There are two schools of hindsight bias regarding the Avalanche’s 2023 trade deadline.
First is the notion that if Chris MacFarland and the front office had known Gabriel Landeskog would be out for the year, then they could’ve, would’ve, should’ve made a bigger splash at the deadline to make use of his LTIR salary cap space.
Second is the rebuttal that without absolute confidence in Landeskog returning, it would have been risky, superfluous or even nonsensical to sacrifice more future assets on a win-now mentality. The captain’s out anyway; why spend for a rental?
As for MacFarland himself, he’s not taking the easy excuse that was available to him if he just wanted to appease the “trade for Ryan O’Reilly” crowd.