BREAKING: Colorado Avalanche trade for Nicolas Roy

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1:00Our HBCUs have a legacy that's straight up golden. Emma McDonald's is proud to help keep it that way. Since 2021, the Golden Arches has connected with the Third Good Marshall College Fund to provide $1 million in scholarships for students headed to our HBCUs. That kind of cash helps keep bright minds on the yard, dreams within reach, and the future golden. Learn more about McDonald's Black and Positively Golden Scholarships at mcdblackscholars.com. Welcome in to another DNVR Abolange emergency pod brought to you by Xfinity, Xfinity, imagine that. AJ, we've got Bailey, we've got Bruto for you. The amps apparently have found their 3C and it is Nick Wah. The amps give up a first round pick and a fifth round pick for Nick Wah from Toronto.

2:02Technically, both picks have conditions, but they're not really conditions. The first is top 10 protected, and that is it's and the fifth will be the lowest of the three fifths that the amps have. Both picks will be going to Toronto, no matter what, whether it ends up, the amps are going to be in the top 10. They're going to make the playoffs obviously. Not relevant as far as the conditions are concerned. Immediate reactions to it being Nick Wah that the amps end up with as what we assume to be their 3C. It's unfortunate for the Nazum cadre dream. But, no, this is, this locks in Jack Jury of 4C, which I think I love, it was what I love most about this. It's been proven that Jury is a elite 4C and while you're getting, Wah at 3C, you're getting, not a super, super physical guy, but somebody who's big, somebody who can forecheck the heck out of the puck.

3:09I don't love what the amps gave up for it, but as far as maybe, you know, potential here, I'm open to it. Yeah, I mean, he's, this is such an interesting deal because, like Nick Wah couldn't, like he wasn't part of any of our run up to the deadline. We have coverage because you're just talking about a total misfit in how the avalanche play and how Nick Wah plays. Wah is one of the slowest skaters in the league and that's a concern. Like we have seen slow skaters, like badly, badly struggle to fit into Colorado system, especially at center. We've seen some slower wingers be fine and make it work, but slow centers have been a tougher sell.

4:13This is different because Nick Wah is, he's big, he's not a guy that's going to like light you up, but he's hard to play against. He plays a heavy game. This isn't a soft, like this isn't like a big guy that just kind of like let's guys go, right. He's, he is a bigger, he is a bigger guy that that makes life difficult for you and the combination of Wah at 3C and jury at 4C now is tough. It's really like Brock Nelson and Nick Wah as 2 and 3C, like suddenly the ads have a little bit of size. And you know, Nathan McKinnon, as we know, not the biggest guy, but no wall flower. It's, it fills a need. I think the first round pick is going to be the sticker shock that everybody has a problem with.

5:16And I would say that this, it also solves their 3C issue next year, assuming that Wah isn't a complete and utter flop. And at $3 million, like we were talking, we've been talking over the last few days about the avalanche and Jack jury not being able to find an agreement on a contract extension for him because he's looking for a deal in that 3.5 range. Wah is locked in at 3 and is a guy who has a much higher offensive ceiling than Jack jury ever is going to. He's having a bad year this year in Toronto, it hasn't worked well. And I think that's where more than anything, that's where my problem with the first round pick comes in. They, they are paying peak price, like a premium price here for a guy that is, is having a bad year. Yeah, like that's not how that's supposed to go.

6:18You're supposed to pay premium prices for premium players. And for guys having like, great years. And Wah, like had they had the abs done this last summer before Wah had had this mess of a season in Toronto, no issues with this. I know he was part of the Mariner Return, and it's not like that easy, right? But paying the first round pick for a guy who has 5 goals and 59 games feels bad. You wonder like, okay, he was a really, really good fit in how Vegas likes to play Vegas likes big heavy guys. They really like to cycle, they're good in the cycle game. They're not as good consistently in the rush game. Colorado has actually been very, very good in both the cycle and rush games this year as a team. This doesn't help them in the rush game at all. No, but it does help them cycle and he's a good goal scoring. Dept guy, he's been a consistent goal score for for the last what four years.

7:23This year, the anomaly, he's shooting the lowest percentage of his career. And again, I'm saying. This is why I have like an issue with the first round pick is because. This isn't the nadir value. He has less points than Jack Dury and essentially the same amount of games played. A first for Jack Dury would feel expensive. A first for Nick Waw feels expensive. Now, if he recaptures what he had in Vegas, if you go back two years and he had a 41 point season. If that's the productive version you're getting out of Nick Waw. Not near as bad feeling that you gave up a first round pick for for a 40 point guy. Yeah. If you give up a first round pick for a 25 point guy. Yes, that's not good value. Just just reasoned. I think that's fair. It's just this is I for me, this moves the needle quite a bit. And it's why I'm going to sleep fine. Like like I'm not going to miss this pick that much.

