Hindsight is showing us that 2022 was their best year to win the Cup with this core, and they did that.
After that, new contracts started and it became harder to keep the depth we had, as evident by Kadri, Burakovsky, Kuemper, Sturm, NAK, and whoever else I might be forgetting. Some of those players may not be anything to brag to other teams about, but they were still quality NHL pieces and all played a role in us winning it.
CMac definitely went for it this year, at the deadline he pulled off some stuff that certainly seemed like it was going to set us up to make as good of a run as was possible…we just ran in to an exhausted team going against a PDB led Dallas team that had all the answers.
But the fact remains that from here on out it’s not impossible for the Avs to win it again, but it will require LOTS going right for us