Despite losing the face of their franchise and employing a career backup as their starter, the 2009-10 Colorado Avalanche were one of the hottest tickets around all season. Led by a cadre of relative unknown youngsters, the Avs clinched the 8th and final playoff spot late in the season, and nearly ousted the top-seeded San Jose Sharks in the first round. The sky is the limit for this talented group, and it should be fun to watch them develop into serious contenders.
*Offense:’ With centers Paul Stastny and Matt Duchene giving the Avs a solid attack up the middle, they got great contributions from a ton of youngsters, including leading goal scorer Chris Stewart. Wojtek Wolski, a talented shooter and scorer, simply didn’t fit the style of hockey played in Colorado anymore, so he was dealt to Phoenix for Peter Mueller, who could be a major piece of this offense in 2010-11. Milan Hejduk surely has a few goals left in him, and with a string of 20-25 year olds filling up the lines, this will be a fast, talented team on a nightly basis. The offense was pretty well-balanced, but they’ll need to get a bit more top-line production from guys like Duchene and Stewart to be truly competitive. As they develop, though, there’s no reason they shouldn’t put up those numbers.Grade: B