8:26Because again, this year and next year. He moves the needle. He's a good goal score. And he's been a really solid player in the postseason in the past. Also, I mean, it's not everything. Having the best year of his career in face offs. Yeah. All right. If anything can be helped on the in the bottom six face offs. Yeah. Sure. Yeah. What's interesting to me too is as far as the three of us were concerned. With the trade deadline size was a big like necessary point of that need to be addressed here. And that that's the biggest thing. It what does kill me though is the lack of the physicality part of it. Like, yes, you're getting the size. Maybe you're getting somebody who can bully other people off the puck. But as far as that physicality goes like that, that's still lacking.

9:26Yeah. He's not a guy who's going to go out there and really blow anyone up. He is a guy who works hard though. The abs have have long been comfortable playing guys that. Their physicality is maybe more about winning puck battles in the corner than it is blowing people up. Yeah. For while as we do have a $5 super chat here from Ryan that says this is my nightmare trading the first for a bad skating historical foresee that's a style mismatch. There is upside, but F man, you could do so much better. He's not been a foresee. Right. He's pretty cleanly been a three C since he broke out in Vegas. Yeah. This year he's down in ice time at 1445. And he is still. I think like eight. And even strength time on ice per game for the for among the Leafs forward.

10:26So if you're mad about them trading of a first round pick for a fourth line center. You can stop being mad about it because he's not a fourth line center. And I don't think he's will be in Colorado. This firmly plants the flag of Jack jury as foresee. Yeah. While we'll be the three C concerns about a style mismatch are fair. But they wouldn't be the first time it works. Like it. Obviously we have to wait and see. I can't see the future, etc. But you've seen these mismatch guys work in Colorado. If you were going to go out and get a Ryan O'Reilly, that would be a style mismatch, right? But you just have more faith that he could do the job. Now, I do follow the camp that a first round pick for Nick Wise, pretty darn expensive. But the abs have made their bed at this point. There's no you don't get to undo the trade. So we're going to see what it looks like with law.

11:27I mean, we can we can get into the stats if we can bring up a stat card. And start diving in a little bit here. But as we kind of previously mentioned, the Toronto version of Nick was not what the abs are hoping for. They clearly want the version you got that he wasn't Vegas. So it's hard to necessarily compare. I think it's important to keep in mind. You're grading him out as a three C here. So when you see some of these numbers, you're not comparing him to a Nathan McKinnon that's going to have 100% in some of these categories. You're comparing him to three C's across the league. Yeah. Yeah, these these microstats. These are the ones that were available. These are the Vegas ones. This is a pretty good player. Yep.

12:27Like you look at this a lot. He does a lot of things well. These this is his player card from this current season. Not nothing. None of this blows your way. He's a solid PK guy. He is third on Toronto for. Shorthead time on ice per night. So you're fine. Like he's he can help you in all of these areas. I do think it is funny. You now have Brock Nelson, Nicholas Wah and. Jack Jury. All those guys that you're like, all right, you can play any of these guys on the PK if you want. Yeah. Like that's good solid. That's center depth at an important spot. Brock Nelson's been so good on the PK that. I think you would like to keep him there. But ideally this would open it up so that, hey, you can free up some of that ice time. You can keep Brock a little bit fresher as we know. I mean, he fought in the Civil War. So you do worry about it's a long season.

13:29And. I think that that's a, you know, it's part of the story. Well, that is. But it makes you. Deep down the middle. And. It's it's expensive. Yeah. But he's he's good. And he's been good in the post season. He has a good post season track record. Which I think is an important part of this. And he's seen that the world is going. And he's seen that the world is going. And he's seen that. Had he been bad in Vegas is a post season runs. You'd be going, there's so many elements of this. I don't like. Literally the only two things about this that I struggle with are. He's having a bad year. And he's really slow. Yep. The really slow is, is honestly my biggest concern. Mm hmm. Yeah. It's. I think it is worth noting too that this is a proper center. Right. isn't just, oh, Nick was your three C Parker Kelly can go back to playing the win. You can stop messing around with whoever else you wanted, try at center, whether that's Ross Colton or Zugar Partikov is probably your 13th forward at this point.

