Very interesting to see what happens to Avs if they don't win the Cup. They will have their stars still on the books but their forward core is going to be decimated around them.
Kadri, Burakovsky, Nichuskin all UFA's. Lehkonen is RFA. They need to figure out their goaltending situation too as Kuemper is UFA and needs a new contract. Manson and Murray are UFA's on D.
They will still ice a ridiculous team for next season. Contract year for MacKinnon and last ELC seasons left for Newhook and Byram. Other good contracts such as Makar @ 9.0 and Toews @ 4.1 (well done Lou trading him for 2 2nds for cap reasons and to keep Leddy).
Really happy for Burt. He's going to get paid as an 27-year old UFA and with 61-point season under him.
They will get weakened at the start of the season and probably add some players like they did with Lehkonen at the TDL. Nichuskin had an even better season than Burakovsky in PPG and its hard to rate how good theyre seasons are as playing on Colorado increases PPG by a lot for those wingers. Might be they are closer to 0,6 PPG instead of 0,8 PPG on a regular team. I wouldnt give Bura a big increase from the 4.9 he has today I think Colorado can find a cheaper option that can produce similarly. They can probably only lock up one of those at least if they sign Kadri and both will probably want some years on their contract after the seasons they have had.
They already have 6 defencemen signed in Makar, Byram, Johnson, Toews, Girard and MacDermid. Murray will be let go and isnt really needed. If they want to keep Manson they probably have to move Johnson something they might consider anyway as they might need that cap on forwards instead.
A lot depends on if Kadri takes a discount or not. They have 6 forwards and 6 defencemen and 1 goalie locked up (Who played a decent amount of games this year) with 24,6 million in capspace according to capfriendly. Unless they trade away Johnson they have to at least let 1 of Kadri, Bura, Nich and Lehkonen walk. Then they will probably sign a few of their 3rd-4th liners Cogliano, Sturm, Helm and Aube-Kubel.