Okay let's set the stage:
You're a rebuilding team who just made the playoffs in which you had a load of rookies produce on the team and your goaltender had a career year.
Now imagine, if you will, that your team, despite having a load of cap room, refuses to give out big contracts to free agents after July 1.
Sound familiar? Well, if you're a fan, hater or just aware of the Avs, you probably know that this is the story to the offseason.
Now, to some, the Avs' offseason has been viewed as the orginization being cheap and refusing to play money to "field a winner."
To that I pose the question: Which would you rather have?
A) A team that buys players and subsequently can't afford to pay your youngsters
Or
B) A team that raises its own prospects and trades for pieces that are missing mid season
The first is the way the Chicago Blackhawks won their Stanley Cup and the latter way is how the Pittsburgh Penguins won their Stanley Cup.
Truth be told, there's no one-or-the-other answer to this question but for simplicity sakes, let's assume there is.
When the Blackhawks lifted the Cup back in June, they lifted with a hefty price. Back in 2008, they paid Christobal Huet to come between the pipes for them for a hefty four-year $22.5M contract and then signed Brian Campbell to an eight-year $56.8M contract. Then, a year later after falling to the Red Wings in the Conference finals, they signed Marian Hossa to a 12 year $62.8M contract.
Now no one can argue that any of these moves, aside from maybe Huet, did not help the Hawks win the cup. However, the fallout from it, as well as the botched offer sheet fiasco, put the Hawks in a situation where they had to trade some of their key players away to get under the cap, already losing Versteeg, Eager, Buyfuglian, Ladd, Sopel and nearly losing Hjalmarsson to an offer sheet.
That's not to say a Blackhawks team with guys like Kane, Toews, Keith and Seabrooke will suddenly become easy but they are nowhere near as dangerous as they were last year.
Now on the other side of this coin is the Pittsburgh Penguins.
It all started back in 2003 for the Penguins when they drafted Marc-Andre Fleury and continued right up to the 2005 draft when they drafted Sidney Crosby with a 2004 second overall pick Evegeni Malkin.
Both the Hawks and the Penguins, and all rebuilding teams for that matter, start of similar. They get a player or two high in the draft, put together a supporting cast and make themselves respectable.
However, where they differ is how they put together a winner. While the Blackhawks made their waves on July 1, the Penguins made theirs around the trade deadline. First, in the 2007-08 season, they went out and acquired Hossa from the Atlanta Thrashers. Then, when the fell to the Red Wings that year and Hossa signed in Detroit, the Penguins went out the following year, got a good supporting cast for Crosby and then acquired Chris Kunitz to help them finally beat the Wings and win the Cup.
The end result of the way the Penguins won the Cup and the Blackhawks won the Cup is this: after it was all said and done, the Penguins got to keep their supporting cast around while the Hawks had to trade a part (most?) or theirs. And while I commend the Hawks for getting good prospects and good players out of their deals, they are still going into the next season with a few missing pieces and players.
So I put it to you? Which way would you have it? Would you like your team to load up on July 1 in order to make a run for the Cup or would you rather the team buy expensive free agents, maybe lose some of the particulars or would you like to get the players at the trade dealing, risk losing those players to a team like the Hawks on July 1, in order to make a run at the cup?
As a closing though, I should mention that it is a little weird that as I write this the Penguins will have Zbynek Michalek and Paul Martin, whom they signed July 1, on their opening night roster, seeming to break the trend that Pittsburgh had previously set for themselves.
There is no guarantee either way that you'll get a winner and you might overpay (or trade) for a guy who doesn't help your team in the slightest after being acquired. For now, though, I hope the Avs stick with Option B and Plan A and take a good look at what they truly have on their roster before they investigate adding to it.
Colorado Avalanche Blogger • 
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