The Avalanche has had a difficult season with injuries. Although nothing like the Habs, it hasn't been any easier. Their captain hasn't played all season, and he won't touch the ice in 2023-24 either. When Charles Hudon and Alex Galchenyuk end up in the starting line-up of a supposedly aspiring team, it doesn't look good. However, the additions of Jonathan Drouin and Ryan Johansen should stabilize their attack, provided the Quebecer stays healthy. On this subject, renowned Avalanche journalists Drew Livingstone and Peter Baugh have weighed in on what the trios might look like for the upcoming campaign. Let's just say that Jonathan Drouin's position is causing quite a stir. <q>The Avalanche lineup would look like this... Drouin-MacKinnon-Rantanen Lehkonen-Johansen-Nichushkin Wood-Colton-O'Connor Cogliano-Meyers-Olofsson Toews-Makar Byram-Manson Girard-Johnson Georgiev Francouz</q> In other words, Jared Bednar would put Drouin in a place to succeed right from the start. Of course, knowing MacKinnon's history with him, it's only fair. As we saw in Montreal, Jonathan is a very creative player, but he has to play with very good players. He's not the one who's going to make the others better. Placed with one of the league's most productive players, he could have the best season of his career. We hope so! <blockquote class=twitter-tweet><p lang=en dir=ltr>Avalanche projected lineup with current roster:<br><br>Drouin - MacKinnon - Rantanen<br>Lehkonen - Johansen - Nichushkin<br>Wood - Colton - O'Connor<br>Olofsson - Meyers - Cogliano<br><br>Toews - Makar<br>Byram - Manson<br>Girard - Malinski<br> MacDermid<br><br>Cap space remaining: $7.5M but need to sign Colton- Drew Livingstone (@ProducerDrew_) <a href=https://twitter.com/ProducerDrew_/status/1675305356820373504?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw>July 2, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src=https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js charset=utf-8> <blockquote class=twitter-tweet><p lang=en dir=ltr><a href=https://twitter.com/hashtag/Avs?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw>#Avs</a> lineup could look something like...<br><br>Drouin-MacKinnon-Rantanen<br>Lehkonen-Johansen-Nichushkin<br>Wood-Colton*-O'Connor<br>Cogliano-Meyers*-Olofsson<br><br>Toews-Makar<br>Byram-Manson<br>Girard-Johnson<br><br>Georgiev<br>Francouz<br><br>*RFA<br><br>The team will still have a bit of money after signing RFAs.- Peter Baugh (@Peter_Baugh) <a href=https://twitter.com/Peter_Baugh/status/1675556791172710401?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw>July 2, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src=https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js charset=utf-8>