A tough day on the injury front around the NHL continues. The Avalanche announced (Twitter link) that defenseman Samuel Girard is listed as out week-to-week due to an upper-body injury.
It hasn’t been a great start to 2025-26 for the 27-year-old. Girard missed most of training camp with a lower-body injury, only getting into one preseason game as a result. Now, he’s set to be out for a little while with this injury sustained just two games into the regular season.
When healthy, Girard has been a reliable top-four defender for Colorado. Last season, he had 24 points and 111 blocks in 73 games while logging just under 21 minutes a night of playing time while seeing time on both the power play and penalty kill. He also added three points in their first-round loss to Dallas.
Girard had started this season on Colorado’s second pairing alongside newcomer Brent Burns. Notably, he’s one of just two left-shot defensemen in their top six, a rarity in a league that typically sees teams carrying more lefties than righties. Recent waiver claim Ilya Solovyov is expected to take Girard’s place in the lineup for the time being.
It hasn’t been a good start to the season for the Avs on the injury front. Starting goaltender Mackenzie Blackwood is dealing with a lower-body injury while winger Logan O’Connor is recovering from hip surgery. They have a pair of injured players with reduced cap charges on season-opening IR in Nikita Prishchepov and Jacob MacDonald and now will have Girard likely heading for injured reserve as well.
The end result from these injuries is that they’re starting to get pretty tight to the cap ceiling with around $1.07MM in cap room, per PuckPedia. That’s enough to recall a replacement for Girard (who has already been placed on IR to free up a roster spot) but any further injuries before someone comes back could see them having to use LTIR, an outcome they’re trying to avoid after being in it regularly for the past several years.