It's Time To Fire The GM

It's been time for a while, but I feel the need to reiterate it after reading this. Apparently, this GM thinks he can low ball people when attempting to resign them, and if they decide to leave it doesn't matter because Peter Budaj and David Jones can do the same things for less money.

This is why he needs to be fired. Since taking over in 2007, he's made one logical move, which was the Skrastins for Salei trade. But even that move wasn't great; it was simply Florida and Colorado trading their overpaid defensemen for one another.

Other than that, everything has been a bust. Chris Stewart, drafted 19th overall in 2006, looks like he'll amount to nothing. Even with all of the injuries last year, Stewart has yet to play an NHL game. His AHL numbers are average at best.

And there lies another problem: he can't decide whether this team is rebuilding or not. Outside observes who follow the Avs will jump to the conclusion that the team is indeed rebuilding, but they couldn't be more wrong. They probably should be rebuilding, but aren't. Instead, old players that were bought out by their former team were signed, and expectations put on two rookies who will amount to nothing more than 2nd line players (if they're lucky). A 1st round draft pick was traded for Adam Foote, a 36 year old defenseman who was heading to free agency in the summer.
That pick was then traded by Columbus to Philadelphia for R.J. Umberger, a young center who will only get better. The player who was eventually drafted with the pick was Luca Sbisa, a defenseman who in his first 12 NHL games currently has 6 assists, a number greater than any Avalanche defenseman thus far.

Now let's look at this summer. Clearly, he had money to spend, and still has that money. Sakic's career being up in the air is completely irrelevant because there was more than enough dough to resign everyone and Sakic. Instead, Theodore, who stole the first playoff series leaves because of a low ball offer, despite telling Colorado that if they matched the Washington offer he'd re-sign. I still think Theodore should have taken the lesser offer simply because of how much he made while warming the bench, but hockey's a business, and Giguere shouldn't have been penny pinching.

Then, he lets the leading goal scorer in the playoffs, a guy who didn't miss a game in three seasons, and the team's assistant captain Andrew Brunette walk away. According to the article, Giguere offered Brunette a lousy one year deal worth less money than he had made previously. I can see the logic in not signing Brunette, given his age and Wolski emerging as a solid LW....BUT, I can only see the logic in not signing him if the plan is to go out and get a younger scoring winger to play with Sakic. And by younger, I do not mean only two years younger; and by scoring, I sure as hell do not mean Darcy Tucker.

After being swept by Detroit, Colorado appeared to be a team a couple tweaks away from being a serious contender this year. They beat 3rd seeded Minnesota, and were only swept by Detroit because of injuries (I'm not saying they would have won, but does anyone honestly believe that Colorado gets swept if they're not missing 6 of their top 9 forwards?).

So, everyone had the mentality that Sakic is old, and Hejduk is getting up there; time to make a run at the cup, right? After all, the 1st rounder was just sent away for someone in the final stretch of their career, so the GM must be thinking "time to stack our line-up and deliver the cup"....right?

It's time to pull the plug on his GMing life. I say this not only as a pissed off fan, but also as an observer with common sense. General managing needs to involve common sense, and moves should be made for a logic, sensible reason. This GM lacks logic, and appears to not have a plan. It's only a matter of time.