14:33Is he, is he, isn't he like your 15th? I mean, Logan O'Connor's not healthy yet. So okay. Okay. You say, you say, me there's y'all can be Ranta right now at the moment, like, you're right. In a perfect world. Yeah. He's probably not even on your roster, like, yeah. So there are multiple impacts of this beyond just what Nick was as is as a player. Life's busy. Don't let banking slow you down, whether you're paying bills, setting savings goals, or just splitting the check. Atlantic Union Bank makes managing your money easier. With helpful people and user-friendly tools, we make sure banking with us fits you. Call, visit us online, or drop into an Atlantic Union Bank branch today. Atlantic Union Bank. Anyway, you bank. Hey, girl, what's happening? Is that your anti-perspirant? Oh, yeah.

15:33Let me see that can. Illuminum butane. I cannot pronounce that. You have to switch to native deodorant. Native simple formula has only clean ingredients. It gives you effective 72-hour odor protection with no hydrocarbon propellant. Wow. This smells heavenly. Clean effective 72-hour odor protection isn't a myth. It's native. There's also not the guarantee that he'll play immediately, too, because of all the immigration paperwork. They're trying to get him to meet them in Dallas. We may not see him until next week, so not an immediate thing that the abs can utilize. There's no shot. He plays tomorrow in Dallas, no shot, as a player traded from a Canadian team to an American team ever played within five days.

16:34I did this earlier this year when the abs claimed Eulia Saloviav and I was asking, obviously, all of the political issues around immigration in the United States right now, I asked if it was going to impact these visas and the answer was no. That shouldn't be any kind of an issue, but I think you should plan for 10 days. Yeah. Plan for it, and you hope that it's more like five. Yep. Yeah. It's often been a thing when the abs get a team from a Canadian player that just schedule a week for them to show up, just part of the deal. The abs play Dallas again on March 18th. He should be in the lineup for that game. From tomorrow. Probably. Not happening. Yeah. I'm going to go ahead and say no. The tip.

17:34No. Do you have laws isolated impacts ready to go? I know they were in our slack, but either way, if she's got to find those and pull those up, Nick Waugh mechanically does fit a Jared Bednar system in the sense of, look, what Jared Bednar wants out of his bottom six is low event hockey. And why is going to give that to you on the defensive side of the puck for sure wants a good defensive center wants somebody that is going to take care of that and got that. That's that's legit. Those impacts are consistent with his career. This is not the defensive side of the puck, that negative six that's this year, it was a negative five last year. Like this, he's a good defensive center. He takes care of his own zone, his own zone first. There's plenty to like about it.

18:35It's just the skating, the skating really does make me nervous. Yeah. A fair concern. I'm trying to look on the optimistic side of it and saying, hey, there are guys who have struggled to skate that have found success with the abs, but there are also guys who have completely failed in Colorado because of their skating issues and the abs, they don't currently have a guy who's performing on the high end in their bottom six when it comes to, I should say on their third line when it comes to their production, right? Boss Colton is underperforming what he needs to and Victor Olipson is fine, but hasn't been shockingly impactful in that way. So you do wonder if your third line is, depending on the version of Nick while you get, if you

19:37get the version of Nick while that's producing the way he has in Toronto, your third line might feel a little underpowered on the offensive side of things. If you get the Vegas version, maybe you're more comfortable there. Whatever does happen, the app starting lineup may be changing, but the price of your internet will not make sure you check out the five year price guarantee from Xfinity. I don't today, right now, I think it's expensive, but I do not dislike this move. They don't get, their NHL team doesn't get worse. They just got deeper, right? And they still have the two second round picks for next year, which there's no obligation for them to move them. This isn't a rental. He signed through next season and they still have about $6.7 million to spend. That's deceiving because Logan O'Connor is 2.5, so you go down to 4.2.

20:39We would love to save $3 million for Brent Burns' bonus that can apply to this year's cap. You don't have to. So we went from 6.7 and what did I say, 6.7 minus 2.5, 4.2, minus 3. So you're down to 1.2. And again, a little deceiving because you have both Bartikov and Brindley can be demoted to the NHL if need be or moved out. So you can move up a little bit, you can basically double that space there. So they've got, they've still got a little bit of cap space to work with. And if they wanted to, they move a roster player. They move with Victor Olvesson. They move a roster player. They have money to work. So it's, they're in like fine shape, cap lies. Oh, they can still go do more if they want an 8th offenseman, they want another wing

