Latest On Avalanche Lineup
Ahead of tonight’s game against St. Louis, the Utah Mammoth shared that both Dylan Guenther and Sean Durzi wouldn’t play. Guenther has been held out for undisclosed reasons, while Durzi was categorized as having an upper-body injury.
Locked in for their first round matchup against Vegas, the first in their team’s history, Utah has no reason to take any chances in an inconsequential game 82 tonight. The dynamic young team will present a real challenge against the Golden Knights, who’ve found their stride under new head coach John Tortorella.
Guenther, 23, broke out this year with a team-leading 40 goals. Tonight marks just the third game he’s missed all year, and he should be all set for the postseason in his spot as a top winger, which will be his postseason debut.
On the other hand, Durzi left against Winnipeg last Tuesday after playing 9:46. Losing time back in the fall from an IR stint stemming from an upper-body issue, he’s played in 60 games this year, averaging 19:16 a night, a dip from previous years. It’s unknown what his status will be for Game 1, but the 27-year-old will be eager to return to the playoffs for the first time since his time as a Los Angeles King three years ago.
Elsewhere across the league:
- Avalanche head coach Jared Bednar told reporters, including Meghan Angley of Guerilla Sports, that he expects the team to be fully healthy for the playoffs. It’s great news for the soon-to-be Presidents’ Trophy winners. A number of notable players have been banged up lately; Brock Nelson, Nazem Kadri, Josh Manson with various injuries. However, the group is expected to be at full strength as they take the ice for Game 1, with their opponent and dates still to be officially determined.
- Former NHL forward Linus Omark has retired at age 39, confirmed in an interview posted by Expressen, a news outlet in his native Sweden. Selected in the fourth round by Edmonton in the 2007 draft, Omark debuted with the club in the 2010-11 season, and last played with the Buffalo Sabres in February 2014. The winger’s NHL career was limited, 32 points in 79 games, but he’s still a memorable name, with his highlights making the rounds across the internet years ago and still worth a watch. Omark emerged as an electric prospect for the Oilers, and quickly caught the attention of the league with a one-of-a-kind shootout winning goal, in his NHL debut no less, which went viral and can still be seen on the NHL’s Youtube. Despite his incredible skills, Omark offered not enough defensive capabilities, nor strength, to solidify himself as an NHLer. Playing in a middle-ground era of the NHL also did no favors. Even though it didn’t work in North America, he went on to have a tremendous career overseas, as a top scorer in the KHL with Ufa Salavat Yulayev from 2015-2020. The veteran won a gold medal at the 2017 IIHF World Championships, and recorded seven assists in four games at the 2018 Olympic Games. In 2025 he helped his hometown club Luleå HF take home their first Swedish Hockey League title in 29 years. Omark wrapped up his final season with Luleå putting up 16 points in 29 games.
Minor Transactions: 4/16/2026
The wave of minor-league assignments is continuing with the NHL regular season nearly completed. Pro Hockey Rumors will continue to track the movement around the AHL in the latest minor transactions tracker:
- The Philadelphia Flyers have recalled goalie prospect Carson Bjarnason in preperation for their first round matchup against the Pittsburgh Penguins. Bjarnason will serve as a black ace with the AHL’s Lehigh Valley Phantoms eliminated from playoff contention. Bjarnason recorded 14 wins and a .887 save percentage in 32 AHL games this season. He also split results, and recorded a .881 save percentage, in two ECHL games. This was Bjarnason’s first year of professional hockey after four seasons with the WHL’s Brandon Wheat Kings. The 20 year old recorded a .903 save percentage across 156 career games in the WHL.
- The Colorado Avalanche are also padding their room of black aces, recalling forwards Alex Barre-Boulet and Jason Polin. Both players spent the bulk of their year in the AHL. Barre-Boulet led the Colorado Eagles with 26 goals and 70 points in 69 games – and added one assist in the only NHL game of his season. Polin was slightly less productive, with 21 points in 45 AHL games and no scoring in three NHL games. The duo will offer forward depth behind an Avalanche squad that has rotated through injuries this season.
