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What Is Colorado Thinking?
by Paul on 06/15/09 at 08:41 AM ET
Comments (3)
from Adrian Dater of the Denver Post,
Like a lot of things this summer involving the Avalanche, it doesn’t make much sense. Ian Laperriere, heart-and-soul forward, fan favorite and locker-room leader, will no longer be on the team after July 1.
That in itself is not the part that is mystifying. It’s not unreasonable a team would want to jettison a 35-year-old player, with 40 goals in the 307 games he played with the Avs. The Avs want to get younger, and maybe a little cheaper. We get that.
But why in the world are the Avs letting Lappy go for nothing — contract talks have essentially ended between him and the team — when the Avs probably could have gotten a pretty nice draft pick from another NHL team at the trade deadline? Why did a team that was out of the playoff picture not deal one of its more marketable assets, especially when the team knew Laperriere could become an unrestricted free agent and wanted a raise?
Filed in: NHL Teams, Colorado Avalanche | KK Hockey | Permalink
Tags: Ian+Laperriere,
Comments
At the trade deadline, maybe they were thinking that if they traded him they wouldn’t be able to resign him and at the time they were planning on keeping him for another season. Teams do change their minds sometimes about who they want to keep and who they want to let go.
Posted by Baroque from Michigan on 06/15/09 at 08:19 AM ET
Like a lot of things this summer involving the Avalanche, it doesn’t make much sense. Ian Laperriere, heart-and-soul forward, fan favorite and locker-room leader, will no longer be on the team after July 1.
Where did all that heart-and-soul, fan favourite and loker-room leadership take the team this past season? It comes a time when an organisation must do what’s best for their future; that time is now for Colorado.
Posted by JBytes on 06/15/09 at 10:31 AM ET
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Maybe they tried to trade him and there were no takers.
Posted by madhatter on 06/15/09 at 08:12 AM ET