I'm not sure why people don't see Colorado as a contender.
Defense can be taught, and acquired fairly easily.
Mackinnon, Landeskog, Duchene, O'Reilly, Tanguay, Briere, McGinn, Talbot, and of course Iginla himself is the deepest group of forwards in the West. Mackinnon may very well prove himself to be the best centre in the West as soon as this year if last season was any indication.
Johnson and Barrie are high-end top 4 d-men, and then they have a plethora of hard working guys. Also, there's going to be some very good d-men available in free agency in the next few years.
Varlamov is a top 3 goalie in the league.
This is a very, very good hockey team.
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