- Forward Cole O’Hara could make his NHL debut in the Nashville Predators’ season finale. The 23 year old has been called up after leading the Milwaukee Admirals in goals (19) and ranking fourth in points (44) through 65 games this season. This was also O’Hara’s first pro season after three years at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. He had a breakout season last year, netting 22 goals and 51 points in 40 games – 33 more points than he managed in 37 games of the 2023-24 season. O’Hara kept that scoring up through his rookie season in the AHL and could now get a chance to score against NHL talent.
- Headed back to the minors is goaltender Brandon Halverson, who recently helped the Tampa Bay Lightning respond to Jonas Johansson‘s short-term injury. Halverson recorded one loss and a .810 save percentage in 57 minutes – and two games – of NHL action this season. He started for the Syracuse Crunch for much of the year and recorded 24 wins and a .906 save percentage in 42 AHL games. He’ll now return to his post to help Syracuse keep up their strong play into the Calder Cup Playoffs.
- The Calgar Flames have also called up a goaltender. Prospect Arsenii Sergeev is on the NHL roster under emergency conditions with Devin Cooley set to miss Calgary’s season finale due to illness. Sergeev will make his NHL debut in game 82. The 24 year old recorded five wins and a .898 save percentage in 28 AHL games this season. He also split results, and recorded a .922 save percentage, in 12 ECHL games. Sergeev was a strong starter in college, recording save percentages north of .910 in two seasons with the University of Connecticut and one season at Pennsylvania State University. Thursday could be the bright side to a quiet season for the first-year pro.
- Top Edmonton Oilers prospect Isaac Howard has been loaned to the AHL. He will support the Bakersfield Condors’ push in the Calder Cup Playoffs. Howard scored 22 goals and 47 points in 45 AHL games this season. He ranked second in goals on Bakersfield and was the only Condor to score above a point-per-game pace this season. Howard also scored five points in the first 29 games of his NHL career this season. The 2025 Hobey Baker Award winner is also a first-year pro and should fill a substantial role in the AHL postseason.
- The Washington Capitals have assigned 2025 second-round pick Milton Gastrin to the AHL following the end of his season in Sweden’s HockeyAllsvenskan. Gastrin racked up 10 goals and 24 points in 39 games in Sweden’s second-tier pro league and added four more points in 13 playoff games. He scored 42 points in 40 games in Sweden’s U20 league in the 2024-25 season. The bulky Gastrin should bring a boost of forechecking pressure and playmaking ability to the Hershey Bears lineup just in time for their perennial run into the postseason.
- A cohort of top prospects is headed to the Grand Rapids Griffins. The Detroit Red Wings have assigned Michael Brandsegg-Nygard, Carter Mazur, Axel Sandin Pellikka, and Dominik Shine to the minor leagues. Brandsegg-Nygard finished the year third on the Griffins in scoring with 44 points in 58 games. He added one assist in 14 NHL games. Shine finished the year with 37 points in 38 AHL games and three points in 18 NHL games. Mazur was also a point-per-game player in the minors, with 15 points in 14 AHL games – but no scoring in eight NHL appearances. Of the bunch, Sandin-Pellikka was the only to play the bulk of his year in the NHL. He scored 21 points in 68 games of his first season in North America. The quartet should each assume top-end roles on a Griffins lineup that has added a substantial amount of talent late in the season.
Avalanche Assign Jack Ahcan To AHL
Wednesday: The Avalanche announced that Ahcan has been sent back to the Eagles. He played in two games while on recall, playing just shy of 24 minutes between the two games.
Sunday: 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.
Avalanche’s Cale Makar Returns To Full Practice
The Colorado Avalanche received an expected, but exciting, update at Monday morning’s practice. Star defenseman Cale Makar was back on the ice in a regular, practice jersey per Avalanche play-by-play announcer Connor McGahey. This marks the next step in Makar’s return from an upper-body injury sustained on March 30th. He has missed six games since.
