homecoming?
It’s rarely a good idea to pick up a free agent who is at the top of his market value, but probably getting ready to descend the hill in terms of skill and value… even at high performance, the top free agent is rarely worth the money.
Maybe it’s nostalgia for the old days, but I find myself dreaming that the Avs would pull the trigger and offer Chris Drury everything he’s worth, and more… and dreaming that Chris would be thrilled to return to the Avs and help bring them back to the top.
Thoughts?
Current NHL trends say Drury is worth about 6.5 million next year and tack on another half million every additional year. Normally I’d say no one is worth that amount, but Drury is as clutch as they come. With Sakic retireing soon, we might be able to afford it (this upcoming year might be pretty rough). This all may be a moot point though as Buffalo might choose him over Breire, though if it were me, I’d keep Breire over Drury.
well it appears buffalo has lost out on them both… and if the avs couldn’t get drury, smyth AND hannan is a pretty good alternative!
Smyth is awesome. I don’t know that much about Hannan; his stats say he’s ok. The last players we got form the Sharks worked out so well though.
well, i think the appeal in Hannan is not the stats as much as a defenseman who’s not afraid to mix it up and knock a few teeth out. The Avs’ defense needed some improvement (i think I read 23rd in the league?). i think hannan will be a nice pickup. he won’t drive the team to glory, but I think he’ll help out along the way… maybe Budaj won’t have to work so hard to keep the team in the close games.
I’ll sound off on Hannan and Smyth in my next article, but suffice to say I’m excited that we addressed both an offensive and a defensive issue on the first day of free agency and did so by picking up the two toughest players available at their respective positions. That said, I couldn’t agree more that it would have been awesome to see Drury back in the hometown red white and blue. He was my favorite player when he was here and I’ll root for him no matter what team he plays for… unless it’s the Red Wings… of course…