(Photo by Doug Pensinger/Getty Images)

The Colorado Avalanche are doing what they should have been doing a season ago: rebuilding from the ground up. In years past, management has been guilty of signing bubble players (Tucker, Arnason, etc.) in an attempt to keep the team in playoff contention.

Finally, they've gotten things right.

The Avalanche offseason can only be graded as an A-plus effort. At the draft, management addressed the needs for both a scoring and checking center by drafting Matt Duchene and Ryan O'Reilly (respectively). Then, they added to their already solid defensive depth by drafting stand out Stefan Elliot, and followed that pick up with a couple of late round fliers on goalies Kieran Millan and Brandon Maxwell.

As impressive as the draft was, the decisions made on July 1st were more impressive.

It's very easy for a general manager (especially a new one) to lose his composure and make a rash signing. Managing a team who finished dead last in scoring would make it enticing to pursue one of the many quality free agent forwards who were available, such as Hossa, Gaborik, or Havlat. Instead, Colorado Avalanche general manager Greg Sherman made three low risk, high reward acquisitions: enforcer David Koci, defenseman Kyle Quincey, and goaltender Craig Anderson. These players, all still in their 20s, are now given the opportunity to grow with this rebuilding team.

Anderson, who shortly after signing admitted he was an Avalanche fan, is getting his first crack at an NHL starting job. Two games into his new job, he's been nothing short of the best goaltender in the NHL, collecting the Second Star of the week.

While other teams like Montreal and Edmonton were patching up their roster with gap stop type players, Colorado was building the foundation for what will hopefully be a great team in the years to come.

For the first time in a long time, the future looks bright.

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