The Colorado Avalanche announced today that defenseman Jack Ahcan has been recalled from the team’s AHL affiliate, the Colorado Eagles.
Veteran defenseman Josh Manson left last night’s game against the Vegas Golden Knights with an upper-body injury. His injury left the Avalanche with just five healthy defensemen on their NHL roster, as Cale Makar has been sidelined with an injury of his own. This recall brings the number of healthy blueliners the Avalanche have at their disposal to six.
Ahcan, 28, has already played in nine NHL games this season. He’s been one of the top offensive defensemen in the AHL this season. His 50 points in 60 games for the Eagles places him second in scoring by defensemen in the AHL, behind only Rochester Americans blueliner Zac Jones.
As a 5’8″ left-shot defenseman, he’s far from a one-to-one replacement for Manson, a 6’4″ right-shot blueliner. If they wanted to recall someone more stylistically similar to Manson, they could have recalled 6’3″ right-shot defenseman Ronnie Attard, who has played in 29 career NHL games.
Attard hasn’t played in the NHL since 2023-24 though. More importantly, the Avalanche don’t actually have a pressing need to recall someone that is a direct stylistic comparable to Manson. The Avalanche acquired blueliner Nick Blankenburg from the Nashville Predators at the deadline, a move that was designed to protect the team’s defensive depth in advance of what it hopes will be a long playoff run.
So far, the move has done exactly that: provided the Avalanche with an increased measure of flexibility in the face of injuries on its blueline. Yesterday, they played Blankenburg, who is a right shot, on the left side. Blankenburg has experience playing on both sides, a factor the team no doubt considered when they decided to acquire him.
Even still, the Avalanche have only two healthy lefties in their lineup at this point. By recalling Ahcan, the Avalanche can now shift Blankenburg back to his natural right side, and easily plug Ahcan onto the left side of one of their pairings.
At this stage, there is no word on the extent of Manson’s injury. Colorado has just three games remaining on their regular season schedule, and have already locked up the Presidents’ Trophy. The team has every reason to be patient with Manson’s recovery and has zero reason to rush him back into their lineup. As a result, it appears entirely possible Ahcan could get into these three final games of the season as a result of this recall, which would be a very positive development for him, as he’s just a few months from needing a new contract as an unrestricted free agent.