Repeating as the Stanley Cup champion is exceptionally difficult. After a summer of euphoria, starting from scratch and overcoming the grind of another regular season can take its toll. Plus, it requires yet again beating out a playoff field of other highly competitive teams. There is a reason the 2020 and 2021 Tampa Bay Lightning are the only teams of the Salary Cap era to pull it off.

The Colorado Avalanche, winners of the 2022 Stanley Cup, are also victims of their own success. Winning requires having a lot of good players, and good players who thrive under the spotlight of a long playoff run expect to be compensated appropriately. Forwards Nazem Kadri, André Burakovsky and Nico Sturm, plus starting goaltender Darcy Kuemper, signed elsewhere as unrestricted free agents. Those are heavy casualties.

It's unlikely the Avalanche will be the same caliber team as they were in 2021-22. But the Avs don't need to match last season in order to make another run. Even a moderate drop-off from a 119-point regular season would still leave them as one of the best teams in the NHL.

Still, in order to run through the gauntlet yet again, Colorado will need to make gains elsewhere and while having some other players step up in place of the lost. Here are three critical areas that could make or break a repeat performance during the 2022-23 season.

Second-Line Center

Colorado's biggest loss of the offseason was center Nazem Kadri to Calgary—likely their biggest obstacle through the Western Conference. Kadri is coming off a career year in which he registered 87 points in 71 games, plus 15 points in 16 playoff games.

Short of finding a way to move money around and re-sign him, the Avs were never going to find an equal replacement. In fact, with such a tight cap situation, they didn't make any additions at all. At least to start the season, Kadri's successor on the second line will have to come internally. Two options stick out.

One is J.T. Compher. The 27-year-old produced a career-high 18 goals and 33 points in 70 games last season. Compher has spent his six NHL seasons mostly in a depth role, alternating between center and the wing.

At his age, what you see is what you get.

It's possible Compher could improve his output in an elevated role in which he'd get more minutes and play with superior players. More likely, he would face a tough time no longer playing easy minutes in the shadow of Nathan MacKinnon and Kadri.

Compher is a strong defensive forward but struggles to create offense for his team. As a second-line center, he would not attempt to replace Kadri offensively but instead completely change the line's initiative. Alongside Valeri Nichushkin and Artturi Lehkonen, the second line would perhaps match up against the opposition's top players and attempt to drive possession.