On paper, the Avalanche is unques­tion­ably in posi­tion to only get better.

With most of its top play­ers under con­tract for next sea­son and a hand­ful of oth­ers pro­tect­ed by restrict­ed free agency, Col­orado has the mon­ey and means to fine-tune a proven suc­cess­ful product.

We looked at the Avs’ goal­tend­ing on Wednes­day. Let’s now dive into their for­wards and defense­men, and what gen­er­al man­ag­er Joe Sakic may do to sharp­en those areas in the midst of a pan­dem­ic and finan­cial uncertainty.

Col­orado, cur­rent­ly 28th among 31 teams in play­er salaries, is more than $5 mil­lion under the cap ceil­ing of $81.5 mil­lion, the same fig­ure that will be used for the 2020–21 sea­son. The Avs have the space to make a big splash at for­ward, but it like­ly will be short­er-term to rec­og­nize the exten­sions due to cap­tain Gabe Lan­deskog and prized young defense­man Cale Makar for 2021–22.

They also need to reserve a spot for Boston Col­lege for­ward Alex Newhook, the 2019–20 NCAA rook­ie of the year who was select­ed 16th in the 2019 draft. Newhook, 19, intends to return to BC for his sopho­more sea­son, but it’s ques­tion­able what that will look like in a COVID-19 world.

Forwards

Under con­tract: Top-six for­wards Mikko Ranta­nen, Nathan MacK­in­non, Gabe Lan­deskog and Nazem Kadri are each under con­tract for next sea­son, as are third-lin­ers Joonas Don­skoi and J.T. Com­pher and fourth-lin­ers Matt Calvert and Pierre-Edouard Bellemare.

Con­tracts up: The Avs will look to re-sign restrict­ed free agents Andre Burakovsky, Tyson Jost, Logan O’Connor and per­haps Valeri Nichushkin. They will prob­a­bly pass on re-sign­ing unre­strict­ed free agents Vladislav Namest­nikov, Col­in Wil­son and Matt Nieto, although the lat­ter could be afford­able if he doesn’t get what he wants on the open market.

Like­ly devel­op­men­tal addi­tion: Mar­tin Kaut, the 2018 first-round draft pick who turns 21 on Oct. 2.

Pos­si­ble acqui­si­tions: The list begins with Tay­lor Hall ($6 mil­lion cap hit last sea­son) and includes Mikael Granlund ($5.75 mil­lion), Mike Hoff­man ($5.19 mil­lion), Tyler Tof­foli ($4.6 mil­lion) and Craig Smith ($4.6 million).

Hall, 28, who edged out MacK­in­non for the 2018 Hart Tro­phy, scored 16 goals for New Jersey/Arizona this sea­son and might be look­ing to sign a mod­est short-term deal with a Stan­ley Cup-con­tend­ing team while the pan­dem­ic runs its course. Granlund, 28, had 17 goals for Nashville, while Smith, 30, chipped in 18. Hoff­man, 30, had 29 goals for Flori­da and Tof­foli scored 24 times for Los Angeles/Vancouver — includ­ing a hat trick for the Kings against the Avalanche in Feb­ru­ary at the Air Force Academy.

Defensemen

Under con­tract: Makar is under con­tract next sea­son along with Erik John­son, Ian Cole and Sam Girard.

Con­tracts up: Niki­ta Zadorov and Ryan Graves are restrict­ed free agents. Zadorov might become a trade tar­get, but the Avalanche will undoubt­ed­ly look to re-sign Graves, who was paired with Makar near­ly the entire sea­son. Mark Bar­be­rio and Kevin Con­nau­ton are both unre­strict­ed free agents.

Like­ly devel­op­men­tal addi­tion: The Avs will prob­a­bly let Bar­be­rio and Con­nau­ton walk to make room for young prospects Con­nor Tim­mins and Bo Byram, the lat­ter of whom is ranked No. 1 among all NHL prospects by The Hock­ey News.

Pos­si­ble acqui­si­tions: There’s an out­side chance the Avs look to trade for or sign a star defense­man or com­pli­men­ta­ry one. The top UFAs are Alex Pietrange­lo, the 2019 Stan­ley Cup-win­ning cap­tain of St. Louis, and Boston’s Torey Krug, who lost to the Blues in Game 7 of the Cup final a year ago.

But as MacK­in­non said recent­ly of Makar, the Avs already have the league’s top defense­man and a sol­id sup­port­ing cast. So throw­ing big mon­ey at the posi­tion is unlikely.

Sakic, who will meet with media at his annu­al char­i­ty golf tour­na­ment Thurs­day, will undoubt­ed­ly tin­ker with his per­son­nel, and regard­less of the extent, Col­orado will appear improved before next season’s open­er — when­ev­er that may be.

Foot­note. The NHL, accord­ing to Sportsnet’s Elliotte Fried­man, will hold its annu­al draft from Mon­tre­al Oct. 6 (first round) and Oct. 7 (rounds two through sev­en). Fried­man also report­ed that free agency will begin Oct. 9. The league is expect­ed to offi­cial­ly announce those dates in the com­ing days.