- Avalanche defenseman Oliver Kylington had been listed as out week-to-week but that has been changed to month-to-month, reports NHL.com’s Ryan Boulding (Bluesky link). He has missed the last four weeks with an upper-body injury but hasn’t been progressing in his recovery. However, there should be some good news coming on the injury front as Boulding adds that winger Jonathan Drouin could return on Tuesday. He has missed the last month with an upper-body injury and has been limited to just five games so far this season due to injuries.
Avalanche Rumors
Avalanche Make Four Roster Moves
It was a busy day for the Avalanche on top of their trade with Nashville earlier today. The team announced (Twitter link) that they have loaned defenseman John Ludvig to AHL Colorado on a conditioning assignment while also assigning forward Givani Smith to the Eagles. Meanwhile, the Avs also recalled defenseman Keaton Middleton and winger Jere Innala from the Eagles, per the AHL’s transactions log.
Ludvig was claimed on waivers back in October but playing time has been hard to come by as he has been limited to just eight games so far. He has a pair of assists and 16 hits while averaging just under 13 minutes a night. Ludvig has only played three times since November 10th and hasn’t suited up once since December 5th so he’ll be well-served getting some game action in with the Eagles. The conditioning assignment can last up to two weeks.
As for Smith, he was acquired earlier this month from San Jose after he cleared waivers. Since then, he has gotten into seven games, bringing his season total to 13. For the season, the 26-year-old doesn’t have a point while adding 18 penalty minutes and 20 hits in a little over six minutes a night of playing time. He can only play in three more NHL games before needing to pass through waivers again.
Middleton and Innala, meanwhile, were reassigned to the minors before the holiday break, allowing the Avs to save some money (though not bank cap space since they’re in LTIR). Middleton has nine blocks and 13 hits in nine games so far while Innala has been held off the scoresheet in his first three NHL appearances.
Avalanche Acquire Juuso Pärssinen From Predators
The Colorado Avalanche and Nashville Predators are making yet another trade, with forward Juuso Pärssinen and a 2026 seventh-round pick headed to the Avalanche in exchange for forward Ondrej Pavel and a 2027 third-round pick.
The Predators have been shopping Pärssinen around throughout much of the month, with Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reporting teams were interested in the forward two weeks ago. In the end, Nashville finds a typical suitor in Colorado. The two sides have already made one trade this season, swapping veteran backup Scott Wedgewood for young up-and-comer Justus Annunen and a draft pick in late-November. That move was one of four trades that Nashville has made this year, and one of three Avalanche trades. Both goalies have been fantastic in their new settings, with Wedgewood posting a 4-2-0 record and .932 save percentage in six games, and Annunen posting a 2-1-0 record and .941 in four games.
The two sides will now hope for similar profits from this deal. In Parssinen, Colorado receives the clear upper-hand, reeling in a six-foot-three, 212-pound 23-year-old with the ability to play either center or wing. Parssinen, originally a seventh-round pick in 2019, turned pro with the Predators in the 2022-23 season. He started the year in the minors, but earned a quick call-up after scoring nine points in his first 10 AHL games. Unfortunately, Parssinen couldn’t stay too hot at the pro level, though he did still manage an encouraging 25 points in 45 games as an NHL rookie. He made the Predators’ roster out of training camp last season, but managed just 12 points in 43 games before being reassigned to the minor leagues. Parssinen managed an additional 25 points in 36 games with the Milwaukee Admirals, setting him up to return to the NHL this year – but he still can’t seem to find his footing at the top flight. As it stands, he has just five points in 15 games this season – while serving in a true fourth-line role.
Parssinen still seems to have plenty of untapped potential, and middle-six upside. While Colorado mines that vein, Nashville clears up additional space on the NHL roster by acquiring career minor-leaguer Ondrej Pavel. Pavel also turned pro in 2022-23, joining the AHL’s Colorado Eagles for two games, and no scoring, after the end of Minnesota State’s season. He more formally played his rookie AHL season last year, recording 10 points and 37 penalty minutes in 61 games. Pavel also received the first two NHL games of his career last year, though one minor penalty and a -1 stand as his only stat changes. He’s continued to post menial scoring this year, with just two points in 14 AHL games on the season, and should head for a clear role down Nashville’s depth chart. That could open up space for the team to award more ice time to Fedor Svechkov, Reid Schaefer, or Joakim Kemell – three top prospects who have each performed admirably in the AHL. Predators general manager Barry Trotz said previously that, should the roster continue sliding, he’d like to prioritize getting top prospects NHL action – a statement vindicated by this move, and the team’s 4-5-1 record in their last 10 games.
