It’s that time of the NHL offseason when tumbleweeds can be spotted rolling across ice rinks. Training camps are still weeks away, but the biggest summer talking points have been beaten to death with a hammer since early July.

That means it’s the perfect time to construct goofy rankings with arbitrary criteria, and this week, that means posing a question that’s relevant to the Avalanche.

Does Colorado have the best “core” in the NHL?

Defining the word is tricky. The loose idea: a collection, but unspecified number, of a team’s best players around whom said team is building its roster. What should the number be? If it’s as simple as your “big three,” the Avs might the gold medal locked up. But that fails to take into account a vital position.

The parameters here, then: four players, consisting of a team’s best forward, best defenseman, best goalie and best remaining player regardless of position. That leaves every team with a sample of three skaters — only one has to be a blueliner — without neglecting the goaltender, which is a central piece of some teams’ salary cap strategy. Hopefully, the results provide a more accurate scope of strengths and weaknesses at every position.

Even that has its limitations, though, hence the “goofy” label assigned to this undertaking. A strong core might be necessary to winning a championship, but a team’s fate isn’t necessarily determined by its core. It’s a square/rectangle situation. Case study No. 1 is Colorado’s 2022-23 season, when the Avs were thwarted by a Kraken squad that lacked a true star but was brimming with depth.

When it comes to the ranking portion, there’s the question of what takes precedence and what doesn’t. Which is “better”: a well-rounded group of four without an MVP-caliber star, or a quartet in which two of the four are all-world players, but the other two are mediocre? Should an elite goalie-defenseman combo (Nashville) with weaker forwards be considered better or worse than a pair of extraordinary forwards who aren’t complemented by the other positions (Toronto)?

The subjective ranking that follows should reveal results that mostly accurately reflect the best and worst teams in the NHL, sprinkled with amusing exceptions.

Team: Forward, defenseman, goaltender, wild card

The bottom tier

32. Philadelphia Flyers: Travis Konecny, Travis Sanheim, Carter Hart, Noah Cates

31. San Jose Sharks: Logan Couture, Mario Ferraro, Kaapo Kahkonen, Tomas Hertl

30. Chicago Blackhawks: Connor Bedard, Seth Jones, Petr Mrazek, Taylor Hall

29. Montreal Canadiens: Nick Suzuki, Michael Matheson, Samuel Montembeault, Cole Caufield

28. Anaheim Ducks: Trevor Zegras, Cam Fowler, John Gibson, Troy Terry

27. Arizona Coyotes: Clayton Keller, Mathew Dumba, Karel Vejmelka, Nick Schmaltz

26. St. Louis Blues: Pavel Buchnevich, Justin Faulk, Jordan Binnington, Robert Thomas

25. Columbus Blue Jackets: Johnny Gaudreau, Zach Werenski, Elvis Merzlikins, Patrik Laine

24. Calgary Flames: Elias Lindholm, Mackenzie Weegar, Jacob Markstrom, Jonathan Huberdeau

23. Washington Capitals: Alex Ovechkin, John Carlson, Darcy Kuemper, Nicklas Backstrom

22. Seattle Kraken: Matty Beniers, Vince Dunn, Phillip Grubauer, Jared McCann

21. New York Islanders: Mathew Barzal, Adam Pelech, Ilya Sorokin, Bo Horvat

Bedard’s future is bright, but not even he can save Chicago’s foursome from landing near the cellar. And Seattle, one win away from the conference finals last spring, unsurprisingly comes in low here — though Beniers was a consensus rookie of the year and Dunn was almost top-10 in Norris voting. If Grubauer is playing at Ball Arena, the Kraken might jump 10 spots on the list, though.

