Colorado Avalanche Offense: 5 Questions for the Upcoming Season

The Colorado Avalanche have always been a high-octane offensive threat. From the time of Joe Sakic and Peter Forsberg to the present of Matt Duchene, Nathan MacKinnon and Gabriel Landeskog.

This season the Avalanche offense is taking on a different look. Obviously there are still the skill players in Duchene, MacKinnon and Landeskog. However, defense is also being emphasized. No longer are the skill players being allowed to cherry pick.

Likewise, Colorado lost a key member of the offense in center Ryan O’Reilly. While it’s true the trade had to happen, no question his loss changes the makeup of the team.

On the flip side, the Avalanche have a few new acquisitions up front — specifically Carl Soderberg, Mikhail Grigorenko and Blake Comeau. Soderberg at least is expected to skate with the top-six. Indeed, as of right now, the top three lines look like this:

Alex Tanguay-Matt Duchene-Jarome Iginla

Gabriel Landeskog-Carl Soderberg-Nathan MacKinnon

Blake Comeau-John Mitchell-Mikhail Grigorenko

Keeping in mind Colorado has always been an offense-first team, let’s look at five big questions for the offense going into the 2015-16 season.

Next: Power Play?