Rumor: Avalanche targeting Jets leading scorer in potentially massive trade deal.

It sounds like the Colorado Avalanche are looking to hit a home run just ahead of the National Hockey League's trade deadline for the 2019 - 2020 NHL regular season.

Now I must admit that this one sounds like a bit of a pipe dream but according to a report from Mike McIntyre of the Winnipeg Free Press, there is a rather wild trade rumor that "has legs" according to his sources. In a recent article for the Winnipeg Free Press McIntyre revealed that a source within the NHL has informed him that the Colorado Avalanche are currently targeting a player on the Jets roster for a potential trade. Now that in and of itself is not at all surprising come this time of year, but what does make this particular rumor so shocking is the fact that the Avalanche are reported targeting the Jets leading scorer in the former of winger Kyle Connor.

From McIntyre:

I ask this, because the particular nugget involves Kyle Connor of all players. Yes, that would be the same Kyle Connor who currently leads the Jets with 25 goals and is well on his way, in his third NHL season, to eclipsing his previous season totals of 31 and 34 goals. He's 23, seemingly getting better every year, and is in the first year of a seven-year, US$50-million deal signed last fall that seems perfectly reasonable by today's standards.

For the record McIntyre does not believe that the Jets, who are currently still in the playoff hunt, are actively shopping Connor nor does he expect that Winnipeg Jets general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff will pull the trigger on such a deal ahead of the deadline with his team still in contention. That being said though it does sound like the Avalanche are making some fairly significant offers in this regard, with McIntyre indicating that defenseman Bowen Byram would be the centerpiece of the Avalanche's offer to the Jets. 

For those of you unfamiliar with Byram, he is an 18 year old blue liner currently playing for the Vancouver Giants in the Western Hockey League. Byram was selected in the first round (4th overall) of the 2019 NHL Entry Draft by the Colorado Avalanche and many view him as a future top pairing type of defenseman in the NHL. When you consider the recent losses that the Jets have suffered on the blue line, most notably with the ongoing Dustin Byfuglien fiasco, the prospect of adding such an incredible young talent has to be an enticing one for Cheveldayoff. 

Giving up a proven goal scorer for a prospect may not seem like the wisest of moves on the surface, but if that prospect turns into a franchise defenseman that you will control for several more years then it could end up looking like a stroke of genius.