Colorado has expected Makar to return before the start of the postseason, head coach Jared Bednar said the day after Makar was injured. He will have three more chances to meet that expectation before the end of Colorado’s regular season. The Avalanche have posted a 3-2-1 record and seen their goals-per-game average dip from a league-leading 3.70 to 3.00 since Makar was knocked out of the lineup.
There is no doubt about the impact that Makar brings. He is a perennial candidate for the Norris Trophy honoring the league’s best defenseman. Playing behind an Avalanche squad that led the league in goals-scored and goals-against should be enough to put Makar back in contention for the trophy this year. The 27 year old scored 20 goals and 75 points in 73 games this season. Those marks sit below the career-year Makar posted with 30 goals and 92 points in 80 games last season, which earned him the 2025 Norris Trophy, but are nonetheless impressive. Makar averaged nearly 25 minutes of ice time each game through this season, a mark only five other players outperformed. He will immediately step back into Colorado’s top defense role when he is back to full health, which could be soon after his return to full practice.
The Avalanche did not provide an update on fellow injured defenseman Josh Manson. The team recalled Jack Ahcan to serve as an extra defenseman with Manson out on Saturday. The return of either Makar or Manson should be enough to bump Ahcan back to the AHL and either Nick Blankenburg or Brett Kulak to the press box.
Avalanche’s Jared Bednar To Miss Two Games With Injury
The Colorado Avalanche will be without head coach Jared Bednar for their upcoming two-game road trip as Bednar recovers from facial fractures and a corneal abrasion, per a team announcement.
Bednar will not require surgery and is expected to make a full recovery. The 54-year-old was struck by a puck during yesterday’s contest against the Vegas Golden Knights. While he is away from the team, Avalanche assistant coaches Nolan Pratt and Dave Hakstol will handle Bednar’s coaching duties.
At this time of year, injury-related absences are par for the course. But that’s typically a fact of life late in an NHL season that’s restricted to players – it’s far more rare for a coach to miss time as the result of injuries suffered during a game. But that’s exactly what has happened, although thankfully for all parties involved, the team made it clear that they expect Bednar to make a full recovery.
Bednar is in the midst of another stellar campaign as Avalanche head coach. The Saskatchewan native has been Colorado’s head coach since 2016, and has been in his position longer than any other coach in the NHL, save for Tampa Bay Lightning bench boss Jon Cooper.
While his tenure in Colorado began with a disastrous 22-56-4 campaign, he has since helped turn the Avalanche into one of the league’s most consistently dominant teams.
He hasn’t missed the playoffs since his rookie season behind the bench, and has gone 442-262-75 as Avalanche head coach overall. He is the franchise’s all-time winningest head coach and won the Stanley Cup in 2022.
Avalanche Sign T.J. Hughes
With his college career complete, Michigan center T.J. Hughes was arguably the top player in this year’s free agent class. He has found his next team as the Avalanche announced that they’ve signed him to a one-year, entry-level contract. The deal will begin next season; Hughes has signed a PTO with AHL Colorado for the remainder of 2025-26. PuckPedia reports (Twitter link) that the agreement will carry a $952.5K cap charge with a $1.025MM AAV. That consists of an NHL salary of $850K, a signing bonus of $102.5K, and a $72.5K games played bonus.
Hughes has been one of the top players in the NCAA in recent years. The 24-year-old came up just shy of a point per game in his freshman year at Michigan back in 2022-23, managing 36 points in 39 games. He surpassed that mark in his sophomore and junior seasons, putting up 48 and 38, respectively. That made him a popular speculative candidate to turn pro after each of those years but he opted to return to the Wolverines each time.
That proved to be a good move for Hughes as he saved his best for last. He played in 40 games this season, picking up 22 goals and 35 assists, good for second in Division I scoring. Those efforts made him a finalist for the Hobey Baker Award for the top player in college hockey although that ultimately went to Detroit prospect Max Plante.
