Whether or not the Colorado Avalanche defense was the reason for the team missing the playoffs or not can be debated. However, it was definitely a strong contributor. Because of that, the club has made some significant changes this off-season, by adding D-men Nikita Zadorov and Francois Beauchemin.
Suddenly, this first big problem seems to be solved — at least for a couple of years. After that, there are quite a few prospects on the verge of making the team and the future looks much, much brighter than it did a short time ago.