Colorado Avalanche

The Colorado Avalanche has a problem teams love to have: They have too many defensemen in the young variety.

Currently, the Avs have eight defensemen on their roster and two more who will be ready next year. Tyson Barrie may already be good enough. The needs the Avalanche have are scoring and wingers, and they have the pieces to bring a top player to Denver and could maybe bring back their first-round pick.

The Colorado Avalanche currently sit in the ninth seed in the super-competitive Western Conference.

With the Avalanche sitting in position to push their way into the playoffs, this year's team seems primed and ready to gain a postseason birth.

There are several reasons that the Avalanche will make this push, and here is why.

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The Colorado Avalanche are coming off an emotional win on Wednesday night against the Florida Panthers.  The Avalanche overcame a two-goal deficit in the third period and were led by forward Peter Mueller, who missed almost 20 months with concussion symptoms.

Since moving to Colorado in 1995, the Avalanche have accomplished what no one would've expected out of them, winning two Stanley Cups in just 7 seasons. Over the last few seasons, the Avalanche have fallen to the bottom of the pile and have basically been forgotten.

This season they are combining their young talent with a few veterans to make a push for the playoffs and turn the heads of analysts and fans everywhere.

The Colorado Avalanche' season has been like a teeter-totter on an elementary school playground.

At first they were red hot and looking to be a huge surprise. Then the teeter-totter changed so dramatically the Avalanche lost their balance.

The NHL Winter Classic is now in its fifth edition, and so far hockey fans have seen two things in regards to the location: All of the games have been played in the United States, and all of them have been east of the Mississippi River.

The Colorado Avalanche have had an up and down year so far and are looking to try and get their season back on track.

One of the ways the Avalanche might consider in order to make this improvement is the trade market, where there are some seriously interesting prospects.

Looking at Colorado, their biggest need is in their forwards, both in size and scoring ability.

Here are some players that would help the Avalanche improve their team.

There is trouble in Colorado, plain and simple.

After a great start that set them atop the Western Conference for most of the month of October, the Colorado Avalanche have fallen to earth with a giant, large, emphatic thud.

The team is 2-7-1 in their last 10 games, they have yet to win a divisional game and they are 3-8-0 on home ice where the team seems to be completely unable to score.

Twelve games into the regular season and the Colorado Avalanche are still without a captain. They are one of two teams that have yet to name a captain for their team (the other team being the Florida Panthers).

As Avalanche blogger Ryan Boulding put it in his first article for Mile High Sports:

The Colorado Avalanche have undoubtedly had a great start to their 2011-12 season.