It seems like every week brings a new Colorado Avalanche trade rumor. Teams plummeting in the standings attract sharks looking to pick off the best pieces in exchange for future prospects. This week’s target is Avalanche captain Gabriel Landeskog.
Adrian Dater tweeted that both the Los Angeles Kings (here) and the Boston Bruins (here) were rumored to be in the mix for Landeskog. The problem, however, may be with Colorado’s requested return. According to TSN’s Darren Dreger, Colorado is looking for “top-level defenseman, first-round draft pick, plus.” He noted that some teams find that ask outrageous—especially because Landeskog is struggling this season with 7G and 6A in 29 games.
Boston is one of those teams. Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported that Boston ended talks with Colorado after Boston refused to part with defensive prospect Brandon Carlo. Boston drafted Carlo in the second round in 2015, and while his numbers don’t raise any eyebrows, his defensive play has impressed scouts. Boston is reportedly very high on Carlo, and expect him to develop into a top-flight defenseman.
Because of this ask, TSN and ESPN’s Pierre LeBrun says that most teams think that the Avalanche wait until the offseason to make any moves. The rationale is that teams are relatively unshackled from cap constraints and have more freedom to make moves. Left unsaid was that an offseason deal protects a team from losing a fringe player or prospect in the June expansion draft.
Colorado’s asking price may drop as more teams drop out of the playoff race, notes Elliotte Friedman today on the Fan 590 (audio link). Right now only Colorado and the Arizona Coyotes are definite non-playoff teams, creating scarcity in the market for available players. Colorado may reduce its price for Landeskog in a few weeks once the NHL standings filter out some of the bubble teams like the Detroit Red Wings, Buffalo Sabres, and New York Islanders.
Colorado’s asking price for Landeskog is a bit ridiculous at the moment. Landeskog has not been good at all this season. He has fewer goals than & the same amount of points as Dominic Moore. The difference? Moore makes $900,000 a season & Landeskog has $5,571,429 cap hit. When you combine his numbers & his cap hit, it is no wonder that teams are balking at Colorado’s asking price of a top-level defenseman, a #1 pick & more. Landeskog simply isn’t worth it
Agreed. He’s never scored 30, doesn’t put up huge point numbers, hasn’t put up good corsi numbers since his rookie year… the big draw to this guy was that he had a good rookie year and was expected to improve on that, but never really did.
At best, he’s a decent two way, too 6 forward. He’s not the star he was expected to be.
Kind of the story of the Avalanche. All these young talents that seemed poised to improve together and turn into a dominant team, but years later none of them have really stepped up from what they were doing even in their rookie years. Even MacKinnon, who was nearly as highly touted as McDavid and seemed the surest bet to become a star, just hasn’t managed to take the next step.
It’s a shame tbh, we all thought that they were stacked with talent, just hasn’t panned out
There’s not to many players I’d give up Carlo for, let alone Landeskog. Landeskog has been really, really ordinary this year.