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Center Paul Stastny said again Monday that he would like to remain with the Avalanche, is having fun and likes the direction the team is heading, and that he can't worry about the possibility of being moved before Wednesday's NHL trade deadline.

"I don't deal with that," he said after practice. "It would be too much on my mind. To me, just go out there and play."

Stastny, 28, is in the final year of a five-year, $33 million contract worth $6.6 million per season and is eligible for unrestricted free agency July 1. If he isn't traded by Wednesday, the Avalanche could still re-sign him or face the eventual possibility of losing him to another team without compensation.

The Avalanche doesn't discuss contract situations and coach Patrick Roy wasn't available after practice Monday. The team left for Chicago in the afternoon for a two-game road trip that includes Tuesday's game with the Blackhawks and Thursday's game in Detroit.

The Avalanche (39-17-5) is in third place in the Central Division with 83 points, three behind the second-place Blackhawks (36-12-14) with a game in hand. First-place St. Louis (40-14-6) also has 86 points and has played one fewer game than Colorado.

Stastny said he told his agent, Matt Keator, last summer that he wanted to see how this season developed, wanted to see if the Avalanche would show signs of progress under new senior executive vice president of hockey operations Joe Sakic and first-year coach Roy after missing the playoffs three years in a row and four of the past five seasons. The Avalanche missed the playoffs five times in Stastny's first seven seasons since he left the University of Denver after his sophomore campaign in 2006.

"We don't talk during the season, that was all in the summertime," Stastny said of his talks with Keator. "We told him exactly what my plan was, the way I looked at this season going forward and what I wanted to see. That was to be a part of a winning team. If you see someone that has a good footprint for the next two or three years and that's to keep getting better and better, good coaching where you're having fun playing your style and you're having fun on and off the ice.

"I've always said the last four years were a tough four years for everything and this year has basically been a whole new team. A lot of the same players, but new coaching, new management, a whole different feel. I think you just play it out this year and see how it goes and go from there.

"You want to stay where you're wanted. If you're not wanted, you don't want to force yourself on someone. It's always an important decision. You look at it one way and then sometimes you go with your heart. Sometimes you have to take a step back and go with your head and see what's best for you."

After finishing last in the Western Conference a year ago, and second-to-last in the NHL with a 16-25-7 record, the Avalanche's turnaround has been one of the league's more remarkable stories.

"It's a great place, having fun," said Stastny, who has 19 goals, 27 assists and a plus-10 plus/minus rating in 55 games. He's anchoring a highly-effective line with Gabriel Landeskog and rookie Nathan MacKinnon. "We have a good team here, a good group of guys. It's important to see when players get locked up (with contracts), whether they're core players or role players, because then you keep building as a team. I think that's important."

The Avalanche has met that criteria, signing goalie Semyon Varlamov, forwards Matt Duchene and Landeskog, and defenseman Erik Johnson to new contracts or extensions. The team still needs to re-sign forward Ryan O'Reilly, who could become a restricted free agent again July 1.

"You can have as much fun as you want to, but it's all about winning," Stastny said. "You don't play this game just to go out there and put up points. You play this game to win. It's a team game and you want to win the Stanley Cup. That's all it's about, that's what all the hard work is for during the summer.

"As you get older, you realize it's harder and harder. Nothing comes easy. When you get a chance, you have to take advantage of it. When I was younger, you heard that from the older guys and you kind of took it with a grain of salt. Now as you get older and (success) doesn't happen as often, you come to realize how important it is."

Stastny said he doesn't spend time watching hockey games or reading Internet stories about hockey in his spare time.

"If you go on the Internet, you can read anything you want to read and if you did that it can get in your mind," he said. "But half the time people just write stuff. I tend not to read anything, whether it's good or bad. It's out of your control and if you can't control it, why worry about off the ice when all you can control is what happens on the ice? Just keep playing your best and give it your all.

"The last thing I do is watch hockey. I have a couple dogs and there are a lot of TV shows. You try and get away from it. When you're part of the game all the time and get away from the rink, the last thing you want to do is read something good or bad about you so you get too high or too low. I try to keep it away and stay even keel."