Changing the Avalanche

In a few cases, there are still a few teams who have been without a team update on this page. I thought I've posted most of them, but I thought I would catch up on at least one or two more today. Don't want any team to feel left out... even if they are divisional rivals to my Canucks. Ha ha. This morning, it's a quick look at the new look Colorado Avalanche.

The Avs made a pair of big signings this off-season snagging both Ryan Smyth and Scott Hannan from the marketplace and giving the team a little more credibility after missing the playoffs. The Avalanche have been a good team to pick your pool players from, historically. There's something in that thin air that would usually make the Sakic/Forsberg/Hejduk match-up put a ton of points on the board. The addition of Ryan Smyth should give the team quite a few more points and Smyth will get to play with some exciting players, which may increase his stock significantly.

Andrew Brunette	Joe Sakic	Ryan Smyth
Wojtek Wolski	Paul Statsny	Milan Hejduk
Ian Laperriere	Tyler Arnason	Marek Svatos
Mark Rycroft	Brad Richardson	Ben Guite

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

Peter Budaj

Jose Theodore

Colorado will be a quick team with a lot of scoring prowess this coming season. It will be most interesting to see what the goaltending situation will do for the team and whether or not there is enough grit to mix it up with their Northwest Division rivals for 32 games.

There's a great chance you'll see six or seven forwards from Colorado end up on pool teams this season, while Liles, Clark and Hannan should appear on a few as well. The necessary of evil of taking a goalie will probably lead you to the Avalanche if you chose to pick forwards early first. Budaj is the safe choice for more playing time, but a reasonable gamble would be to say that Theodore could win his spot back. He was 38th among goalies last year in points, which does put him as a high back-up choice. If Theodore is to have a Hart Trophy season, the Avalanche will be a team to reckon with.

This edition of the Colorado Avalanche is worth roughly $41.6 million between these 20 players listed. There wasn't any indication of a team-enforced salary cap, so there could be a move or two, including a hand in the Peter Forsberg poker game.

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NHL, Hockey, Hockey Pool, Colorado Avalanche, Joe Sakic, Ryan Smyth, Scott Hannan