Sakic: Trade deadline no big deal this year

CALGARY, ALBERTA» Avalanche general manager Joe Sakic doesn’t anticipate that he will make any roster moves before Monday’s NHL trade deadline.

Sakic, speaking to The Denver Post after Saturday’s 5-1 loss to Calgary at the Saddledome, expects his young team to continue to contend for a playoff position the way it is — a year after the Avs were last in the league and had no chance to play in the postseason.

“We’re staying the course. We have a plan going forward,” Sakic said. “If there’s something that makes sense down the line, we’ll look — like we always do. Other than that, we’re not going to get in the rental market. We’re not going to give up picks or prospects. We’re going to stay the course. We have a great group here that’s learning, and we want to let them continue to learn.”

The Avalanche (32-24-5) — which has a combined nine draft picks in the first three rounds of the next three drafts — fell four points behind Calgary for the final Western Conference wildcard playoff slot Saturday, but with two games in hand over the Flames. The Avs have played the last three games without injured defensemen Erik Johnson, Anton Lindholm and Mark Barberio — who each might be out long term — and blueliner Nikita Zadorov was benched again Saturday for the second consecutive game.

Sakic said he and his staff will look at improving the blue line before Monday’s deadline, but it won’t be a rental player — a pending unrestricted free agent.

“We’ll see what our options are. But like I said, we’re not going to enter the rental market for this year,” Sakic said. “We have a plan going forward, and we want to build this. The guys work hard. We have a great group. And like I said at the start of the year, we’re going to build for the future. This team’s going the right direction. They’ve hung in there, and I expect they’ll continue to hang in (the playoff race).”

Zadorov update. Despite being benched in the third period of Thursday’s 3-2 overtime loss at Edmonton, Zadorov was in the starting lineup Saturday against the Flames. But things still didn’t go well for the 22-year-old Russian, whose turnover behind Colorado’s net led to a Flames goal just 18 seconds into the game.

Zadorov went on to take the Avs’ first three penalties, including a needless tripping minor in the offensive zone that led to Calgary’s power-play goal and a 3-1 lead. Zadorov took just five shifts in the second period and didn’t play at all in the third.

Zadorov was not made available after the two games he was benched.

“We reset our guys every day and get ready to go, but he was having a tough night again tonight,” Avs coach Jared Bednar said of Zadorov after Saturday’s game.

Footnotes. The Avs’ healthy scratches were forward Nail Yakupov and rookie defenseman Andrei Mironov. Rookie forward Dominic Toninato returned to the lineup after sitting out the last two games. … Colorado will take Sunday off before beginning a fourgame homestand Monday against Vancouver, which will be Colorado’s seventh consecutive game against a Canada team. The Avs complete an eight-game stretch against Canada teams Wednesday by playing the Flames in Denver.