from Sean Keeler of the Denver Post,

Say it ain’t so, Super Joe. Hey, a healthy Darcy Kuemper in the crease is worth taking a flier on. But is he worth taking a flying leap?

Trading a first-round pick, a conditional third-round pick and 22-year-old defenseman Conor Timmins for a 31-year-old goaltender who’s made more than 29 regular-season starts just once since 2014?

That’s not a win-now move. That’s a win-or-else move. As in, “Or else the fans start lighting torches.”

Weren’t the Rockies the ones who were supposed to get weird this week? Did the Avalanche hire Jeff Bridich as a consultant? Did Colorado general manager Joe Sakic, the most respected team-builder in town, just get … Sakic-ed?

Say it ain’t so, Super Joe. There’s a fine line between aggressive and desperate. The Kuemper deal, at first blush, somehow managed to combine both in one fell swoop. Necessary, yes. But did it have to be so painful?

“Listen, I have all the faith in the world in Joe and C-Mac (assistant general manager Chris MacFarland),” Avalanche captain and winger Gabe Landeskog said early Wednesday, the morning after returning on an eight-year, $56 million deal, “and the team that they’ve obviously built and continue to build.”

For Avs fans, though, that faith is about to be tested.

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