from Pierre LeBrun of ESPN,

"Their D group is not good enough at all,'' a Western Conference coach said via text message on Thursday.

The Avs know that. So Sakic hopes to fix it.

"I just think they will wait until the summer to figure all this out,'' said one Eastern Conference team executive.

That's very possible. There's no urgency for the Avs to make all these deals before the March 1 trade deadline. It may be that their better offers come during the offseason, when the salary cap is less of a constraint for other teams and it's easier to make bigger moves. That's why June has become the month for blockbuster deals around the NHL the last few years.

So the issue for Sakic and the Avs will be how to balance the best offers they get before March 1 with what they believe they might get come June.

The bottom line is that Sakic doesn't have to deal Landeskog, nor Duchene, if teams don't step up and meet his demands.

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