"Hey, didn't you used to be the Colorado Avalanche? If the forgotten team in Denver sports wants back in the conversation and back in the Stanley Cup playoffs, start here: Trade center Paul Stastny.

We look at the Avs now and yawn. This is not all Stastny's fault.

But trading him could make the team buzz-worthy in Colorado again.

During a week that will reshape the Avalanche's future with two picks in the opening round of the NHL draft, the honest reaction from all but die-hard hockey lovers is: ho-hum.

This team desperately needs more oomph than what any teenage prospects can provide with the second and 11th choices in the draft.

What Colorado needs is a rock-solid goalie the Avs have been missing since Patrick Roy walked out that door eight long years ago.

So how does trading Stastny for Los Angeles goalie Jonathan Quick strike you?

Should the Kings, definitely in the market for a top-level forward, be reluctant to part with Quick, then maybe they would deal Jonathan Bernier, a former first-round draft choice who has shown great potential.

If Avalanche general manager Greg Sherman has not already been on the telephone with Kings management, then he should consider this the best free advice received all year.

Stastny, a member of the 2010 U.S. Olympic team that won silver, has taken more than his fair share of shots for being unable to put pizazz back in the Avs.

But at a salary in excess of $6 million, Stastny could well be worth more to the Avalanche as trade bait than by coming back to provide another 25-goal, 50-assist season that seems to be his top end after five years in Colorado.

Although the Avalanche has pressing needs at the blue line and between the pipes, chief scout Rick Pracey steadfastly underlines that the team's philosophy will be to take the best possible player in the draft, which begins Friday. "