The middle tier

20. Detroit Red Wings: Dylan Larkin, Moritz Seider, Ville Husso, Alex DeBrincat

19. Buffalo Sabres: Tage Thompson, Rasmus Dahlin, Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, Owen Power

18. Ottawa Senators: Tim Stutzle, Thomas Chabot, Joonas Korpisalo, Brady Tkachuk

17. Vancouver Canucks: Elias Pettersson, Quinn Hughes, Thatcher Demko, Andrei Kuzmenko

16. Los Angeles Kings: Anze Kopitar, Drew Doughty, Cam Talbot, Adrian Kempe

15. Florida Panthers: Matthew Tkachuk, Brandon Montour, Sergei Bobrovsky, Aleksander Barkov

14. Toronto Maple Leafs: Auston Matthews, Morgan Rielly, Ilya Samsonov, Mitch Marner

13. Nashville Predators: Filip Forsberg, Roman Josi, Jusse Saros, Ryan O’Reilly

The Nashville vs. Toronto comparison is a head-spinner. They’re perfect foils: The Predators have a top-three goalie-defenseman duo in the NHL with Saros and Josi, but Forsberg and O’Reilly are just fine as core forwards. Nothing extraordinary. Meanwhile, the Leafs are Edmonton Lite. The forward pair of Matthews and Marner is almost as good as it gets. But Rielly is fine, not elite as a top defenseman, as with Samsonov in net. The decision: These groups narrowly favor the Predators, which is of course ironic considering Nashville’s recent mediocrity vs. Toronto’s stature as a giant (until the playoffs). The Canucks and Panthers are other amusing outliers. Vancouver has an all-world blueliner, high-ceiling goalie and formidable forwards, but the franchise has been a mess in recent years — while the Panthers are defending Cup Finalists hampered in this list by their goaltending.

The good tier

12. Minnesota Wild: Kirill Kaprizov, Jared Spurgeon, Filip Gustavsson, Joel Eriksson Ek

11. Carolina Hurricanes: Sebastian Aho, Jaccob Slavin, Frederik Andersen, Brent Burns

10. New Jersey Devils: Jack Hughes, Dougie Hamilton, Akira Schmid, Nico Hischier

9. Vegas Golden Knights: Mark Stone, Alex Pietrangelo, Adin Hill, Jack Eichel

8. Pittsburgh Penguins: Sidney Crosby, Erik Karlsson, Tristan Jarry, Evgeni Malkin

7. Winnipeg Jets: Mark Scheifele, Josh Morrissey, Connor Hellebuyck, Kyle Connor

6. Edmonton Oilers: Connor McDavid, Mattias Ekholm, Stuart Skinner, Leon Draisaitl

Sure, McDavid and Draisaitl carry this Oilers quartet. But Skinner had a promising rookie year in net (.913 save percentage), and Ekholm or Darnell Nurse could have suitably filled the defenseman spot. Depth is another matter, obviously.

Carolina and Buffalo are the only two teams with a second defenseman on their list, though you could make a case for Colorado, Vegas or Boston to be in that club, too.

The biggest example of a core not reflecting overall success might be Winnipeg, which took an early dive out of the playoffs last season, losing to the eventual champion Golden Knights (ranked two spots lower here). The Jets are engulfed in murmurs of looming Hellebuyck or Scheifele trades this season if things keep going wrong, while Vegas is on cloud nine. Conn Smythe winner Jonathan Marchessault didn’t even make the cut. Then there’s Pittsburgh, which missed the postseason entirely in 2022-23 but boasts two Hall of Fame forwards still producing at a point per game (Crosby, Malkin), along with a casual new acquisition: the defending Norris winner, Karlsson.

The top tier

5. Boston Bruins: David Pastrnak, Charlie McAvoy, Linus Ullmark, Brad Marchand

4. Dallas Stars: Jason Robertson, Miro Heiskanen, Jake Oettinger, Roope Hintz

3. New York Rangers: Artemi Panarin, Adam Fox, Igor Shesterkin, Mika Zibanejad

2. Tampa Bay Lightning: Nikita Kucherov, Victor Hedman, Andrei Vasilevskiy, Brayden Point

1. Colorado Avalanche: Nathan MacKinnon, Cale Makar, Alexandar Georgiev, Mikko Rantanen

There’s a clear gap going into the top five, where every team is strongly equipped in all four spots. Building an “all-exclusion” core four out of the best remaining players in the league could feature any of these five. Tampa’s Steven Stamkos, Dallas’ Joe Pavelski and New York’s Chris Kreider are worthy forwards. Colorado’s Devon Toews and Boston’s Hampus Lindholm might be the next best defensemen. And Bruins backup goalie Jeremy Swayman could be a starter on plenty of teams.

What sets Colorado apart, despite a goalie who’s less reputed than three Vezina winners, is the best defenseman on the planet and the second-best center on the planet behind McDavid. Tampa still has that old money, with Point and Stamkos interchangeable as the wild card. Dallas is young and still climbing. New York and Boston are under siege by a dangerous Eastern Conference right now, despite their ever-impressive cores. But the NHL-wide consensus seems to be that the Avs are around to stay for years because of MacKinnon, Makar and Rantanen.