The Rocky Mountain News have the calculators out, and tell me this:

Assuming Klee and Stastny are on Colorado’s Opening Night roster, the
Avalanche currently has 22 players under contract for close to $42 million.

The NHL salary cap is set at $44 million, leaving the Avalanche a
little room to re-sign free-agent forwards Brett McLean and Marek Svatos.

Of course, The excuses will fly. The bonuses. The amount of free agents. But a few moves are going to keep this team average. Tyler Arnason just shy of a million, Jose Hilton for over 5 million, Brisebois still in for 3 million. Truth is, there is overspending on individuals, not just the excuses.

A $44 million salary cap is going to make your team look different if you can’t live up to the cap. If the Avs are smart (which isn’t likely), they will dump McLean, get Svatos on a one year deal, with options or some way to bring him back for quite a bit more, and kiss the trade deadline goodbye. And next season, show the one year underachievers the door, because we don’t have the time, and we can’t buy a team when things aren’t working out.

This is looking like a team that is going to be in rebuilding mode in a year or two, if they can get honest with themselves.