21:42or they can go do that, they're fine. Well, let me ask both of you that then. Do you think the abs do something meaningful still or do you think this is the last impactful trade they make? As far as big moves go, I think this is probably it. That's where I'm at. But as has been mentioned, the avalanche pride themselves on being a very deep team. It's one of the things they hit and the biggest things they have in their arsenal, one of the biggest things that scares other teams is how deep they can be and how much impact that depth can make. So if they're going and getting an 8th D or if it's something to bolster the bottom six, I would not be surprised if there's something else left in the tank for the abs. I don't. I mean, their centers are solid, right, unless you're they're like intent on moving dreary out,

22:44their centers are solid, but I also don't. But if they wanted to get a pretty good winger from somebody somewhere, like they could do that there, that's I if I'm Chris McFarland, my number one piece of business right now is another wing, largely because I just don't trust the combination of Victor Olfsen, Gavin Brindley, you all can be Ron to the car bar to call, but all of those guys, I'm not I'm not trusting of them in a playoff run. I don't know how you could be trusting of again, especially their third line wing depth, not that they aren't good players, not that they can't be good, but the streakiness they've gotten between Colton and Olfsen, if they both go cold in the playoffs, your depth is going to struggle. Yeah. So I do fully understand abs potentially wanting another wing to actually play in their line

23:50up. They want to go out and get another eight D to or whatever, like you said, fine, I just don't think that that's that impactful. Yeah. And I mean, Bobby McMahon would be amazing, like, right, Blake Coleman would be amazing. Those guys would be great, but are they trading the 2028 first now because the prices aren't about to get cheaper? Yeah. Exactly. And this is for the swap is, you know, McCarran went for a second, that was like, okay, Nick was a much better player than Michael McCarran. He goes for a first center's more valuable than wings, yeah, exactly that argument. Yeah. I mean, if you two seconds for Bobby McMahon and Victor Olfsen and you're in the money, you love that, right? You're all about that. Yes, I would do that for sure. And then you have no draft picks to get any better at next year's deadline.

24:52Okay. You're definitely going to win that one. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And that's, we say this every year at the trade deadline, these trades will ultimately be remembered based on the results the abs get out of this season. If you get a Stanley Cup, you do not care about the price full stop. I'm just, obviously, this has gone extremely well, but the Arturie Leckon in trade price was Colorado's top prospect and a second round pick for a third line player at the time and everybody kind of lost their minds. And that went pretty well. It did. I think it's unfair to send that expectation. But yeah, for the record, Arturie Leckon is also slow. He's also a slow skater who it does not hinder him in any way. I mean, if Nick Walker skates as well as Leckie, it would help, it would help me feel better. It's one thing to be slow and it's one thing to be like one of the like 10 slowest skaters in the league, which is where Nick Watt is.

25:54So it is, it is a, I, the last, the last thing that I will also touch on is that at the moment, you're putting Nick Watt and Ross Colton on a line together. Yeah. Two guys who have significantly underachieved their careers in terms of goalscoring this season. Is that going to make both of them better? You only hope. Yeah. You only hope. Like, what's Jonathan drew enough to get a premier playmaker to feed a couple of guys that need to score, you know, like it's that would imply being able to hit the net too. Yeah. Well, I mean, I will give Ross Colton credit. He shoots right at a gold tender all lot. So if the goalie wasn't there, he would be having a much better season. So he at least he's not having to, well, I'm, I'm missing, you know, I'm missing out. I'm missing the net entirely from fully hockey were about hitting the logo.

26:54Yeah. Yeah, you know, who needs to play three posts when you can just play shoot it into the logo? Yep. I mean, is there, can I, can I talk about the cadre aspect of this? I know. There's going to be a lot of people that are really bummed because we've been talking about Ryan O'Reilly in Vincent Tro check in Nazum, cadre, like, like the ultimate, like greedy problems here of we want these guys to be called rattles third line centers. And the as one out and got a third line center to be a third line center. Instead, I get, I get the disappointment because there is a giant gap between Nazum, cadre and of course, Nicholas, but one, one thing that is a really important aspect of this is that Calgary did not want to retain money. Their ownership did not want to do it. Craig Conrad did not want to do it. So the other teams that were all afraid that might trade for Nazum, cadre are in the same position as the avalanche.

27:56How many of us were completely comfortable with cadre as an av at $7 million? Was it not at all to be honest? I would know. A very, very, very small number of people that were just like, yellow vibes, right? Like that aren't going to care about the cap? Sure. Dallas is in a very similar position. Yep. And they have less draft capital than the avalanche. Well, after today, after this deal, they're pretty much in the same boat. Minnesota has got a little bit more draft capital, but the same problem. If Calgary's ownership isn't wanting to retain money, that doesn't change team to team, does it? No, I don't, I don't think it's realistic for any of these teams unless you're doing major roster surgery at that point, right? Yeah, I mean, unless you're, unless you are like, look, this trade is too good. We have to take it. They're giving us three first round picks like, like it's unreasonable, the deal, right?

