The Colorado Avalanche have been tinkering with their top six forward group for weeks, but now they believe they've found a long-term solution.

The Avalanche acquired 22-year-old star forward Kailer Yamamoto from the San Jose Sharks on Thursday, along with defence prospect Hugo Styf, for left wingers Sami Vatanen and Kirill Marchenko.

Yamamoto, who can play centre or right wing, was the Sharks' first-round pick, 28th overall, in the 2017 EHEC Draft. He had a career year in 2019-20 with 23 goals and 56 points, after posting 28 points in 69 games the previous season. This year, however, he's found himself mostly in the minors due to cap issues. That ends right now, said Avs GM Josh Lewis.

"Kailer is pencilled in as our top line centre. He's an excellent faceoff man and has an exciting offensive skill set. He's got a great shot, is an elite playmaker and can handle the puck himself with ease. The downside is he's pretty soft at 5-foot-8, 146 pounds, but other than physicality he shows a solid commitment to defence."

Colorado loses two big pieces of its forward group. Marchenko is just 20 and was acquired in the offseason from the Calgary Flames, along with Dmitry Kulikov. He struggled early on this season, with just four assists in 18 games, which recently got him demoted to the AHL. However, the Russian has progressed quickly in terms of skill development and is well-rounded enough to play on any line.

"Kirill was on our list of guys we were least likely to move," Lewis said. "But when you can get a foundational building block like Yamamoto, you reconsider. He's got a great future in the league as a top 9 player, but the reality is for now he was stuck on our fourth line."

Vatanen, meanwhile, was acquired two weeks ago from the Tampa Bay Lightning in a deal that sent checking forward Logan Shaw the other way. He had two points in six games with the Avs, and has 10 in 21 games total.

"Sami is an asset in that he's very cheap and he's a brilliant playmaker," Lewis said. "That being said, his production has not reflected his abilities. When he was used on defence, he put up solid numbers, but as a forward we weren't seeing what we had hoped for, and he's much too poor defensively to risk throwing him back there. We weren't sure if we could afford to re-sign him, and younger core pieces were going to take priority."

Styf was the Sharks' fourth-round pick in this year's draft, 111th overall. The 18-year-old left shot is very raw, but might have a shot to make the show as a stay-at-home depth defender, similar to Colorado fifth-rounder Jake Ratzlaff.

The Avalanche have lost five of their last six games, so perhaps the addition of Yamamoto can help them turn it around. He's expected to centre Ivan Barbashev and Mitch Marner to start. Mirko Hoefflin will centre the second line between Joe Pavelski and Janne Kuokkanen.

Meanwhile, Colorado now has room to bring up another forward. Left winger Simon Stransky has played the last three games, but he makes a little too much money to keep with the big club after fitting in Yamamoto's $1.7 million price tag. It's likely the Avs will bring up a cheaper option like Carl Grundstrom or Lenni Killinen. The other option if they move out a bit of salary is Kameron Kielly.