What’s next for the Colorado Avalanche?

The Colorado Avalanche won the Presidents’ Trophy this season but, yet again, their playoff run ended in the second round.

The Avs went up 2-0 in their series with the Vegas Golden Knights and it appeared that they were in the driver’s seat. Despite that, Vegas managed to storm back and win the series in six games.

The difference in this series was Vegas’ depth. The Golden Knights were able to deploy Mark Stone’s line and Alex Pietrangelo to shut down Colorado’s Nathan MacKinnon line while leaving Jonathan Marchessault and Shea Theodore to feast on whoever else was left. Nazem Kadri yet again getting suspended certainly didn’t help in this regard.

Joe Sakic now has a difficult off-season ahead of him.

Captain @Gabriel Landeskog, goaltender @Philipp Grubauer, and winger @Brandon Saad are unrestricted free agents while @Cale Makar, a finalist for the Norris Trophy, is at the end of his entry-level deal. There are multiple raises due here, which is a challenge for a team that just learned that it needs to improve its depth in order to beat the Golden Knights.

Another challenge for Colorado will be navigating the expansion draft. @Erik Johnson carries a no-movement clause and the Avs have three defenders in Makar, @Samuel Girard, and @Devon Toews who they absolutely want to protect. Even if Johnson waives, Colorado might still be in line to lose a quality defender like @Ryan Graves.

Sakic has done an excellent job assembling one of the strongest rosters in hockey, but this off-season is going to be his biggest challenge yet.