Colorado began last season 15-6-4, went 7-17-7 in its next 31 games and finished 16-7-7 to end the season 38-30-14 and earn the second wild card into the playoffs from the Western Conference. The Avalanche reached the second round, when they were defeated by the San Jose Sharks in seven games.
Rantanen said he is excited about Colorado's offseason moves; the most significant was acquiring forward Nazem Kadri, defenseman Calle Rosen and a third-round pick in the 2020 NHL Draft from the Toronto Maple Leafs on July 1 for defenseman Tyson Barrie, forward Alex Kerfoot and a sixth-round pick in the 2020 draft.
The Avalanche also acquired forward Andre Burakovsky in a trade with the Washington Capitals on June 28 and signed forwards Joonas Donskoi and Pierre-Edouard Bellemare each as a free agent on July 1.
That depth will supplement Colorado's top line of Rantanen, MacKinnon and Gabriel Landeskog, who had 75 points (34 goals, 41 assists) last season.
"I believe we can take one step ahead," Rantanen said. "Second round last spring was good, but we were in Game 7, one win away from reaching the conference final. We have a stronger team now, so the expectations are high. You need depth to be able to win. Look at [the] St. Louis [Blues], they had four good lines, as did [the] Boston [Bruins]. You don't win the Stanley Cup if you don't have depth."
Rantanen is one of several high-profile RFA forwards who have yet to sign a contract for this season, including Mitchell Marner of the Toronto Maple Leafs, Brock Boeser of the Vancouver Canucks, Patrik Laine and Kyle Connor of the Winnipeg Jets, Brayden Point of the Tampa Bay Lightning and Matthew Tkachuk of the Calgary Flames.
Panu Markkanen of NHL.com/fi contributed to this report