* The Colorado Avalanche's system for developing new players is ranked very low, at 32nd out of 32 teams. This means they don't have many promising young players ready to join the main team soon.
* The team has traded away many of their young players and draft picks in recent years. This has made their pool of future talent very small and not very strong.
* One of their better young players, Mikhail Gulyayev, has decided to play in another league for at least two more years, so he won't be playing for the Avalanche anytime soon.