First of all, I think I have to apologize for having Tom Preissing on the list for far too long after being bought out. That really maladjusted all of my numbers and now looks silly in retrospect. Nevertheless, he is now gone and we can move on from that.The Avalanche really didn't add much in this off-season and they were a team that really ran out of steam by the end of the regular season, putting up a little less than a proper effort in the playoffs against the San Jose Sharks. So with little movement done, can we assume the same results in the 2011 season... a blinding start into a sputtering finish?
The Avalanche also have the chance of running into the sophomore slump for Matt Duchene and Ryan O'Reilly, who each had pretty good seasons for the Avalanche as rookies in 2010. No matter how highly touted a player can be, he may not be able to escape the jinx. I think there will be enough poolies out there counting on Duchene pushing through the jinx and being an excellent second year player.
And then there is Craig Anderson, who was the workhorse of the team in the net from start to finish in 2010. Anderson was tabbed to get the minutes after the move to Colorado from Florida in the Summer of 2009, but no one in my pool was bold enough to take him right away, thus losing out on plenty of points. How will he handle another long season and how well did he prepare in the off-season? Those are questions that will likely be answered awfully early.
Looking at the Summer roster, there looks to be one spot open on the blueline and one open spot in the forward ranks. There could be some bubble players being challenged for position, but we should be seeing a roster very similar to this one opening up the season. Any good picks that you can see there?
| Forwards | Defense | Goalies |
| Paul Stastny | John-Michael Liles | Craig Anderson |
| Chris Stewart | Kyle Quincey | Peter Budaj |
| Matt Duchene | Ryan Wilson | |
| Milan Hejduk | Kyle Cumiskey | |
| T.J. Galiardi | Scott Hannan | |
| Peter Mueller | Adam Foote | |
| Ryan O'Reilly | ||
| Brandon Yip | ||
| Daniel Winnik | ||
| Cody McLeod | ||
| David Jones | ||
| David Koci | ||
| Patrick Bordeleau | Joel Chouinard | Jason Bacashihua |
| Michael Bournival | Colby Cohen | Trevor Cann |
| Mike Carman | Stefan Elliott | John Grahame |
| Zach Cohen | Cameron Gaunce | Brandon Maxwell |
| Philippe Dupuis | Travis Gawryletz | Calvin Pickard |
| Matt Ford | Jonas Holos | |
| Tom Fritsche | David Liffiton | |
| Wacey Hamilton | Ray Macias | |
| Joey Hishon | Kevin Montgomery | |
| Greg Mauldin | Troy Rutkowski | |
| Justin Mercier | Kevin Shattenkirk | |
| Mark Oliver | Stephan Silas | |
| Kevin Porter | ||
| Harrison Reed | ||
| Ryan Stoa | ||
| Julian Talbot | ||
| Luke Walker | ||
| Ben Walter | ||
| David Van Der Gulik |
The Summer roster that sits on top of the table comes into training camp with the lowest annual cap hit on the books, removing Preissing's actual cap hit and keeping his buyout around, brings the projected total to $40.8 million, which is still $2.6 million below the salary cap floor. I don't think this will do well at all. For salary cap purposes, you might see highly-touted prospects Kevin Shattenkirk and Ryan Stoa make the club, just so they can add $2.15 million to their books. Hell, they can go all the way up to the 23-man roster with another defenseman, like Colby Cohen, and then barely reach over the cap floor. I wouldn't be surprised to see something like that.
Well, if the Avalanche were going to surprise just about everyone last year, it shouldn't be out of the question that they go ahead and surprise everyone again this year. There does seem to be plenty of skepticism around this team and for good reason, in my opinion. I might keep Paul Stastny, Milan Hejduk and John-Michael Liles in my good books, but do I gamble with the young kids? That will be my main concern during the pre-season.
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