I have no clue what to expect out of Colorado. It very much sounds like Landeskog will be playing at some point this year and who knows what he will be able to bring after 2 years of injury recovery. Nichuskin didn't seek to terminate his NHL deal to sign in the KHL, so it looks like he'll be back on the roster in November when his suspension expires. At the moment, they need to clear $3M-4M in cap space to fit both. Who gets traded to free up that space? They don't have their 1st or 3rd in 2025, so are they able to bring in a rental to address whatever hole is created?
I could see them being one of the shallowest playoff teams in the league this year. The top end talent can be enough to dominate a weaker opponent, but I could also see them being dispatched in round 1 like they were by Seattle a couple years ago. Especially if Landeskog is a shell of himself.
I very much expect the McKinnon, Rantanen, Makar
and to a lesser extent Toews core to be very top heavy in scoring through the regular season.
I concur that talent falls off substantially when you look at the next tier of talent/question marks in Drouin, Mittelstadt, Lehkonen, Landeskog, Nichuskin, Girard and Manson.
Then the rest of the roster isn't particularly noteworthy and their goaltending hasn't been outstanding recently either.
But that star caliber top end reminds me alot of the McDavid, Draisaitl, RNH and Nurse core that led Edmonton to finish 2nd in the Pacific for the past 5 years
while losing in the 1st, 1st, 3rd, 2nd and 4th rounds respectively.
Colorado lost depth over the last few years, but their top end talent will net them a divisional seed if healthy, with or without Landeskog. I have a difficult time imagining them falling to 3rd in the central and don't forsee them falling into a WC spot for another few years unless McKinnon misses 20+ games in a given year.
Edits 1 & 2: italicized, reworded for clarity