That isnt bad, but I'd say they're little thin on the forwards. Kaut could be a solid NHL player, but I dont really see a top end top 6 talent there, that's why I said Newhook is the only guy in that position. The D is set with Byram, Timmins coming up, and already having Makar and Girard.
Moving forward if all goes well, the Avs should be drafting late in the 1st round because they're projected to be a top team for some years to come.
I am little worried about the forward depth to be honest. I'm just not a big believer in Jost. Outside of big 3 and Kadri, there is just not much high end talent there.
I mean the forward depth Sakic put together with Kadri and Donskoi etc..should be good enough to produce that secondary scoring this team needed, but as far as high end talent goes, like I said, Newhook is it, dont see much after that as far as next in the list of prospects to graduate.
That's a bit of a glass-half-empty view. The picture is actually quite promising:
First of all, the roster has all the most important, and hardest-to-acquire, pieces already:
- a great 1st line (Landeskog/Mackinnon/Rantanen
- 2C (Kadri)
- good Top 4 D (including a combination of Makar/Girard, Johnson/Byram, Zadorov/Timmins)
- A solid, if somewhat unproven, goalie
Secondly, Colorado is a desired destination for free agents again, and so the secondary roles can be filled in free agency. We saw that with Donskoi, who in a recent interview said that Colorado was the first choice as an UFA. Though he eventually chose the Rangers, we were also in on Panarin all the way to the the (at least according to Sakic).
Thirdly, given the above two points, the team will be in a position to consolidate it's assets in package deals, which can help mitigate the fact that some prospects might not be "A" prospects. For example, packaging Jost + B prospect + pick is a legitimate possibility to acquire a good player, without losing too much off the roster. Point being, the depth is the system is there to package assets.
Perhaps the biggest challenge now is to be able to consistently develop players that can fill roles in the bottom 6 as ELC's to reduce the need of filling those roles with expensive free agents like Calvert ($2.85m), Bellemare ($1.8m), Wilson ($2.6m), and Nieto ($1.975m). If those bottom 6 roles could instead be filled by Bowers/Kamenev/Kaut/Kovalenko/O'Connor on ELC's going forward the team would have way more wiggle room to add talent to the top end of the roster, in trades or free agency.
