The Avalanche have to have something big up their sleeves, right?

The Colorado Avalanche haven’t exactly had the most inspiring start to the offseason.

When they dumped Charlie Coyle and Miles Wood to Columbus and created some much needed salary cap space last week, it felt like something fun was coming.

At that moment in time, the Avalanche had nearly $9 million to use.

But with all due respect to Parker Kelly and Brent Burns, the last few days haven’t been very exciting. Coyle and Wood are gone, as are Jonathan Drouin and Ryan Lindgren. Colorado GM Chris MacFarland hasn’t made headlines that have rocked the NHL.

Kelly is a fine fourth-line forward. At 40-years-old, we’ll see what the veteran defenseman Burns has left in the tank. And a handful of other minor moves means the Avalanche now have a little more than $4 million in cap space.

This can’t be the plan, right? MacFarland and team president Joe Sakic need to make a big move. That would likely involve a trade, bringing in a borderline star player and ditching the contracts of Ross Colton ($4 million), Samuel Girard ($5 million), Josh Manson ($4.5 million) or even Martin Necas ($6.5 million).

I tossed out the idea of acquiring Sidney Crosby, which would certainly be a major splash. Nathan MacKinnon thinks Crosby leaving the Penguins is “fake news,” but MacFarland needs to at least make the call. That move would get fans fired up.

Even if it’s not something as enticing as Crosby, the Avalanche still need to fill out more of their depth on the third and fourth lines. It’s unclear if anyone from the Colorado Eagles is ready to step in and fill those roles as an every night NHL forward.

Regardless, it’s been quiet, too quiet, from MacFarland and Sakic thus far. That doesn’t seem to be the style of this front office, as they made a wild nine trades last season.

$4.1 million isn’t a lot of salary cap space in a sport like football or basketball, but it can be in hockey. Especially if the Avalanche make a trade to unload one more relatively big contract, much like they did with Coyle while also ditching Wood.

Something exciting could still happen. And I have a hunch it will, but as the days tick by fans are starting to grow a little impatient. Let’s hope MacFarland changes that soon and Colorado makes noise in the coming days.

We’re officially on standby mode.

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