What If's...

I couldn't help but notice a couple of players still floating around that the Avalanche could use, provided Big Stan Kroenke were to lift his edict that has the team chopping down salary like a cane farmer in the Amazon.

Half of the fun of hockey is creating, and then believing in completely unsubstantiated rumors. I tend to believe this is what has kept the people of Toronto going all these years. In going through the scratch and dent pile of remaining free agents/disgruntled veterans, I managed to find a couple who, if the situation was right, would fit nicely on the Avs.

Dany Heatley

Tell me this guy wouldn't destroy the world getting served up by Paul Stastny for a few years. Sure, the rest of the hockey world believes Heatley is some kind of evil mongoloid who has ruined Ottawa. But has anyone considered that maybe Heatley wants out because he's playing in Ottawa?

Let's see...wedging away a disgruntled superstar stuck on a Canadian team that appears to be blaming him for the downfall of their mighty franchise...sounds like a job for Pierre Lacroix!

Juri Hudler

This little punk from Detroit looks and plays a helluva lot like Marek Svatos...if Svatos still had two good shoulders. Hudler is currently taking the Wings to arbitration, and there is a slight chance they might not meet his demands and he could be claimed in a trade. Should this scenario happen the Avs might be well served to take a chance on this speedy little sniper from hell, if only to cheese hard core Wingnuts.

The only question would be finding an occasionally spectacular, often injured player to send their way. (Uwe Krupp anyone?) What about...Marek Svatos?

Alex Kovalev

Need a moody, selfish, occasionally spectacular, highly paid 70 point scorer who is being run out of town by his or-gan-eye-zation? Look no further than Alex Kovalev. Something tells me the Avs would already have him if there were no salary cap and this was 2001. If only because it would barely make any sense.

Brendan Morrison

Unless I'm missing something and he sill has no knees, or Dallas has already signed him. The Avalanche NEED a guy like Brendan Morrison, even if he is in a wheelchair that he has to control with his lips. Witness Dallas's disintegration after Morrison went out for the season last year. Yes, he's a center and the Avs don't need centers...but really Matt Duschene isn't going to be ready for at least a year. It's something to think about...

Maxim Afinogenov

Maybe his glorious coming out party a couple years back was the product of playing with Daniel Briere, maybe it wasn't. Maybe Afinogenov isn't going to Russia to play, maybe he will. And maybe the Avalanche could use a forward who is still in his prime, who has good hands, and if he played for the Avs we would have plenty of good times making fun of the fact that he looks like a drunk Prince Valliant in his yahoo profile pic:

http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/players/1906/career;_ylt=Av_faM3PymUUrBIRraW3_D1ivLYF

Moving on...

Sergei Zubov

Hall of Fame caliber...still unsigned...moves the puck well even when standing still...say, maybe the Avs could get a deal on the old warhorse.

Martin Skoula

(Okay I just threw him in so that you could say "Skoula Sucks")

As you can see, there is still some value to be had if the Avalanche had the wherewithal, and somehow lose all of their discipline, like the Rangers do around this time of year, every year.