The ideas that are going around about what to do with Matt Duchene has taken a more vocal tone recently, especially after comments that former Avalanche star Peter Forsberg mad about the much maligned current Avalanche forward.

If you missed it, Forsberg told a Swedish publication that the Avalanche should bench and then trade Duchene. Now, I think think everyone is in agreement in the latter part in trading Duchene since he’s been on the rumor mill for the better part of two years now. To bench him, however, would be smart to keep him healthy, but silly because as a team in the condition the Avalanche is in; you can’t keep a top forward (at least for Colorado) on the sidelines when you’re trying to improve your team.

Of course, his coach backed Duchene up and Duchene brushed off the comments– so it’s not like there’s anymore internal drama than there needs to be. And there’s plenty.

Granted, another way to improve your team was to trade Duchene at the Draft or sometime during the summer in order to get a veteran defenseman, but who am I to say?? I’m sure the Colorado Avalanche front office has a handle on this, right?? Where’s Greg Sherman when you need him?? If Duchene became a distraction in the locker room, that’s when you start to think about making him a healthy scratch and ramp up trade talks– which, when dealing with a disgruntled player, always gets the team trading said disgruntled player a great return.

This whole Duchene thing has been a calamity of errors for the Avalanche, which just adds to their laundry list of errors they have made in the past few seasons– like being the old boys club that ruined the Edmonton Oilers for years. It didn’t help that Duchene’s comments at training camp about “being here to honor my contract” came from his lips. It’s a craptastic situation on both sides, but neither did anything to make things better in the off-season.

Now, with all this said– the Avs aren’t playing terrible hockey…yet. Duchene has two points in three games, and things seem to be going contently enough. Maybe the winning and playing well with change Duchene’s mind. Maybe doing well enough will get a bigger return for Joe Sakic and the crew. Maybe it’s just going to be this merry-go-round again until the next Draft. The sky is the limit in the Mile-High City and to be honest, it’s just another added form of drama to this team who once was the class of the NHL.

At the end of the day, if the Avalanche are going to try a full rebuild, they need to do it like a band-aid and rip it off rather than being this cautious during it. They’ve had no plan with Duchene for the longest time and their best chance to land something of substance went bye-bye when Travis Hamonic was dealt to the Flames. The Duchene thing has the ability to get worse rather than get better. If things go south quickly, you have to wonder how much longer and how many teammates will become as disenchanted as Duchene.