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Will Peter the Great be back?
Mike McChesney hopes the Avalanche will try to sign Peter Forsberg this summer . . .
Q: Peter Forsberg opened the door for a return to the Avs, and I am wondering if you think management will take the bait and bring back one of the most popular players. Or will they keep wasting money on players like Patrice Brisebois, Jose Theodore and Pierre Turgeon? Also, do you think Chris Stewart will make the team next year and show some toughness that the other Avs can't or won't?
A: First, it isn't a given that Forsberg will play next season. My guess is he won't make the decision until fairly late in the summer. I won't be surprised if he retires or signs with the Avalanche for one more season. You just never know with Peter. I think it would have been a mistake for the Avalanche to trade for Forsberg at the deadline in February because the price would have been too high, but signing him as a free agent would be a great idea for two reasons: he can still play (when healthy, that is) and for his box office appeal. If he plays next season, I think it will be for the Avalanche.
This summer will be a good test for GM Francois Giguere, who should have about $20 million to spend on re-signing guys and other free agents. His hands were pretty much tied last summer because of salary restraints, including $2.3 million each in signing bonuses for Joe Sakic and Rob Blake. That money has been freed to spend. Even if the Avalanche decides to keep Jose Theodore as opposed to buying him out -- I think they are leaning to keeping him -- Giguere will still have that $20 million or so to spend.
As for Stewart, whether he makes the team next season will depend on a number of factors, including which positions are filled through free agency or trades. Stewart is still very young; he doesn't turn 20 until October and probably could use more seasoning in the American Hockey League. Since signing with the Avalanche, he has played in five games with the Albany River Rats and collected one goal and two assists. The Avalanche is sharing the Albany affiliate with Carolina but starting next year will have an AHL team all to itself in Cleveland with the Lake Erie Monsters. That should be very beneficial for all of the team's prospects. The Avalanche will have complete control of the franchise.
Rob Duwa from Iowa City, Iowa, thinks Joe Sakic should have re-signed for less money . . .
Q: I understand that Joe Sakic is still one of the top 10 players in the league and deserves to be paid like one. But why wouldn't he sign for less than $6.75 million now that there is a salary cap? He has made plenty of money in his career and could have saved the team more money to go out and get good free agents this summer.
A: Well, Rob, I can't speak for Sakic, but he deserves to be the highest-paid player on the Avalanche and he could have gotten more elsewhere. Loyalty has to count for something. He will actually make less next season than he did this year when you take his $2.3 million signing bonus into account. That bonus, by the way, goes back to when he (and Rob Blake, who received the same bonus this year even after signing with the Kings) signed new contracts after the Avalanche won the Stanley Cup in 2001.
The bonuses were supposed to be for $3 million but were reduced by 24 percent per the NHL Players Association giveback as part of the deal to end the lockout. Anyway, the Avalanche didn't believe the bonuses should have counted against this year's cap, but the team was overruled by the league. Sakic's salary for this season was $5.75 million, so he was paid $8.05 million with the bonus. The bottom line is, the Avalanche now has 11 players under contract through next season with about $25 million counting against the salary cap. The cap is expected to increase from the present $44 million to possibly $48 million for next year, so the Avalanche has plenty of room to make some impact signings this summer.
Debbie Tyber from Castle Rock blames the unbalanced schedule on the Avalanche's failure to make the playoffs . . .
Q: If the Avs were in the Eastern Conference, we'd be in the playoffs. If it weren't for the unbalanced schedule in the NHL, I venture to say we'd be in the playoffs in the Western Conference. If we were in the Central Division, we'd probably be in the playoffs (because) playing St. Louis, Columbus and Chicago brought a lot of points to Detroit and Nashville.
I am not attempting to take anything away from either of those two teams, but they are largely where they are because of the fact that just under one-third of their games were played against teams that struggled. I doubt that they would have done as well playing in the Northwest Division. The Avs made the game exciting for us at the end, and they deserved better.
A: I don't like the schedule any more than you do and have lobbied in my weekly NHL columns to have it changed. Strange, but NHL and team executives don't listen to me. I don't think there's any question that the Northwest Division was the toughest in the league, but the Avalanche didn't do itself any favors by squandering so many leads earlier in the season and failing to get to overtime to at least guarantee one point.
But keep in mind that the Avalanche lost three of four times against St. Louis, three of four times against Los Angeles, twice to Chicago and one time each to Washington, Columbus and Phoenix. Those were 11 very damaging losses; two of them came in shootouts. Blowing a 2-0 lead in Edmonton on March 23 also proved costly. The Avalanche had a 3-2 lead in that game with about 90 seconds left and wound up losing in a shootout to an Oilers team that wasn't beating anybody at the time. The Avalanche also failed to hold a third-period lead against Nashville in the season finale.
So while I agree that the Avalanche had a more difficult schedule than a number of teams and I would prefer to see a balanced schedule, the three teams that finished ahead of Colorado in the division -- Vancouver, Minnesota and Calgary -- had to play the exact same schedule, too. Northwest members did get to beat up on each other, but the Avalanche had no excuse for losing so many games to so many other teams that weren't very good.
I believe that Forsberg will not sign with Colorado but instead he will retire from the NHL as an Av and go back to Modo and play for his father in Sweden. Also i am so sick of everyone bashing Jose Theodore, so he didn't play very well last year and Budaj did. But know that he is 100% healthy unlike last year he will return to the Avalanche and challenge Budaj for the starting job and by mid season Jose Theodore will be our starting goaltender on our way to Lord Stanley's Cup.
Posted by Aaron on October 10, 2007 08:48 AMIt is obvious that Peter will play in Avalanche again The cap room saved, Peters caracter and most of all the unfinished story of Peter Forsberg in NHL just cant
What I find it amazing with Peter is that he somehow has been the headline story in whatever event he takes part.. And the story waiting to be told is the one of a comeback in Avalanche and Peter taking part in another great run for the cup
Posted by Kent on September 30, 2007 09:41 AMmaybe a little to late to be posing this but come on GM Francois Giguere you cant be spending money on players that are not team standard you must thing of every one that is making the team, Patrice Brisebois, Jose Theodore and Pierre Turgeon are just your bench warmers, i like them and all but they really need to get out there and play as a team theodore needs to work out more and guard the net, please no wonder why monteral let him go they were tired of his skills not being shown and what is he doing for us nothing, now good things all the players we just signed are going to bring us the cups i know that they good and skilled and will be team players so let lose of the babys that dont play and bring some more good one to the team
Posted by jennie catter on July 9, 2007 10:26 AMwe already have peter the great(last name budaj) the av's will be competetive again this year, solid roster.
Posted by jim hundley on June 25, 2007 07:21 AMI agree that the Avs would like to keep Theodore, but not at 6 million. You can't have your backup making ten times what your starter's making.
Posted by Mike Laden on April 16, 2007 02:22 PM