Up front, the club has benefited from the rapid development of its young forward talent. Wolski went from the junior ranks to becoming a solid point-producing contributor at the NHL level, while Stastny surprised many by challenging for rookie-of-the-year status. With young talent like the aforementioned duo, Brad Richardson, and Marek Svatos learning under the tutelage of and examples set by veterans like Joe Sakic, Milan Hejduk, and Scott Walker, the club is well entrenched with talented, versatile forwards for the next few years.

In addition, with prospects such as T.J. Hensick, Ryan Stoa, and Codey Burki in the pipeline, the Avalanche are blessed with significant depth and talent down the middle for years to come.

This embarrassment of riches has already been leveraged by the club in an attempt to shore up weaker areas of the club and organization as a whole. Last year, the Avs parlayed a talented - but surplus - forward in Alex Tanguay for Jordan Leopold, a promising blueliner in whom Colorado was hoping would step up to fill a void. And while the trade didn't bring the immediate returns the club was hoping for, there is still time for the transaction to reap ample rewards for the Avalanche long term.