You can't just buy yourself a championship in the new NHL. Even if you somehow get your hands on the league's best players through the draft and shrewd trades, you still have to find a way to pay them all and fit under the salary cap. The key to building a successful team is to identify which players offer the best value for the dollar and manage your roster accordingly.
We measure a player's contributions using GVT, which compares all of a player's contributions -- offensively, defensively, in the nets and in shootouts -- to those of a replacement-level NHL player. Given that some players make big bucks, it's reasonable to expect them to play at a far higher level, which is why we use GVS to compare them to players of the same salary. The teams that will succeed in the NHL are the ones that get the best bang for the buck, and right now, that includes the Colorado Avalanche.