Mark Kiszla: Dealing Avs’ Matt Duchene a smart idea
This hockey town isn’t big enough for Paul Stastny, Matt Duchene and Ryan O’Reilly.
Three outstanding centers are one more than Colorado needs.
Somebody needs to go.
Somebody needs to be bait for the well-known, top-scoring, fed-up wingers on the NHL trade market, Bobby Ryan of Anaheim and Rick Nash of Columbus.
The Avs have a need for somebody to put the puck in the net and a happy surplus of playmakers.
So what’s Colorado general manager Greg Sherman going to do about it?
Whenever the Avs lose two in a row, fans automatically take out their frustration on Stastny, whose rock-solid (and often boring) work on the ice never matches the expectations of his $6.6 million salary.
But here’s a different take: Duchene is the center who makes the most sense for the Avs to trade.
His flash would be an easy sell for a GM in another market. At 21 years old, his potential stirs the imagination. His new two-year, $7 million contract is easy to digest under the salary cap.