Tough to say.
A top 4 of Byram,Girard, Makar, and Toews is the best in the NHL. If Kuemper has a good season, the Avs have an elite top-4, elite top line, and elite goalie. But they’ve been flirting with that combination the last few years and it has not paid off.
MacKinnon-Eichel would be the best 1-2 punch in the NHL, but Eichel’s health is TBD, and the defence would lose a major piece.
Either way it’ll be fun to watch this roster with everyone healthy, but Sakic will have to make a bigger move at the deadline to shore up the forward depth.
It also seems to be a pattern of at least one of Toews, Byram, Makar, or Girard being hurt, so it would be tough going from four great defencemen to two.