An Avalanche of Change

Somebody had to win the Ryan Smyth sweepstakes, I didn't actually think it would be the Colorado Avalanche. Not only did they sign Ryan Smyth... they dropped a ton of cash on defenseman, Scott Hannan. A pair of signings that should make the Avalanche a greater threat to a playoff spot.

The two signings cost the Avalanche in the neighbourhood of $50 million over the next four and five years. Smyth will add an instant punch to the Avalanche line-up when he skates with Joe Sakic and Scott Hannan will provide some solid minutes in most situations.

With all this depth now, the Avalanche look like they can compete with the other four teams in the Northwest Division into a playoff spot. It's going to be a tough fit to get three teams (let alone four) into the playoffs, but the Avalanche are definitely going to try.

Andrew Brunette	Joe Sakic	Ryan Smyth
Wojtek Wolski	Paul Statsny	Milan Hejduk
Ian Laperriere	Tyler Arnason	Marek Svatos *
Brad Richardson	Cody Burki	Scott Parker

John-Micheal Liles	Brett Clark
Scott Hannan	Karlis Skrastins
Jordan Leopold	Kurt Sauer

Peter Budaj

Jose Theodore

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