Hughes is a nice pickup for the Avs who have seen their prospect and draft pick pools get depleted in recent years with their continued efforts to load up their NHL roster. Hughes was expected to have a strong enough market to really be selective about where he’d land and he’s chosen an organization that should be able to give him big minutes in the minors with the Eagles. While they’ve recently shored up their center situation with the reacquisition of Nazem Kadri and last year’s pickup (and extension) of Brock Nelson, there still could be room for Hughes to make the jump to the NHL as a winger. Either way, it’s a nice addition to Colorado’s prospect pool.
Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman was the first to report the signing.
Valtteri Puustinen Linked To SHL
Only two seasons ago, winger Valtteri Puustinen looked as if he might have locked down a regular NHL role. However, since then, his playing time at the top level has been quite limited. Accordingly, as he’s set to become an unrestricted free agent this summer, it appears he has turned his focus overseas. Expressen’s Mattias Persson and Johan Svensson report that Puustinen is expected to sign with SHL Lulea for next season.
The 26-year-old played in 52 games for Pittsburgh in 2023-24, recording 20 points despite averaging less than 12 minutes per night of playing time. But while that earned him a two-year, one-way deal, that didn’t give him a leg up on a spot for last season as he ultimately spent the majority of it in the minors. He had 16 goals and 19 assists in 48 outings with AHL Wilkes-Barre/Scranton while seeing just 13 games with the Penguins, notching just one goal and two assists.
Meanwhile, Puustinen has yet to see action at the top level this season. Waived by the Pens in training camp, he passed through unclaimed and hasn’t been recalled since then. Back in January, the Avalanche acquired him in a swap for defenseman Ilya Solovyov but while they’ve used several different recalls on the fourth line at times, they’ve not yet given him a chance to do so. Between their two AHL affiliates, Puustinen has 12 goals and 28 assists in 58 games.
Given how things have gone this season, it’s unlikely that Puustinen would be able to land an NHL spot heading into 2026-27 while another one-way deal probably isn’t in the cards either. Accordingly, rather than continue on as a minor leaguer, it appears he’s going to try his hand at playing in Europe for the first time since the 2020-21 season when he played for HPK in Finland.
Avs Hope To Get Makar Back Before Playoffs, Kadri Dealing With Finger Injury
The Avalanche clinched themselves a trophy on Thursday night, securing the Presidents’ Trophy as the team with the best regular season record. They did so without a pair of key veterans in defenseman Cale Makar and center Nazem Kadri. Speaking with reporters postgame including Kyle Newman of The Denver Post, head coach Jared Bednar indicated that he’s hoping to see Makar get back into a game before the playoffs. Sidelined since the end of March due to an upper-body injury, he sits third on the Avs in scoring with 75 points in 73 games. As for Kadri, he’s listed as day-to-day with a finger issue. Acquired just before the buzzer at the trade deadline last month, he has fit in well in his second stint with the team, collecting nine points in 16 games, three of those being power play goals.
Eagles Sign Megna To One-Year Extension
- Veteran forward Jayson Megna will be sticking around in the Avalanche’s organization for another year. Their AHL affiliate, the Colorado Eagles, announced that they’ve signed the 36-year-old to a one-year extension for next season. Megna has played in 204 career NHL contests over parts of 10 seasons, including 49 games with the Avs. This year, he has 26 goals and 25 assists in 66 games with the Eagles, good for second on the team in scoring.
Nazem Kadri Leaves Due To Injury
The Colorado Avalanche shared that Nazem Kadri wouldn’t return against St. Louis as a result of an upper-body injury. It was not immediately evident where the ailment occurred.
With this in mind, Kadri plays a crucial role with match-ups, should the Avalanche go on a deep run this spring. Postgame updates will be watched closely, with the hope that he’ll be good to go for the club’s next game, Thursday, as they host his former team of the Flames.