29:00Sure. And even then, ownership is still a problem here. They do not want to retain money. They do not want to pay Nazum, cadre to play elsewhere. That's still a problem. That leaves everybody else in the position of, well, $7 million. And with the Rangers in Trochec, they don't have to do this right now. They can wait. It's true. They don't have to take whatever offers on the table. They can continue to wait. He will continue to be valuable. He's still a good player. He's a really good player. Yeah. So it is, it is a situation where the abs looked around, they really wanted to get involved in that to go out and try and do what they can to build the super team down the middle. But what they've done is they've built a really good one through four, center depth. And keep in mind, especially for a team like Dallas, they probably have bigger needs

30:00than cadre. Like from a personal level, I would not want to see Nazum, cadre in Dallas. But if Dallas went out and did that, they're big solve for their defense as Tyler Myers. Like you're really leaving a giant hole on the right side of your defense to go getting Nazum, cadre. Yeah. I, there's, there was a comment that just popped up in chat real quick that just says, abs have elite centers at one, two, and four, which is great. It's still a huge overpay, I am all. And I think that's a fair way to put it. But I also think that had we done this a year ago, had we had this conversation about Nicholas Walt, Nicholas while a year ago, he would have been one of the top five third line centers in the NHL. He has been a very good third line center that does not change the question marks around his skating. It's just that he had a bad here. So you really are talking about historically speaking, I'm buying stock in wall, working out.

31:01The fit in the bad year make you a little bit nervous, a hundred percent. But like, this is a player who has been very good in this role, specifically in this role. I don't know how much this matters, but I do think it's also worth noting realistically, teams are projecting an avalanche first round pick to be 25th or higher in the first round. Yeah. So there probably is a little bit less value when you're talking about an at Colorado avalanche first round pick than, I mean, bottom feeding teams aren't trading their firsts, but a bubble teams first round pick like a Utah's or something like that. Yeah. So it's fair and I was just looking this up because if you look at their careers, pretty similar ish between Ross Colton and Nick Wah, at least as far as production is concerned.

32:02I'm a bit better goal scorer, but both of them have flirted with the 40 point market a handful of times. And they have ultimately traded a second round pick for Ross Colton that ended up being 37th overall. That's really going to be roughly a 10 pick difference or less to this av's first round pick that they just gave up to Nick Wah. Now I was looking it up because I was curious about pick inflation more than actual, disactual comparison. But I do think it's not every year we do this at the trade deadline where, oh God, the prices are crazy and everyone's giving up everything and then you look back at it. You're like, actually, you know, the market just kind of was at that point and it wasn't as crazy as the prices you might have thought. Yeah. So that's a, that's all I had. Any other, any other thoughts you guys have on Nick Wah on the amps? I have to go do this exact same thing on PDO cast now. Have fun. Yep, nothing for me.

33:05All right. We will get out of here with this one. You know, you'll find another emergency pod of the amps do something else here at DNVR and also tune in tomorrow where we will spend six hours doing nothing because the trade deadline's all going to be over today. We appreciate you all a $5 super sticker as well that on this platform, I don't think we can actually see what it is, but we do appreciate you. That's it. This has been DNVR Avalanche Emergency Podcast, excuse me, presented by Xfinity, Xfinity, imagine that. Bringing your business dreams to life takes heart and about a thousand decisions a day. That's why Atlantic Union Bank's knowledgeable bankers are here for you. With the right guidance and customized solutions to help you reach your business goals.

34:07So whether you're planning your next move, upgrading your space or scaling to meet demand, we make sure your business is ready for what's ahead because we are big enough to support you. It's small enough to know you. Atlantic Union Bank, anyway, you bank. Hidden value is all around you, it's in every app, transaction and network. And chances are you have loads of it, it's your machine data, and Splunk helps you tap into it. Unify machine data and insights pop up everywhere, discover game changing clarity, intelligence for every decision, and a critical resource to power AI. All you need is already there, and it's fine exactly where it is. Your machine data is waiting. Let's on market. Learn more at Splunk.com. Our HBCUs have a legacy that's straight up golden. Emma McDonald's is proud to help keep it that way. Since 2021, the Golden Arches has connected with the 3rd Good Marshall College Fund to provide $1 million in scholarships for students headed to our HBCUs.

35:12Some kind of cash helps keep bright minds on the yard, dreams within reach, and the future golden. Learn more about McDonald's black and positively golden scholarships at mcdblackscholars.com.