Avalanche Mailbag: How Colorado can improve this offseason, which young assets could still be traded and more

Denver Post sports writer Corey Masisak opens up the Avs Mailbag periodically throughout the offseason Pose an Avalanche- or NHL-related question for the Avs Mailbag Do you see the Avs improving next season with Gabe Landeskog and Martin Necas playing for them the full season AccomplishedHair on Reddit I think there are two different questions in play for the - Avalanche season One can the Avs be better next year during the regular season even with just the players they have right now Two can they be as good on paper as they were in the Dallas series The second one is trickier and the answer might not be known until the arrangement deadline The Avs have been a very good gang each of the past two seasons but the gauntlet to get out of the division has been rough see Dallas in the conference finals Having an easy first-round series really helps Winning the division does matter see Colorado in How can the Avs be better during the regular season next year Here are selected solutions ranked in order of probability A full year of Mackenzie Blackwood and Scott Wedgewood This one is pretty easy obvious -ish starts from those two instead of could be worth another - points at a minimum Better medical luck in general The Avs used guys this season That s nearing historic territory for a Stanley Cup contender Colorado may not get games from Val Nichushkin or Artturi Lehkonen but something like - each could add more wins points A slightly improved power play The Avs had the No power play from the day after they traded Mikko Rantanen until the end of the regular season but still finished eighth overall at They have the talent to finish higher and a new voice in charge could make that attainable A limited extra PPGs could be worth an extra win or two A full-ish season of Landeskog No one is going to expect him to play - games no one expected him to be as good as he was against Dallas either He s likely going to run into specific minor things and the Avs may just rest him in specific back-to-backs as well But even - games of Landeskog given what he indicated during the playoffs would be valuable Having Necas for a full year doesn t feel like an upgrade but if he can continue to produce close to what Rantanen did that s definitely a plus Related Articles As Colorado Eagles season ends a huge year for Oskar Olausson Jean-Luc Foudy beckons Avalanche Journal What are Colorado s internal external options to fill out defense depth Avalanche demands Ivan Ivan to be another advance success story Avalanche Journal Is Brock Nelson the answer at C What s plan B if he isn t Avalanche Mailbag Was trading Mikko Rantanen a mistake by Colorado management The prospective downside for the Avs is the top guys Nathan MacKinnon Cale Makar Devon Toews Rantanen then Necas have all been very durable of late A serious injury for any of them would put huge pressure on the club s depth and likely prevent it from challenging for the top two spots in the Central Division Do you foresee the rising cap as an opportunity for teams like the Avs to use a buyout option to open up cap space knowing that the penalty down the line will be a smaller percentage against the cap than in years previous Gabe Fort Collins I could definitely see that being a trend The first year of MacKinnon s current contract - the cap ceiling was million By year five of his deal the cap ceiling is expected to be million That s more than a increase A million cap hit from a buyout is going to be a lot less punitive in than it has been in latest years If a GM with a few cap issues in can save enough money to add an extra participant now those penalties at the end of the decade might be a lot easier to justify With not a ton of room in the cap and particular prospects and picks traded away from this last Cup push how do the Avs retool to be able to be a Cup contender again with strong Central Division rivals What pieces would you mortgage now Or do you run it back until the wheels come off TopShamrock via Reddit How the Avs manage this coming season is going to be fascinating I think we can basically lump the offseason and the lead-up to the business deadline together Would it be ideal if they figure everything out before opening night Sure But the Avs couldn t afford Brock Nelson Ryan Lindgren et al under the salary cap in October They don t have various premium assets left to contract Trading young goalies is hard and the sector can be weird for them Plus Ilya Nabokov could slide in as the replacement for Wedgewood after next season Mikhail Gulyayev is the the bulk intriguing prospect they have But he s also small-ish and Russian both of which could affect his pact value Do the Avs keep him and plan for him to slot in as a replacement for Samuel Girard Or is he the key piece in a deal for a No center No - defenseman at particular point in the near future I think any other prospect they currently have should be available in a win-now transaction but none of them are likely to get a big deal done on their own The one young participant they have with crucial bargain value is Necas Trading him would obviously create another critical hole and at selected point trading the best athlete in a deal for two or three parts could eventually hurt the club s ceiling Moving Rantanen may already have but there is time for the Avs to fix that If Mitch Marner ends up an Avalanche this summer at million- million per year do you think this would reflect positively or negatively on Chris MacFarland and Joe Sakic with their inability to extend Rantanen WastedTalent via Reddit Marner isn t going to end up here The Avs would need to move multiple players under contract to make that happen and it s hard to see them deciding that Marner is worth twice as much as Necas next season Now if it did happen It would be a strange look given what Avs management has declared about Rantanen crew building since the pact Are there strategies to talk around it Sure There could be a few more subtle blame put on Rantanen s agent They could just say they have new different information than they had in January the projected cap figures weren t known then the group s first-round exit informed the decision etc Free agent Mikey Eyssimont any chance the Avalanche could sign this relentless forechecker Bill M via email Eyssimont has an captivating backstory and not just because he s a local guy and former Colorado Thunderbirds competitor I was covering the Sharks when they got him on waivers from the Jets and he directly became a regular for them San Jose flipped him to Tampa Bay and games of a waiver claim for what became a fourth-round pick from the Jets no less was a nice bit of business As Bill mentioned there s an obvious appeal to Eyssimont s meeting He s pretty similar to Miles Wood both good and bad An agent of chaos but also takes a inadequate too multiple penalties at times He could be a nice pickup but I m guessing the Avs wouldn t be able to go much past million for him He made K the past two seasons but could be a nice fit next to Jack Drury and Parker Kelly Who are we leaning into to make the next permanent jump from the AHL to the NHL DoctaMan via Reddit The simple answer is Ivan Ivan He played games for the Avs this season but also hit the rookie wall He can be a defensively responsible fourth-line guy but whether or not he provides enough resource and offense to become a trusted guy for Jared Bednar like Kelly Drury or Logan O Connor have remains to be seen Nikita Prishchepov is intriguing He might have a little more upside He looked like he belonged at times with the Avs last season But he s going to need to prove he can do more and do it more consistently to become a regular for them and not just an injury fill-in Oskar Olausson and Jean-Luc Foudy have the anticipated to be more but they both had so-so years at best and would need a big training camp to get back into this type of discussion Want more Avalanche news Sign up for the Avalanche Insider to get all our NHL analysis