NHL to Stanley Cup Champs starting in the late 80s to 1995-96:

• 1987: Joe Sakic selected 15th overall.
• 1988: Valeri Kamensky selected 129th overall
• 1989: Mats Sundin selected 1st overall; Adam Foote selected 22nd overall.
• 1990: Owen Nolan selected 1st overall; Andrei Kovalenko selected 148th overall.
• 1991: Eric Lindros selected 1st overall.
• 1992: Eric Lindros traded to Philadelphia for many people, but most notably Peter Forsberg, Mike Ricci and 2nd 1st round picks.
• 1993: Jocelyn Thibault selected 10th overall; Adam Deadmarsh selected 14th overall.
• 1994: Pierre Lacroix named GM of the Nordiques.
• 1994: Mats Sundin traded to Toronto for Wendel Clark.
• 1995: Wendel Clark traded to New York Islanders for Claude Lemieux.
• 1995: Owen Nolan traded to San Jose for Sandis Ozolinsh.
• 1995: Jocelyn Thibault and Andrei Kovalenko traded to Montreal for Patrick Roy.

Notice that the team dealt some very, very good players to address needs. Was Sundin for Lemieux equal value? Probably not. And neither was Nolan for Ozo, but Lemieux and Ozo filled key needs very well - Sundin and Nolan could have never filled those roles.

The good news is that with more teams and greater parity in the NHL, rebuilding can happen much more quickly. (See Pittsburgh, Washington, Chicago) But it requires elite talent. The 2009 NHL Entry Draft is on Friday and the Avs can't afford to miss.

Two more things:

Cody Mac: Very pleased to see Cody McLeod (our 3rd leading goal scorer in 2008-09) was signed to a 3 yr deal averaging a very reasonable $1.1M / season against the cap.

Buyout Watch: The Avs have until June 30 if they wish to buyout Tucker and / or Clark.