AGRI Biz

The naysayers may get their happy ending after all. The collapse may have finally begun. With 10 games left in the regular season, the Colorado Avalanche, once poised to take the Northwest Division title, find themselves sitting in seventh place in the Western Conference, only five points ahead of ninth place Calgary. In a season where the talk of the town has been the squad's young talent, very little of that talent ...

In his first year as Avalanche GM, Greg Sherman has once again proven longevity is not synonymous with proficiency. Sherman's acquisition of forward Peter Mueller has been another in a series of homerun moves this season for the Avalanche. Considered one of the game's promising young forwards after an impressive 54-point rookie campaign, Mueller's career took a sudden downward spiral in January of 2009. After sustaining a concussion which ...

It's not rare to see a fall from grace as a professional athlete ages, but Darcy Tucker has taken things to a whole new level. Tucker was signed by the Avalanche last summer to do what he had been doing for the past decade: score goals and be a pest. Even though he was bought out by Toronto, he still had 18 goals and 100 penalty minutes his final seasons as ...

With the NHL's trade deadline rapidly approaching, it's unlikely the Avalanche make any earth-shattering changes to their roster. The Avs roster is by no means perfect, but the holes are not gaping enough that a playoff berth is in danger because of them. However, there are a handful of veterans Avalanche general manager Greg Sherman may try to pawn off. First on the list is Marek Svatos . A 30-goal scorer once ...

With the NHL's trade deadline looming, the Avalanche will likely look to move one of the eight defensemen currently on the roster. Logic says Salei is the odd man out. The Avalanche acquired Salei at the 2008 NHL trade deadline, and he exceeded expectations, particularly in the offensive zone where he registered five points in 10 playoff games. In the 2008-2009 NHL season, Salei had a quietly good year, scoring ...

It's the holidays, and because we're talking about a team that was supposed to be horrible, I was pretty generous when grading the productivity of the Avalanche's players. Forty-three games in, almost everyone that has worn an Avalanche sweater has been a quality player who has contributed to the teams success, and one can only hope that continues into the future. Forwards Matt Duchene - B Duchene has had a solid rookie year, ...

Brian Burke, General Manager of USA, will have a tough decision on his hands when he makes the final selections to make the USA Olympic club. No, really. In the 2006 Torino Winter Olympics, the Americans were a laughing stock. Don Waddell, current Atlanta Thrashers GM and then GM of the USA Olympic squad, made numerous questionable choices, and the roster ended up including the likes of Mark Parrish, Robert ...

It's the time of year everyone loves: trade rumor time. Now that teams are showing whether they're contenders or pretenders, media outlets have begun reporting "rumors" of which players may or may not be traded away (which generally involves the latter sending all of their best players to the former). If you missed last year's trade rumor frenzy, I'll recap: the Avs sent Hejduk to Pittsburgh for Ryan Whitney, Brett Clark was ...

Getting a blue Avalanche jersey this year might be worse than getting coal. Call it superstition, call it voodoo, but I believe these things are so cursed that not even an exorcist can remove it. 11/14/09 ùA Saturday night against Vancouver was the audition of these bad boys. And what an audition it was. Anderson allowed four goals before being yanked, and Budaj came in cold and let in ...

A month ago when color analyst Peter McNabb started lobbying for Wojtek Wolski to be chosen for team Canada at this Winter's Olympics in Vancouver, people laughed. They aren't laughing anymore. 37 games into the 2010 NHL season, Wolski has not only established himself as a top line forward for the Avalanche, but also as one of the most versatile wingers in the NHL. Once known as a lazy, one-dimensional forward who ...