Avalanche Rumors: Colorado Still Has Plans To Trade Girard

The Colorado Avalanche have a fairly expensive top-6 and top-4, but that's the way it generally should be. But, this hasn't allowed for the depth to look good enough to have a big enough impact on the game. There have been trade rumors surrounding Sam Girard for well over a year due to his cap hit and the role he plays. When Ryan Lindgren was on the team, that was even more the case since the left side had three top-4 d-men.

Girard is still around and going into the sixth of his seven-year deal at $5 million AAV. He plays both power play and penalty kill while playing over 20 minutes per game, but his offense has been lower the past couple of years than it normally was. It isn't a major drop, but Girard used to score a few more goals and finish with over 30 points in a season.

The Avalanche don't have any internal candidates to replace Girard, but there is a good chance they are looking to either get cheaper and get a similar result out of a different defenseman to come in, or they go bigger and bring in someone like Bowen Byram for a second run.

Aarif Deen said that "I still stand by the thought that the team had and continues to have plans to trade Girard." His 9-team no-trade list may get in the way a bit if the Avalanche were to have some more serious talks about trading him.

There are definitely some teams that would like to have Girard, but the Avalanche aren't just going to give him away either. They have a little cap space to work with and he should firmly be in the second pairing role alongside Josh Manson for this coming season. Maybe this is a conversation that picks up around the trade deadline depending on who is available, or next offseason when there's one year left on his deal.