| 20 January 2010
So one of the questions that has been bouncing around my head when I’m just sort of “zoning out” at work is “Does the success of this year’s young players absolve François Giguere?” Everyone agrees that the former Avalanche GM (2006 – 2009) horribly overpaid for underperforming veterans like Liles, Clark and Tucker, but he must have drafted well, right? This core group of young players has to have been largely orchestrated by Giguere…
…Or has it? Let’s look at the facts. Below are the Avalanche 12 players under 25 that are clearly members of the Colorado Avalanche. (Yes, I included Yip – he isn’t going back to Lake Erie, folks.)
Final standings:
- Pierre Lacroix comes out on top with 5 players, including the team’s 2 top points leaders this season - Stastny and Wolski – the other 3 guys were fantastic value late round picks.
- François Giguere is second with 4 players, including Chris “man/beast” Stewart and TJ "play me anywhere" Galiardi.
- Greg Sherman, who in only one offseason has already added 3 players - and all 3 are big pieces: Matt Duchene and Ryan O’Reilly, the "teen aged boy wonders" and the team’s top d-man, Kyle “suck it, Detroit” Quincey. (And that doesn’t even count his home run acquisition of 28 year old Craig Anderson).
Sure, Lacroix has had the benefit of development time, and yes, Giguere may have some talent still in the pipeline that could be a big part of the team down the road (i.e. - Kevin Shattenkirk) but those guys are not helping the team succeed this season.
So, back to the original question - Does the success of this year’s young players absolve Giguere? I'd say the answer is no. Lacroix and Sherman’s contributions have been just as important to this year’s team (if not more).
Good luck getting another NHL GM job, François.
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