Everyone assumed the Colorado Avalanche, were they to pull off a deal ahead of Monday's trade deadline, would target a defenseman or two. Avs GM Joe Sakic though, clearly thinks an addition up front will somehow help his defensively deficient lineup to better control their own zone, as he has acquired big winger, Mikkel Boedker, from the Arizona Coyotes. TSN's Darren Dreger was the first with the news that Boedker had been traded and ESPN's Craig Custance was the first to break that the Avs were the landing spot.
According to Adrian Dater of Bleacher Report, Alexander Tanguay is headed back to Arizona as part of the deal. Renaud Lavoie of TVA Sports added that prospects Kyle Wood and Conner Bleackley are also headed to the 'Yotes.
Boedker, a winger with serious speed but a bit of a softness to his game, has the ability to fill several different roles up front for the Avs. That being said, he's chasing career-highs in several statistical categories, which is always a red flag when a guy is in a contract year and/or expected trade bait. As Dimitri Filipovic of Sportsnet noted last week, no forward in the league has had as much time on the man advantage this year as Boedker. Again, it's a surprise that this was the direction Sakic chose to go. Perhaps the trade market for defenseman was so thin or so expensive that he simply felt it wasn't worth it. Perhaps he has more up his sleeve.
Either way, there's no denying Boedker's talent level but as a soon-to-be unrestricted free agent with what is said to be a big ask on his next contract, there simply wasn't any way for the Coyotes to keep him, though they wanted to. Arizona GM Don Maloney had apparently set himself a mandate to either lock Boedker up or trade him for picks and/or prospects.
And while the 36-year-old Tanguay doesn't represent much beyond an in-season salary dump for the Avs, Wood (84th pick in 2014) and Bleackley (23rd pick in 2014) both bring plenty of potential for the suddenly promising Coyotes.
