Casey Mittelstadt’s first full season with the Avalanche hasn’t gone as well as anyone would have hoped. Acquired at the trade deadline last year for Bowen Byram in a move that was intended to stabilize their center depth, the 26-year-old has instead had some struggles, notching just eight goals and 18 assists through 46 games despite logging nearly 18 minutes a night. That has led some to wonder if the Avs might need to make a move to upgrade that spot again. However, Evan Rawal of The Denver Gazette argues that selling low on Mittelstadt probably isn’t the right move. For starters, there aren’t many prominent middlemen expected to be made available in the coming weeks while Colorado isn’t exactly loaded with trade chips and they’d have to use some to upgrade on Mittelstadt. Those chips might be better served being used to fill other needs so the most prudent course of action for the Avalanche may be to hope that Mittelstadt can work his way out of his first-half struggles.
More from the Central:
- Lia Assimakopoulos of the Dallas Morning News spoke with (subscription link) assistant GM Mark Janko to go over the reasoning for why Tyler Seguin hasn’t been placed on LTIR just yet which boils down to them simply not needing to do so. Seguin underwent hip surgery six weeks ago, a procedure that will keep him out for at least four months and Assimakopoulos notes that the team doesn’t expect him back at the four-month mark as he’s not expected back until after the regular season. With his absence, it’s fair to say that the Stars will be looking for some scoring depth between now and the March 7th trade deadline, especially if they eventually do move Seguin to LTIR to open up close to $10MM in extra cap space.
- USA Hockey announced on Friday that Jeff Kealty will serve as GM for their entry into the men’s World Championship in May. He’s in his 24th season with the Predators and his seventh as their assistant GM and Scouting Director. While he’s not an NHL GM, he’ll be working with several of them to help assemble the roster as he’ll be assisted by the U.S. Men’s National Team Advisory Group consisting of John Vanbiesbrouck and no fewer than ten active NHL general managers.
The Stars are accruing cap space for now and would have either 1M now or 2M at the deadline, depending on how many paper transactions they make until then. Use that on a smaller addition first, then put Seguin on LTIR to open up the rest.