Avalanche Activate Josh Manson Off Injured Reserve
The Colorado Avalanche activated defenseman Josh Manson off injured reserve yesterday before their 4-1 win over the Utah Hockey Club. Manson went on to dress last night, recording three shots on goal, two hits, a blocked shot and a +1. The 33-year-old hadn’t played in almost a month, missing 12 consecutive games due to an upper-body injury.
Manson skated alongside Samuel Girard last evening, the two are familiar with one another having formed a solid pairing when the Avalanche won the Stanley Cup in 2022. During Manson’s absence, Girard played well as he was paired with Cale Makar and Sam Malinski. In nearly 250 minutes paired together Girard and Manson didn’t have much success, bleeding opportunities against before eventually getting separated before Manson’s injury. With Manson back in the fold, Colorado has some options on the back end. The pairing of Devon Toews and Makar is elite, but the Avalanche could always opt to break them up if Girard and Manson can’t find their game as a unit.
Manson won’t provide much offense, having notched just a goal and five assists in 25 games this season. However, he does take on tough assignments and unfavorable deployment, starting nearly 60% of his shifts in the defensive zone at even strength.
Manson was okay in his return to the ice yesterday, making some good plays, but also showing a bit of rust which is to be expected after missing nearly a month of action. He’ll have some time to get comfortable before the Avalanche play against as they are off until New Year’s Eve.
Avalanche Sign Mackenzie Blackwood To Five-Year Extension
11:29 a.m.: Blackwood has put pen to paper on a five-year deal, the team announced. The contract carries a $5.25MM cap hit for a total value of $26.25MM, according to Friedman. His deal will be split evenly year-to-year including a $1MM signing bonus in 2026-27, and he has a six-team no-trade clause throughout, PuckPedia adds.
10:08 a.m.: The Avalanche are nearing an agreement on a contract extension with pending unrestricted free agent netminder Mackenzie Blackwood, Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet reports Friday.
Blackwood, 28, had rediscovered his game as a legitimate tandem/1A option with the Sharks over the past couple of seasons. He was open to sticking around in San Jose. Still, with the rebuilding club needing to keep their long-term future open for top prospect Yaroslav Askarov, they opted not to engage in extension talks and instead traded him to the Avs earlier this month. Colorado needed a more stable solution between the pipes with both halves of their opening-night tandem in Alexandar Georgiev and Justus Annunen struggling. So far, Blackwood has provided that. Along with veteran trade pickup Scott Wedgewood from Nashville, they’ve put up save percentages north of .930 in their nine combined starts since being acquired.
Those strong early returns, plus a burgeoning track record behind a thin defense in San Jose, make Blackwood a clear fit in Denver past this season. A few years ago, he was one of the more intriguing young netminders in the league, posting a .915 SV% and 2.77 GAA in 43 starts and four relief appearances with the Devils in 2019-20 while finishing sixth in Calder Trophy voting.
He hasn’t posted above-average numbers since but is on pace to do so this season, logging a .913 SV%, 2.83 GAA, and one shutout in 21 starts and two relief appearances split between the Sharks and Avalanche. He’s stopped nine goals above average and 5.9 above expected, per MoneyPuck, squarely positioning him as a top-20 netminder in the league this season. Twelve out of his 21 starts have been quality ones (SV% above league average).
Blackwood has allowed exactly two goals in all four of his starts for Colorado thus far, allowing eight on 116 shots faced over the past couple of weeks. The Avs’ high-powered offense has given him necessary goal support, leading to a 3-1-0 record to begin what now will be a multi-year run in the Central Division. Whatever his new deal is, it’ll come with a significant raise on his current $2.35MM cap hit as afforded by the two-year, $4.7MM pact he signed with the Sharks in 2022.
