Dater: Adieu, La Tornade

Avs trade Sam Girard

When I first saw Sam Girard in an Avalanche locker room, without any gear on, I swear I thought he was the team’s new equipment boy or something. He was 19 and listed at 5-foot-10 but, uh, there’s no way he was/is that tall.

But the guy nicknamed “La Tornade” in honor of his spin-o-ramas and Francophone roots, soon showed me and everybody else he was far from a nobody amateur.

Girard was traded today, to the Pittsburgh Penguins, along with a second-round pick in 2028, in exchange for defenseman Brett Kulak. Kulak, 32, can be an unrestricted free agent after this season. He has played in three Stanley Cup Finals since 2021 - for Montreal, and twice with Edmonton.

Kulak is a purely stay-at-home defenseman who is generally well-regarded as a smart player who makes good decisions with the puck out of the defensive zone. He’s not a big “banger” of a D-man, but will be physical when the moment calls for it, at 6-1, 192.

I truly don’t know what to give this trade right now, as a grade. For me, it’s a TBA.

The real reason why this deal happened, though, is this: