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05-12-2006, 07:13 PM
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Join Date: Jul 2003
Location: Nantes
Country: France
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Oh, I sure give credit to the Avalanche scouting staff.
But it's barely a GM job...

Filling the roster with the proper role players, OK, he did it tremendously.

But he gambled way too much while Detroit prefered to give away 28th-30th 1st round picks (and let worse scouting staffs find an AHL player with this one when they steal the Datsyuks and Zetterbergs later...) or to sign UFA players for example.

I just can't get over all the insane amount of talent Lacroix dealt. Sundin, Nolan, Drury, Deadmarsh, Reinprecht, Rolston (even if he wasn't that good in Denver ) or promising players that could have pan out in Colorado like Regehr, Vrbata, Nedorost, Aulin or Johansson... (each one was the Avs best prospect when dealt)

Again, the Roy trade was a steal, and the Blake and Bourque ones were good too.

But I just don't like how the guy needs to gamble and pull a major deal whenever the deadline comes.

You can't compare Gainey's Nieuwendyk for Iginla to Lacroix moves because of this. Gainey wouldn't be ready to gamble for a player he truely believe would fill a huge hole. Not only Nieuwendyk brought the Stanley Cup, but he won the Conn Smythe too.

I just checked and the Avs won one year after the Bourque trade in fact. The year of the Blake deal... So they won the years he pulled what seems like his best moves, the ones I'd do with insight, based on what the players offered in the following years.
Maybe he should have thought about what he was doing a bit more. And keep the "improve long term too" in mind over the "shock the hockey world" mind...

In the end, the guy has 2 SC to back him up. But I just prefer that we have Gainey over Lacroix.

StanAjax is offline