Keeping Blackwood around became especially important when Colorado traded one of their higher-ceiling young options in Annunen to the Predators in the Wedgewood deal. That’s not to say Colorado’s prospect pool between the pipes is completely barren. There’s 2024 second-round pick Ilya Nabokov, who’s coming off a Gagarin Cup championship in the Kontinental Hockey League with Metallurg Magnitogorsk, and Pavel Lysenkov of Match TV said Thursday that he won’t re-sign in Russia and will ink an entry-level deal with the Avs for next season. There’s also 23-year-old Trent Miner, who has a .901 SV% in 14 AHL games this season and stopped 12 of the 13 shots he faced against the Capitals in his NHL debut last month.
Regardless, Blackwood figures to be the Avs’ Game 1 starter in the playoffs, assuming they stick around for an eighth consecutive postseason berth. Whatever extension he signs will walk him to unrestricted free agency at its conclusion.
Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.
Avalanche Reassign Keaton Middleton, Jere Innala
With their pre-holiday break schedule wrapped up, the Avalanche announced this morning that they’ve assigned defenseman Keaton Middleton and right-winger Jere Innala to AHL Colorado. Their active roster is now at 20.
Middleton’s demotion seems unlikely to be reversed when the Avs return to action on Friday. That’s because defenseman Josh Manson is expected to return from an upper-body injury after the break and come off injured reserve, knocking Middleton off the roster. All of Colorado’s other demotion options would require waivers, while Middleton hasn’t been on the roster for long enough since last clearing them to necessitate hitting the wire today.
The 26-year-old younger brother of Wild defender Jacob Middleton has played in the Avalanche’s last nine games, his first in the NHL since making his debut with the Avalanche in April of 2021. The longtime Colorado farmhand was a fourth-round pick of the Maple Leafs back in 2016 but never signed, waiting until 2021 to land his first NHL contract with the Avs. He’s been in their system ever since, racking up 59 points and 390 PIMs with a +27 rating in 251 showings for the AHL side over the last five seasons.
Middleton, who’s slated to become an unrestricted free agent next summer, had four assists in 17 AHL games before being recalled. In his nine appearances with the Avs, he went without a point but logged a +1 rating and 13 hits while averaging 10:31 per game. The Avalanche controlled 47.6% of shot attempts in Middleton’s limited 5-on-5 minutes.
Meanwhile, Innala was summoned for the first time on Thursday as Colorado rotates depth forwards in the absences of Jonathan Drouin and Miles Wood. The 26-year-old signed with the Avs as a free agent over the offseason after spending the last two seasons with Frölunda HC of the Swedish Hockey League, where he accumulated 54 points in 94 games and represented his native Finland at the 2021, 2022 and 2024 World Championships. He averaged 7:57 across two contests, posting a -1 rating and four shot attempts (none on goal). He had five goals and 10 assists for 15 points in 21 AHL games prior to the recall. He could find himself back on the roster when the holiday break concludes.
Avalanche Reassign Chris Wagner
Dec. 20: It took a couple of days, but the Avalanche announced early this morning that Wagner had been reassigned to the minors. The move occurred before the roster freeze went into effect in Mountain Time.
Dec. 18: Wagner has cleared waivers, per Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman. He will likely head to the minor leagues soon.
Dec. 17: The Avalanche have placed forward Chris Wagner on waivers for the third time this season, reports Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet. It’s likely Wagner’s departure from the roster tomorrow, one way or another, will be the corresponding move for defenseman Josh Manson’s activation from injured reserve. He’s traveled with the team on their road trip and is an option to return against the Sharks on Thursday, head coach Jared Bednar said yesterday.
Wagner, 33, signed a two-way extension with the Avalanche in April after signing as a free agent for his second go-around in Colorado in 2023. He was placed on waivers to begin the season and remained on the opening night roster after clearing, but he was sent to the minors on the opening day of the season after the Avs optimized their long-term injured reserve pool. He’s been ferried between leagues countless times since on paper transactions to extend his temporary waiver exemptions as long as possible. Still, it doesn’t matter how many days he’s been on the active roster once he’s played 10 games since last clearing waivers.
