It’s Colorado Avalanche day on PHT

Welcome to our offseason initiative — 30 teams in 30 days.

From July 16 until Aug. 14, we’ll be dedicating each day to a new team by recapping the offseason and looking ahead to 2012-13.

There will also be a series of posts looking at key stories, player profiles and burning questions regarding each squad.

Today we continue with the Colorado Avalanche.

Their glory days are behind them and even making the playoffs has been a monumental challenge for them lately. However, their might be some light at the end of the tunnel.

Colorado is a young team that’s slowly growing up together. Gabriel Landeskog, Ryan O’Reilly, Matt Duchene, Erik Johnson, and Semyon Varlamov are all 25 or younger and represent the foundation of what could be a pretty good squad. Not that they’ll have to do it alone, as Colorado also features several other gifted, slightly older players like Steve Downie and Paul Stastny.

Some of those guys have already dealt with a fair number of setbacks and hardships that will lead to some second guessing, but the talent is certainly there.

Colorado’s primary focus over the off-season was re-signing their small army of restricted free agents. However, they also added PA Parenteau, who will be looking to prove that he’s a capable top-line forward even if you separate him from John Tavares.

The Avalanche certainly have a number of exciting, or at least interesting pieces, but is it enough to make them competitors again? Stay tuned for our extended coverage of the Avalanche.