There have been any number of big trades throughout semi-recent NHL history, where a star player gets traded for multiple pieces. And in many of these cases, the team that got the star player won the trade.
I have no disillusions about whether the Avs would be better or worse if Rantanen walks. They'd probably be somewhat worse, at least to start out. A wash at best. But not better.
But the Avs may be faced with a somewhat daunting prospect here. Let's say that Colorado again makes the playoffs, and is again bounced in the first or second round. With Rantanen. That would make 3 years running, where they had a very top heavy roster (in terms of skill), with suspect depth and goaltending. And it didn't come close to working 3 years in a row. What, are they gonna just try that for the next 8 years, see how it turns out? I'm not sure, but it might not be an automatic choice.
Rantanen has elite scoring talent. Elite talent is rare, and many organizations (outside of Buffalo) recognize that, and do what they can to keep their elite talent, and simply try to fill in around it. I suspect this will continue to be the Avs strategy, but it's plausible that they let Rantanen walk, and go with quantity over quality.
