What you want and what your body can do are two separate worlds. Hope he signs a year deal but I think if he was going to, it would have happened by now.
Sign him. 1 year at the minimum pay. Why the F not. You know there’s always those January injuries and he can step in for a while.
If he’s cool being a healthy scratch and we don’t get too married to the idea that he’s a regular if he has a streak.
Nah…I love EJ butt it’s time to move on. He doesn’t add enough to warrant the roster spot.
Condition being he is a healthy scratch/assistant coach for the playoffs. No playoff ice time.
I still want to play in the NHL too.
If you bump all of the AHL dudes down to the AHL off of the NHL roster the Avs have 3.75 million in cap space and 2 roster spots remaining so I would gladly sign EJ to a professional try out to see what kind of shape he’s in still.
$2,950,000 and 1 roster spot would still be available if they signed EJ to a league min contract.
I personally wouldn’t hate if the Avs ran EJ as the 7-8 D and the full 23/23 roster this season but I believe the Girard/Malinski left side 2nd/3rd pair needs an upgrade regardless of if they bring EJ back or not.
Part of this has to be EJ feeling like getting to come back to last year’s Avs squad post deadline and winning one more cup ( or at least making a run) and riding off into the sunset was the ending he wanted, and because instead he got a game 7 round 1 heartbreaker he (understandably) doesn’t want to go out like that.
Analytically, EJ was solid in his return to the Avs, the fact he hadn’t played much in Philly meant he had gas in the tank. His playoff numbers are less spectacular, and there’s a reason Malinski ended up taking his spot. The Avs are already going to be carrying 7D because they like Middleton, and that’s not
even counting any Eagles guys taking a step, or if the Avs make a move.
Its a rock in a hard place, a contending team isn’t gonna want to bring him in, and he’s already done the tanking team/middling team “vet locker room guy to show the young guys how to be a professional” thing 3 times since ‘22 and since he left all three times to come back to the Avs he obviously doesn’t want to really do that either. Back in the day a guy like this would just go cash in playing a couple seasons in the KHL and call it a day.
8 comments
What you want and what your body can do are two separate worlds. Hope he signs a year deal but I think if he was going to, it would have happened by now.
Sign him. 1 year at the minimum pay. Why the F not. You know there’s always those January injuries and he can step in for a while.
If he’s cool being a healthy scratch and we don’t get too married to the idea that he’s a regular if he has a streak.
Nah…I love EJ butt it’s time to move on. He doesn’t add enough to warrant the roster spot.
Condition being he is a healthy scratch/assistant coach for the playoffs. No playoff ice time.
I still want to play in the NHL too.
If you bump all of the AHL dudes down to the AHL off of the NHL roster the Avs have 3.75 million in cap space and 2 roster spots remaining so I would gladly sign EJ to a professional try out to see what kind of shape he’s in still.
$2,950,000 and 1 roster spot would still be available if they signed EJ to a league min contract.
I personally wouldn’t hate if the Avs ran EJ as the 7-8 D and the full 23/23 roster this season but I believe the Girard/Malinski left side 2nd/3rd pair needs an upgrade regardless of if they bring EJ back or not.
Part of this has to be EJ feeling like getting to come back to last year’s Avs squad post deadline and winning one more cup ( or at least making a run) and riding off into the sunset was the ending he wanted, and because instead he got a game 7 round 1 heartbreaker he (understandably) doesn’t want to go out like that.
Analytically, EJ was solid in his return to the Avs, the fact he hadn’t played much in Philly meant he had gas in the tank. His playoff numbers are less spectacular, and there’s a reason Malinski ended up taking his spot. The Avs are already going to be carrying 7D because they like Middleton, and that’s not
even counting any Eagles guys taking a step, or if the Avs make a move.
Its a rock in a hard place, a contending team isn’t gonna want to bring him in, and he’s already done the tanking team/middling team “vet locker room guy to show the young guys how to be a professional” thing 3 times since ‘22 and since he left all three times to come back to the Avs he obviously doesn’t want to really do that either. Back in the day a guy like this would just go cash in playing a couple seasons in the KHL and call it a day.