One of Colorado’s more intriguing offseason signings is about to get an NHL opportunity. The Avalanche announced (Twitter link) that they’ve recalled winger Jere Innala from AHL Colorado. He won’t be available for tonight’s game against San Jose but will join the team on Friday in Anaheim.
The Avs signed the 26-year-old to a one-year entry-level deal back in June after a strong showing internationally for Finland at the World Championship where he had five points in eight games. While he hadn’t played in North America at the time, Innala had a strong track record of success at home in the Liiga with HPK and HIFK before spending the last two seasons with SHL Frolunda where he had 28 points in 42 regular season games in 2023-24 before adding 11 goals and 15 points in 14 postseason contests.
With that success and the fact that Colorado struggled to find a working fourth line for a lot of last season, Innala was a speculative end-of-roster candidate in training camp. While he had two points in three preseason games, they elected to start him in the minors with the Eagles. With them, he got off to a solid start to his first season in North America, potting five goals and ten assists in 21 games so far.
Once again this year, the Avalanche have churned through numerous forwards at the bottom of their roster. Chris Wagner, T.J. Tynan, Calum Ritchie, Matthew Stienburg, Givani Smith, Chase Bradley, Nikita Prishchepov, and Tye Felhaber are all forwards who have played at least once in Colorado’s bottom six this season but none of the group have more than one point (the first three have one each, the rest zero) so it appears that they’ve decided it’s time to give Innala a chance to try to secure a spot.
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