Paul Stastny, Avs could part ways if new deal not done by Wednesday
A young team in the midst of its most successful season in years, the Avs are not about to trade away first-round draft picks or top prospects in their system with the kinds of trades the St. Louis Blues made Friday — when they acquired Ryan Miller and Steve Ott from Buffalo in exchange for a boatload of young talent.
Here’s where it gets tricky, though: While the Avs cannot justify importing expensive rentals, as they could in the days of Ray Bourque, Theo Fleury and Rob Blake, neither can they be stuck in the situation of having essentially their own rental player on the roster beyond Wednesday in the form of top players with expiring contracts.
That’s where it could get interesting with a player such as Paul Stastny. While the Avs would like to re-sign as many players in the last year of their contracts as they can, Stastny’s situation is trickier because of his potential status as an unrestricted free agent July 1.
If the Avs can’t reach agreement on a new deal by Wednesday — or lack the confidence they can sign him at some point before July 1 — it is possible Stastny could be traded. The worst of all worlds for the Avs would be to lose a top player such as Stastny for nothing on the unrestricted free-agent market this summer.
“To me, it’s something I really don’t worry about. You worry about (this week) a little bit, but we have a good thing going here and everyone realizes that,” Stastny said Saturday. “You want to keep winning and don’t want to break that chemistry, but at the same time if something happens, it happens. It’s just part of the business. Some things I can’t control and I just worry about what I can control — and that’s playing hockey.”