Casey Mittelstadt had the type of performance in October that felt like a player was marking his territory as the clear-cut No. 2 center of the Colorado Avalanche for the foreseeable future.

Give Moose his juice. Let’s say, eight years at $101 million. Everybody gets what they want. Mikko Rantanen, the good solider and Nathan MacKinnon’s literal right-hand man, becomes a $100-million player.

Though the Colorado Avalanche now sit in a playoff position after winning 26 of their last 39 games and scoring big wins over the Winnipeg Jets (5-2), Florida Panthers (3-1), and the Minnesota Wild (6-1) over the past two weeks,