It’s always fun to project or just speculate on a rather talented player who could end up playing for another organization to make a team that came close but couldn’t quite reach their respective Conference Final even better.
For the Colorado Avalanche, the ideal player to move in such a situation is probably goaltender Alexandar Georgiev, but he would be too logical to list in an article angled to talk about unexpected trades.
Instead, a player who could provide a win-win situation for the Avalanche and another team but one who doesn’t figure to pop up anywhere in the rumor mill is who we’re talking about today. Ironically, an unexpected but not so farfetched trade here would involve a defenseman and one who always seems to play a physical game and is also good at blocking shots.
Josh Manson is that player, but it’s not because he’s not a good fit for the Avalanche, or even one who general manager Chris MacFarland ‘should trade.’ Instead, he’s the oldest player on the team’s blue line who is not a pending free agent and one who the Avalanche can afford to lose if they wanted to re-sign a defenseman they traded for a couple of months back in Sean Walker.
At this point, Walker is a more valuable player than Manson, as he’s two years younger, and he was also one of a few reasons a team like the Philadelphia Flyers stuck around in the playoff race as long as they did – he spent 63 games with the Flyers this past season.
Not only would trading someone like Manson free up more cap space to help bring back a more intriguing defenseman, he also wouldn’t be hard to replace in free agency, thanks to an adequate free agent class among blueliners.
We’re not talking about expensive replacements but cost-effective ones who also enjoyed solid seasons. In a scenario where Walker returned, Manson was sent elsewhere with sound compensation in return, plus a less expensive defenseman who could do the same job as Manson, it would make the Avalanche a better team.
Let’s not count on the Avs trading away Manson, because as mentioned, there is no major rumor going on about a Manson trade. But if there’s a situation where the Avs make a surprising trade, moving someone like Manson would make a ton of sense.
