Some thoughts since the end of the Avalanche season and as the NHL playoffs move along:

• No talks have been held between the Avs and center Paul Stastny. Is this a worrisome thing? Maybe, maybe not. There will soon be conversations between Stastny’s representatives and the Avs.

The Avs talked to Stastny’s agent, Matt Keator, in Chicago right before the NHL trade deadline in March, and it was the Stastny camp that said it wanted to wait until after the season before holding any serious talks.

It seems Stastny is holding most of the cards in this situation, which is a risk the Avs took when they elected not to trade the potential unrestricted free agent at the time.

• If the Avs had advanced to the Western Conference finals, left wing Alex Tanguay probably would have played — and certainly he would have had they made it to the Stanley Cup Finals.

• If you ask me, the biggest loss for the Avs in the first round wasn’t Tyson Barrie after Game 3 — though that was a big blow. But the loss of third-line center John Mitchell to a concussion really hurt. Coach Patrick Roy never could match lines defensively with the Wild the way he wanted without Mitchell, and he didn’t get any offense from the bottom two lines in the series.

• San Jose general manager Doug Wilson said Thursday the Sharks won’t attempt to re-sign 37-year-old defenseman Dan Boyle, an unrestricted free agent. The Avs will be players for his services come July 1. Yes, he’s old and had a concussion-marred season with the Sharks. But he can still play when healthy, and the Avs could use some quality depth on the blue line.

• It was no fun watching Matt Cooke play in the second round, but it was sweet to see him trailing the play on Patrick Kane’s game-winner for Chicago in Game 6 to knock Minnesota out of the playoffs.

• If these playoffs have taught me anything, it’s that Jonathan Toews is the best clutch player in the game. That goal he scored in the third period to win Game 5 against Minnesota came after a 62-second shift when he went up and down the ice four times before outmuscling the Wild defense in front of the net to put the puck in the net.

• NHL commissioner Gary Bettman visited Seattle last week to do some fact-finding about a new arena there. Expect Seattle to get an expansion team within three years.

• Former Avs forward Dave Reid, now an analyst with TSN, hopes to land an assistant coaching job somewhere next season. Few people I’ve met in hockey have impressed me more with their smarts about the game than Reid.

• Boston deserved to lose its series with Montreal. Up 3-1 in games, Bruins meathead Shawn Thornton thought it would be a good idea to spray water in the face of P.K. Subban, then laugh about it.

You never give the opposition a rallying cry like that. Then Milan Lucic acted like a sore loser by talking trash to two Montreal players in the handshake line after Game 7.

Hey, Bruins: Your season is o-vah.

Adrian Dater: adater@ denverpost.com or twitter.com /adater