The Colorado Avalanche have won their Stanley Cup. Now comes the hard part: Keeping this team in contention on a regular basis now that all of their stars have been paid accordingly.

They'll need an influx of young, cost-controlled talent to make that possible. The draft may not serve most teams' needs when it comes to taking a run at the Stanley Cup, but it certainly plays a role in how long you remain a bona fide contender.

The Avs have made some savvy manoeuvres in the last calendar year to that end. They've been aggressive in college free agency, walking away with two of this year's top talents. When the opportunity to move Alex Newhook for a bounty of futures presented itself, they lept at it and secured two top-40 picks in the process, one of which they eventually used on Mikhail Gulyayev.

The end result is a system that may not be among the league's deepest or most talented but is nonetheless taking significant steps in the right direction, improving seven spots over last year.

With that, let's take a look at what the future might hold in Denver.