You couldn’t ask any more of Francois Beauchemin last season, and he delivered more often than not.
When the Avalanche traded for Brad Stuart two seasons ago, they were trying to acquire a player like Francois Beauchemin. Steady, well-rounded, studious, and vocal — a true professional who could lead a group of young defenseman and still contribute himself. The Stuart experiment, to put it mildly, was not very successful. Beauchemin, however, turned out to be everything the Avalanche had hoped for.
Before free agency opened last summer, fans were hopeful to land one of the big names Andrej Sekera, Mike Green, Johnny Oduya.