from Terry Frei of the Denver Post,

The most troubling long-term issues for this team involve the contradictions in its organizational approach, even in its in-house reactions. The playoff loss to Minnesota last spring seemed to show they knew the team had overcome its deficiencies during that remarkable regular season and needed to upgrade their toughness and veteran grittiness quotient. The moves so far haven't worked.

Almost as if it was excessively proud of "unearthing" players previously underrated or not given sufficient chances, the Avalanche over the past year has signed a handful of players to contract extensions who haven't been major contributors long enough — at least not here — to earn that faith. Among that group is Nick Holden, Marc-Andre Cliche, Nick Guenin, Brad Stuart and Reto Berra. That wouldn't be a potential impediment if the NHL didn't have a hard salary cap that makes excessive faith in players competitively costly too.

more