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Lower-body injury shelves Barrie; Sakic looks to remake roster |
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Rick Sadowski
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Hockey Canada tweeted Wednesday that Avalanche defenseman Tyson Barrie will miss the remainder of the IIHF World Championship tournament because of a lower-body injury.
Barrie has seven points (two goals, five assists) in three games for unbeaten Canada, tying him with Avalanche teammate Nathan MacKinnon and Carolina's Jeff Skinner for the team scoring lead.
Canada faces France on Thursday.
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When Avalanche general manager Joe Sakic talks about having "a lot of turnover" this offseason, let's hope he isn't only referring to saying good-bye to a slew of veteran unrestricted free agents.
The Avalanche surely won't re-sign Fedor Tyutin ($2 million salary cap hit in 2016-17), John Mitchell ($1.8 million), Gabriel Bourque ($800,000) or Cody Goloubef ($750,000).
I suppose it's possible they'll consider bringing back Rene Bourque ($650,000), whose 12 goals were fifth best on the team after he made the roster on a tryout. But he turns 36 in December, which doesn't exactly fit with Sakic's vow to have a younger and faster roster next season.
But other than alluding to Dynamo Moscow defenseman Andrei Mironov for the first time -- "Hopefully we’re going to have a signing here soon that we can announce," he told Altitude Sports Radio -- Sakic didn't say anything particularly new regarding his plans for this summer.
"There's going to be a lot of turnover," he said. "We're going to get some younger guys in here. We're expecting to be a much quicker team and a much more competitive team."
It shouldn't take much for the Avalanche to be more competitive after finishing a distant last in the NHL with an embarrassing 22-56-4 record and 48 points -- 21 fewer than 29th-place Vancouver.
Sakic said they won't be "big players" in the free-agent market and will attempt to keep building from within through the draft. Fittingly, the Avalanche also lost the draft lottery and will pick fourth in the first round.
"We want to grow our kids and keep the youth movement going, and try and develop and have them grow together," he said.
Mikko Rantanen, 20, scored a team-high 20 goals in his first full NHL season. J.T. Compher, 22, and Tyson Jost, 19, made their league debuts in the latter stages of the season and will be on the opening night roster in 2017-18. A.J. Greer, 20, had 38 points (15 goals, 23 assists) for San Antonio and made the AHL All-Star team after playing five early games with Colorado.
Sven Andrighetto, 24, was a pleasant surprise following his trade deadline acquisition from Montreal, collecting 15 points (five goals, 10 assists) in 19 games. Other RFAs include Nikita Zadorov, Mikhail Grigorenko, Matt Nieto, Eric Gelinas, Patrick Wiercioch and former first-round pick Duncan Siemens.
The Avalanche need to sign Andrighetto and Zadorov, 22, who was inconsistent but made significant strides in his development on defense before breaking his ankle in a Feb. 21 practice collision with Rantanen.
Only four defensemen are under contract: Mark Barberio, Tyson Barrie, Francois Beauchemin and Erik Johnson.
The Avalanche would love to unload Beauchemin, who has one year left on his contract, but he'll be 37 in June and has a no-movement clause. They're obligated to protect him in the upcoming expansion draft unless he waives the clause, so they'd be certain to lose a player they'd otherwise protect.
Improving the defense should be a priority for Sakic, who will need to make a major trade for that to happen. Once again, Matt Duchene's name will be mentioned prominently in trade speculation.
"We'll be on the phone quite a bit," Sakic said.
If Duchene returns, he and several other "core" members will need to have big bounce-back seasons for the Avalanche to be competitive. Nathan MacKinnon, Gabriel Landeskog and Johnson (who missed 36 games with a broken fibula) all had down years.
Sakic expressed optimism that goalie Semyon Varlamov will be fully recovered from his two hip surgeries, and that his groin issues will be a thing of the past.
As he did at the end of the season, Sakic said coach Jared Bednar will return for a second season. He replaced Patrick Roy on Aug. 25, two weeks after Roy abruptly quit.
"I believe that he deserves a chance to come back with a full summer to prepare," Sakic said of Bednar. "He knows the players, the players all know what's expected of themselves, getting ready for training camp. We're looking forward to a real good year next year."
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The Colorado Eagles, the Avalanche's ECHL affiliate, will meet the Toledo Walleye in the Western Conference finals with Game 1 on Friday at the Huntington Center in Toledo, Ohio.
The Eagles knocked out the defending league champion Allen Americans in six games in the conference semifinals.
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