DENVER — As business went, Monday's NHL trade deadline day was like Babu Bhatt's Dream Cafe on Seinfeld. Fans wanted action, but like a day at Babu's, they got mostly quietude.
But the Colorado Avalanche—yes, the same Avalanche that supposedly weren't in the market for any short-term rental help at the expense of any prospects, the same team whose general manager said recently that big trades are just too hard to make now—was the one team with a seemingly win-now mentality on Monday.
While there were bigger trades made in the days leading up to the deadline, with Andrew Ladd to Chicago and Eric Staal to the Rangers being the biggest, Colorado's acquisition of 26-year-old winger Mikkel Boedker from Arizona for Alex Tanguay and prospects Conner Bleackley and Kyle Wood qualified as deadline day's biggest.