Will the Avs decide to keep Stasney?
Paul Stastny’s contract is up after this season, when he could become an unrestricted free agent. He’s playing for a team that probably could use more help on defense and has two top-quality young centers already. Does that mean Stastny likely is gone in the spring as trade bait or when the market opens next summer for free agents?
Maybe not. You can never have too much pitching in baseball, and Avalanche coach and vice president of hockey operations Patrick Roy said Thursday an NHL team can never have enough quality centers.
“It’s a beautiful problem to have,” Roy said. “I’d rather deal with this than having no centers. Honestly, it hasn’t been a problem so far. Everybody is having their share of ice time. We’re very lucky. You look at all the teams at the top of the standings, they all have three very good centers and four good lines. When you build a team, you want to build it (up) the middle.”