I never thought RW Mikko Rantanen would be on the board at No. 10. And either did Avalanche GM Joe Sakic and his staff. Sakic told me he was shocked that Rantanen wasn’t selected in the top six, and the Avs wanted to make a trade and get him at eight. But . Excellent pick to conclude an exceptional day for the Avalanche.
Former Avalanche center Ryan O’Reilly wanted to become the NHL’s youngest player making $8 million (salary and cap hit). He wanted to be paid more than Steven Stamkos, Rick Nash, Jason Spezza or Pavel Datsyuk, among others. Check it out at , which, along with CapFriendly.com, are the most friendly NHL sites since CapGeek.com, God rest his soul.
I can’t wrap my head around Factor’s salary demands, given his big-time struggles last season — along with most of his young teammates — and the fact he hasn’t been a plus NHL player since he was a third- or fourth-line center as a rookie in 2009-10. Check it out, his career stats are .
O’Reilly’s camp told the Avs he wanted $64 million over eight years, equaling a $8 million cap hit. O’Reilly is 24, and apparently not trilled with his $6.2 million salary in 2015-16. He wants to become the only $8 million man under 25; Stamkos, 25, is at $5.5M salary, $7.5M cap hit. Stamkos is probably the world’s top sniper (regular season anyway) and the goal-scorers make the big bucks.
Stamkos has 276 goals in 492 regular-season games. O’Reilly has 90 goals in 427 games.
O’Reilly had 17 goals last season. His replacement, Carl Soderberg, had just 13 for Boston in the same amount of games (82), but Soderberg’s five-year cap hit of $4.75 million is far more sensible, and according to Joe Sakic, Soderberg is the play-making center the Avs want to skate with power forward Gabe Landeskog and lightning-fast right wing Nathan MacKinnon. Soderberg, 6-foot-3 and 210 pounds, will actually hit somebody, an aspect of the game O’Reilly rarely participated in.
Because of O’Reilly’s unreasonable salary demands, the Avalanche got younger, bigger and better equipped financially — now and in the future — by sending O’Reilly and fellow Irish chum Jamie McGinn to Buffalo for some of the Sabres’ top picks in 2012 and 2013. I mean, it’s like the Avs raided Buffalo’s draft classes, getting C Mikhail Grigorenko (2012 12th overall) and D Nikita Zadorov (2013 16th overall) plus forward J.T. Compher, the University of Michigan captain selected 35th overall in 2013, and Saturday’s first pick of the second round (31st overall) — which might deliver D Brandon Carlo of Colorado Springs to Denver.
Bottom line: the Avs got four players (two currently in the NHL) who are at least four years away from unrestricted free agency for two guys who are 2016 pending UFAs.
So … Great day for the Avalanche, which absolutely improved in every way, save some experience. The cap payroll decreased by $8 million, giving the Avs more than $16 million of cap room for next week’s free agency and signed their unrestricted guys like Joey Hishon and Grigorenko.
Everything we have is at denverpost.com/avalanche. The tweets, including news, are Twitter.
raided BUF’s ’12-’13 draft: D Nikita Zadorov No. 1 in ’13 (16th) & C Mikhail Grigorenko No. 1 in ’12 (12th). F JT 2nd in ’13 (35)
— Mike Chambers (@MikeChambers)
I’m thrilled to be welcomed into the I’ve heard nothing but great things and I’m extremely excited to get started!
— Ryan O’Reilly (@Ryan_OReilly90)
It was a true honor to have played in Denver.
— Ryan O’Reilly (@Ryan_OReilly90)
