With Sakic out of the lineup for the better part of the season, the Avalanche finished a dismal 32-45-5 in 2008-09, which placed them last in the Western Conference. The bright side of this was that the Colorado club was able to land the third overall pick in the 2009 NHL Entry Draft. They selected Matt Duchene from the Brampton Battalion of the Ontario Hockey League, a promising young star who has a knack for finding the back of the net. Matt ranked third on his team in points last season with 48 assists and 79 points. The 18-year old is most likely ready for the NHL, but the Tampa Bay Lightning taught other NHL teams last season to not put too much stock in a rookie. Stephen Stamkos, the first overall pick in 2008, scored just 23 goals and 46 points in his first season. The Avalanche will need to look elsewhere to improve their lineup.
Paul Stastny will be returning for his fourth NHL season in 2009-10. After scoring 149 points in his first two seasons, Stastny dealt with his first injury problems last season since reaching the NHL level. Paul suffered a broken forearm just before the Christmas break, sidelining him for 36 games. The young star still managed to amass 36 points but the injury depleted his team.
One of the few bright spots for the Avalanche offense last season was veteran Ryan Smyth. The veteran forward scored just 26 times, but was a lift to the team throughout the season. Trade talks surrounded Smyth throughout the entire last half of the season, but the Avalanche remained loyal to the hard-working checker until recently.
Smyth was traded a few weeks ago to the Los Angeles Kings for Kyle Quincey, Tom Preissing and a fifth-round pick. While this move does improve a sub-par defense, it hurts the offense that much more. Avalanche fans saw what happened when Stastny and Sakic were out of the mix, now what will happen if Ryan Smyth is added to it?
A solution that the Avalanche have to consider is adding more depth to the wings. With Stastny front-manning the center position and Duchene possibly stepping in on the second line, the winger depth is weak for the Denver team. Marek Svatos and Wojtek Wolski have proven to be inconsistent, so adding another winger to help scoring is nearly a must for the Avalanche to have any success. Former Avalanche winger Alex Tanguay is currently available on the free-agent market, and the Avalanche need to be looking in his direction.
While Tanguay has only reached the 80-point plateau once, he has had success in the NHL. The speedy winger has scored more than 70 points four times in his career, three of them being a member of the Avalanche. He did face some injury problems last season, but was still strong for the Canadiens when in the lineup. Tanguay totalled 41 points in 50 games for Montreal, just a few points shy of being a point-per-game player.
Not only will Tanguay be able to light the lamp a few times for the Avalanche, but he may be the veteran presence that Duchene will need to mature faster in the NHL. Having a skilled and experienced forward playing on his line, Matt Duchene could feel less pressure to produce and will be able to relax easier.
Avalanche fans are also very familiar with Tanguay, so that may drive ticket sales a little more. Sakic and Tanguay combined for some amazing goals together and having him back on the Avalanche could make Avalanche fans want to watch games to see if he can recreate that magic with either Stastny or Duchene.
With a little over $13 million remaining in cap space, the Avalanche have room to add some depth to their team. Tanguay commanded $5.4 million last season with Montreal and may be willing to drop his price a little bit. He is coming off an injury-plagued season and is still unsigned with training camp getting closer by the day. He will not be able to fill the gaping hole that Joe Sakic left in the offense but could push the young guys to be more productive. Signing Tanguay would be a win-win situation for the Avalanche.
Keywords: Alex Tanguay, brampton battalion, Colorado Avalanche, joe sakic, kyle quincey, marek svatos, matt duchene, nhl, paul stastny, ryan smyth, stephen stamkos, tom preissing, wojtek wolski