That’s the case, so he ends up back on the wire today as Colorado attempts to sneak him through to the minors without a competing claim yet again. Wagner has played in 22 of the Avs’ 33 games this season but has scored just one goal and is still looking for his first assist of the year. He’s averaged seven minutes per game, won 44.9% of his faceoffs, and has controlled a respectable 48.3% of shot attempts at even strength, given his usage as a defensive specialist.
Teams now have 24 hours to decide whether to submit a claim for Wagner to add him to their active roster or let him continue logging time in the NHL and AHL in Colorado. The Massachusetts native has made 395 career appearances in 11 seasons with the Bruins, Ducks, Avs, and Islanders, scoring 39 goals and 27 assists for 66 points with a -31 rating.
Avalanche Recall Jere Innala
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.
Avalanche Reassign Tye Felhaber
Dec. 19: The Avalanche announced that Felhaber has cleared waivers and was subsequently assigned to AHL Colorado.
Dec. 18: The Avalanche have placed forward Tye Felhaber on waivers to return him to the AHL’s Colorado Eagles, Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet reports Wednesday.
Felhaber, 26, signed an AHL contract with the Eagles over the offseason, which the Avalanche tore up and replaced with a two-year NHL contract on Sunday. The left-shot forward had a team-leading eight goals and 13 points through 23 AHL games, putting him on pace for his best season offensively in the high-level minors since turning pro five years ago. He made his NHL debut on Monday in a loss to Canucks, taking just seven shifts for 4:34 worth of ice time. Aside from one hit, he recorded zeroes across his box score, and the Avalanche out-attempted opponents 6-4 with him on the ice.
Felhaber, originally an undrafted free agent signing by the Stars from the Ontario Hockey League’s Ottawa 67’s, has 67 points in 187 AHL contests in parts of seven seasons. He’s been far more productive when demoted to the ECHL, where he’s logged 26 goals and 83 points in 71 games. The former OHL All-Star remains a middle-six minor-league option at best as he enters his prime, though, and there’s likely little interest in his services on an NHL roster elsewhere.
While unlikely, teams have 24 hours to submit a claim and take Felhaber out of the Avs organization and onto their NHL roster. It’s a likelier scenario that Felhaber will clear waivers tomorrow and head back to the Eagles, allowing the Avs to carry a trim roster throughout the holiday freeze, which begins at midnight Eastern tomorrow and runs through Dec. 27.
Central Notes: Manson, Gustafsson, Ehlers, Utah
Colorado Avalanche defenseman Josh Manson could return to the lineup during the team’s current three-game road trip (as per Avalanche play-by-play man Conor McGahey). Manson has been dealing with an upper-body issue and won’t suit up tonight when Colorado takes on the Vancouver Canucks. However, he could dress on Thursday or Friday when Colorado plays back-to-back against Anaheim and San Jose. Manson is currently on the injured reserve, meaning that the Avalanche will need to make a roster move before activating the 33-year-old.
Manson hasn’t played since leaving a game on November 29th against Dallas and has played 24 games on the season, posting one goal and five assists. He had one of his better offensive seasons last year, tallying 25 points in 76 games, but he has struggled this year with turnovers, giving the puck away 42 times already, which is one off from his total for all of last season.
In other Central Division notes:
- Winnipeg Jets colour analyst Mitchell Clinton tweeted that Jets head coach Scott Arniel told the media that injured forwards David Gustafsson and Nikolaj Ehlers both skated today in what is the next step towards a return to action. The 24-year-old Gustafsson skated in a non-contact jersey, his first time back on the ice since he suffered a concussion in a fight on December 10th. Ehlers was in a regular jersey as he tried to get back in the lineup after missing eight games. The 28-year-old hasn’t played since November 29th and is likely day by day at this point.
- Utah Hockey Club goaltender Connor Ingram and defenseman Robert Bortuzzo are not close to returning to action (according to Belle Fraser of the Salt Lake Tribune). Ingram did not practice today after he spent some time skating over the weekend and will be off the ice for the next little bit. The 35-year-old Bortuzzo didn’t have much better news as he remains sidelined with a lower-body injury that he suffered on December 10th against the Minnesota Wild. Utah remains without several key defensemen, including Bortuzzo, John Marino and Sean Durzi.