Is Leopold available?

The Ottawa Sun's Bruce Garrioch reports today that, according to "sources," the Colorado Avalanche may be willing to part with impending UFA defenceman Jordan Leopold, and that he may be heading to the Senators. Garrioch notes the Avalanche had three scouts at Thursday night's Senators loss to the New York Islanders.

What I can tell you is that Avalanche assistant GM Michel Goulet was at the Canadiens 4-0 win over the Sens on Tuesday as well, so there may be something brewing there, though Goulet is often at Canadiens games when he visits home.

If indeed this is going down right now, I would implore Bob Gainey to make a phone call because he can fill Colorado's needs far better than Ottawa can. All Bryan Murray can offer to solve the Avs goaltending problem is an overpriced, stop-gap measure in Martin Gerber, whereas Gainey has a bargain-basement potential number one to offer in Jaroslav Halak.

With the lack of quality defencemen available on the trade market, Leopold is probably overvalued right now, but that's the nature of supply and demand. I would think the Canadiens are a far more attractive trade partner for the Avalanche than the Sens precisely because of that, seeing as the Canadiens also have something that the Avalanche need, whereas the Sens don't.

That being said, I wouldn't hold my breath waiting on Gainey to pull off a deal despite the worrisome play of his team of late. As Carbonneau said on Wednesday, relating to the constant trade speculation that seems to follow Christopher Higgins around, "You guys know Bob Gainey. I think he's made one trade in the two years I've been here, so..."