Rick Sadowski: Winchester optimistic about getting his career back on track

Winchester, McGinn, and Johnson were the big injuries. McGinn hurt forced McLeod and talbot to play with Dutch at times, Winchester brought cliche back into the fold, and Johnson hurt left Barrie Guenin as the number 1 pairing...ugh.

But I believe there is proper depth too, I will be Shocked if Guenin, Cliche, are back. Bordy is a question mark but he should be AHL bound. I gave a lineup a crack if both Mez and Skille make the team off their PTOS. For me this the dream situation (swapping out Skille for Hishon and Mez for Seimens if we went homegrown)

HockeysCap.com Armchair-GM User-Generated Roster

FORWARDS (13)
Tanguay ($3,500,000) - Duchene ($6,000,000) - Iginla ($5,333,333)
Landeskog ($5,571,429) - Soderberg ($4,750,000) - MacKinnon ($925,000)
Comeau ($2,400,000) - Grigorenko ($675,000) - Everberg ($612,500)
McLeod ($1,333,333) - Mitchell ($1,800,000) - Skille ($1,000,000)
Winchester ($900,000)

DEFENSE (8)
Beauchemin ($4,500,000) - Johnson ($3,750,000)
Zadorov ($894,167) - Barrie ($2,600,000)
Gormley ($850,500) - Stuart ($3,600,000)
Meszaros ($1,000,000) - Redmond ($750,000)


GOALTENDER (2)
Varlamov ($5,900,000)
Berra ($1,450,000)

AHL BURIED
P. Bordeleau ($50,000) - N. Guenin ($0) - M. Cliche ($0) - M. Noreau ($0) - N. Holden ($700,000)

DETAILS
Roster Size: 23
NHL Salary Cap: $0
Retained Salary Transactions: $900,000
Cap Hit: $61,745,262
Cap Space: $9,654,738
- DDM-Coga

I know the injuries hurt the team but they weren't as big of a factor as Roy seems to think. The main point I was trying to make is the Avs had more problems last year than just injuries. Like you said, the depth they got this year should help most of those problems (Cliche, Guenin, Bordeleau) out. I just worry that Roy is ignoring some of the other problems especially after he made it sound like Holden and Stuart will be the 3rd pairing. I was really hoping he'd be a little more open to saying publicly that there will be a battle for the 6th Dman spot. They're contracts make it hard to sit them but this team can't go another 2 years with Stuart and Holden as the 3rd pair.

I know the injuries hurt the team but they weren't as big of a factor as Roy seems to think. The main point I was trying to make is the Avs had more problems last year than just injuries. Like you said, the depth they got this year should help most of those problems (Cliche, Guenin, Bordeleau) out. I just worry that Roy is ignoring some of the other problems especially after he made it sound like Holden and Stuart will be the 3rd pairing. I was really hoping he'd be a little more open to saying publicly that there will be a battle for the 6th Dman spot. They're contracts make it hard to sit them but this team can't go another 2 years with Stuart and Holden as the 3rd pair.
- westonie

In the long run I don't see them being on the 3rd pair, so I am ok with Roy saying that he sees them as a pair together. With Seimens and Gormley knocking on the door with how well it sounds they have looked at camp, I can easily see once Stuart gets hurt (he seems so broken down so its bound to happen) or a mini losing streak happens. One of those guys will get a shot and just be flat out better that Holden or Stuart and won't be drawing out of the line up.

For me holden, experimenting w/ him at the start of season, I could stomach for a while. 1st season he looked like a steal of a depth guy, last season a dumpster fire, so hopefully he can balance somewhere in the middle and just be a respectable depth guy, but if he is a train wreck 10 games in, you bench him.

Their contracts are tough so they do have to give them a shot. Stuart I can't see going beyond this year, to me he either gets traded or bought out. Holden is the same. They invested in them so they will give them the shot to prove themselves, if not they are on the road to unemployement.

Im more excited that Berras job is openly up for grabs. Picks better bring his A Game

I've got a spare ticket for the Burgundy and white game tomorrow, just looking to make sure it gets used. Someone PM me and we'll meet up at Magness.