The general thought about the Colorado Avalanche is that the team should either blow up the core or at least trade one of the core players for a stud defenseman.
According to Avs GM Joe Sakic, the only untouchables on the team are Nathan MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen. In other words, they’re the core of the core — or MacK is, and Ranty is a core prospect. The rationale for this is their age — Nate is just 21 and Mikko 20.
Other core players include Matt Duchene, Gabriel Landeskog, Erik Johnson, Tyson Barrie and Semyon Varlamov.