Avalanche close on limited trading
The NHL trade deadline has come and gone with Colorado having made only one deal on the day.
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TJ Galiardi is gone. So is Daniel Winnik.
The Avalanche traded the forward and the left wing away to the San Jose Sharks today for 23 year-old forward Jamie McGinn who the Avalanche believe will “help the team immediately” and two fellows likely to round off the Lake Erie Monsters’ staff, forwards Mike Connelly and Michael Sgarbossa.
Galiardi and Winnik will both be missed but it was generally a slow trade deadline day for the Avalanche. The story lines on most of the National Hockey sites are oriented toward the Sharks’ side.
“Sharks grab Galiardi / Winnik from Avs” is the headline at NHL.com. Still, the Avalanche experts we follow on Twitter seem pretty pleased with the transaction. I phoned Ryan Boulding (@avsguildryan) of the Avalanche Guild for his impressions. “I’m excited,”, Ryan told me. “He (McGinn) is young which is good“. “The Avalanche traded a fifth round pick for Winnik to begin with so I don’t see him as a great loss. I feel like they (Galiardi and Winnik) were over-rated“.
Adrian Dater, the much maligned Avs beat writer for the Denver Post, said: “Jamie McGinn? Very physical player, tough fighter and he’s got 12 goals this year. He gives the Avs another player in the mold of a Steve Downie. He’s a guy who goes to the net and camps out there. No, he’s not a superstar offensive player, but neither were Winnik and Galiardi“
The Avalanche trade of Kyle Quincey for Steve Downie seems to have worked out well. The team is 3-0 since that deal went down. Maybe today’s trade will work out just as well.
I asked Ryan Boulding whether or not the Avalanche were a playoff team. “I think so“, he said. Let’s hope he’s right.
