[BirdWatcher]

The Avalanche saw a few veterans move on in free agency, in particular 33-year old LD Robin Larsson and 27-year old RW Aleksandr Yermolayev.
On the other hand, the Avs did get potential free agent 26-year old RD Michal Lezak signed to a new 6-year deal. And 21-year old RD Josh Hishon, who has emerged as our best scoring defenceman, was inked to a 2-year deal.

Having earlier extended 21-year old LW Milo Holland, who had if not exactly a breakout season then surely a step forward season, the Avs are unlikely to make any more off-season moves as they head into the third, and pivotal, season in their youth movement rebuild.

After 2 straight NHL Entry Drafts that were talent-rich and deep, this year's Entry Draft is unlikely to move the needle much for the Avs, or for many teams for that matter, in the near future. Surely some stars will emerge from this draft class, but it was largely a weak class, or at least that is how it looks at this point in time.
The Avs 2nd round pick, RW Ted Tripp, could get some time on the active roster this coming season, but while he is basically NHL-ready, his ceiling doesn't look that high. He could be one of the better defensive forwards for the Avs and that is likely an area where the team could use some strengthening. The highest upside among this year's Avs draft picks probably belongs to RW Adam Shibuya, but the 19-year old Spiritwood, Saskatchewan native needs quite a bit of development still before he can play in the NHL. He profiles as another 2-way forward whose primary strength is on the defensive end.

Our first round pick, #9 overall, was RW Kevin Gilbert. This was, once again, a mistake as I accidentally hit AI Pick before I realized it was my turn to pick. While he might turn into a decent NHL player, I think we could have done better. I will say that in all of my years of playing OOTP, I've never accidentally picked the wrong guy in the draft, never accidentally relinquished my final authority over making the pick (though surely I have intentionally allowed my head scout to make picks). While this is on me to pay more attention to what I am doing, I do think that there is an opportunity for some UI improvement in this area of FHM. It shouldn't be this easy to not notice it isn't your turn to pick.