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Avalanche Place Ross Colton On Injured Reserve

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Oct. 30, 12:39 p.m.: Colton sustained a broken foot and will miss six to eight weeks, head coach Jared Bednar said (via Ryan Boulding of NHL.com). He’ll look to make his return in mid-December.

Oct. 30, 8:38 a.m.: The Avalanche placed Colton on injured reserve yesterday, per the NHL’s media portal. He’ll miss Colorado’s next two games at least before being eligible for activation on Nov. 4, but will likely miss more action than that. The Avalanche now have only 11 forwards on the active roster ahead of tonight’s contest against the Lightning, so expect them to either dress seven defensemen or make a corresponding recall later today.

Oct. 29: Avalanche forward Ross Colton is “going to miss some time” after blocking a shot with his foot in yesterday’s loss to the Blackhawks, head coach Jared Bednar told reporters postgame, including Evan Rawal of the Denver Gazette. He was mobile after the game but left Ball Arena in a walking boot.

It’s another tough break for a Colorado forward corps without Gabriel Landeskog, Artturi Lehkonen and Valeri Nichushkin for the entire season and Jonathan Drouin for every game except for the season opener. The latter is getting close to returning, with Rawal reporting over the weekend that Drouin has been upgraded to day-to-day with his upper-body injury. But for a team with Stanley Cup aspirations, missing its top four wingers simultaneously, especially for the better part of a month, rightfully feels like an unending and insurmountable challenge.

Colton, 28, had stepped up to fill those voids as best he could. Expected to be their No. 3 center behind Nathan MacKinnon and Casey Mittelstadt, Colton has shifted to first-line left-wing duties alongside MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen. He’s responded with a team-leading eight goals and a league-leading four power-play goals, averaging 18:38 per game while maintaining his physical standard of play. He leads the team with 28 hits and leads Avs forwards with nine blocks, a tendency that’s unfortunately led to what looks to be a multi-week absence.

While Drouin is nearing a return, there’s no indication of whether he’s an option for tomorrow’s game against the Lightning. If he can, it’ll be a one-for-one swap in the lineup, with Drouin replacing Colton on the top line. The Avalanche also have a full 23-man roster, meaning Colton must take Drouin’s spot on injured reserve. If Drouin can’t return, the Avalanche will likely dress 11 forwards and seven defensemen. They have eight defensemen and three goaltenders on the active roster, so they aren’t carrying an extra forward.

Colton scored the Stanley Cup-clinching goal for Tampa Bay as a rookie in 2021 and had a career-high 40 points in 80 games for the Avs in 2023-24. It was his first season in Colorado after they picked up his signing rights from the Bolts for a 2023 second-round pick. After weeks of negotiations, the restricted free agent inked a four-year, $16MM pact to stick around in Denver. He’s in the second season of that deal and will be an unrestricted free agent in 2027.

Miles Wood Out Day-To-Day With Undisclosed Injury

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Even after recalling T.J. Tynan from AHL Colorado earlier today, the Avalanche won’t have a full complement of healthy forwards for tonight’s game against the Lightning. That’s because winger Miles Wood has been ruled out with the undisclosed injury he’s been playing through for the past few days, head coach Jared Bednar said on Altitude Sports Radio this morning (via Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet).

With Wood out but not headed for injured reserve, the Avalanche don’t have a roster spot for another recall. They’ll dress 11 forwards and seven defensemen tonight, but not in the traditional sense. Instead of rotating in on different defense pairs, Oliver Kylington will pinch-hit as a winger in his first appearance since Oct. 16. He’ll skate on the fourth line with Matthew Stienburg and Chris Wagner while Tynan makes his season debut as a third-line left wing with Parker Kelly and Joel Kiviranta, Daily Faceoff projects. Meanwhile, rookie Nikolai Kovalenko slides up to play top-line duties alongside Nathan MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen in relief of the injured Ross Colton, who himself had been playing top-six minutes in place of the injured Jonathan Drouin.

Avalanche Recall Kaapo Kähkönen From Conditioning Loan

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Oct. 29: Kähkönen is back up from his conditioning loan, reports Meghan Angley of Guerilla Sports. He made two appearances for their farm club over the past few days, recording a .919 SV% and a 2.57 GAA in a pair of losses.

Oct. 24: The Avalanche announced today that they have assigned goaltender Kaapo Kähkönen to AHL Colorado on a conditioning loan. While on the minor-league stint, Kähönen will still count against the salary cap and the 23-man roster.

It’s been a whirlwind few weeks for Kähkönen, who’s yet to suit up anywhere in the regular season. He made a few exhibition appearances for the Jets after signing a one-year, $1MM deal in Winnipeg during the offseason. However, he lost the backup job to Eric Comrie and landed on waivers shortly after the season started. Colorado claimed him, but visa issues relegated him to the non-roster list for a few days. He was reinstated ahead of this week’s contests, but he was a healthy scratch in their last two games while Justus Annunen started and Alexandar Georgiev backed up.

The loan can last up to 14 days, after which Kähkönen would need to be placed on waivers again if the Avalanche want to keep him in the minors. The move is good news for Kähkönen, who now gets the chance to get his feet wet after sitting on the shelf entirely for the past few weeks despite being medically available to play. The 28-year-old last played in the AHL with the Iowa Wild in 2019-20 while a part of the Minnesota organization, posting a .927 SV% in 34 games en route to being named the league’s best goaltender.

Kähkönen began last season in San Jose, posting a 6-20-3 record, .895 SV%, 3.81 GAA, and -8.7 GSAA in 31 appearances for the Sharks. He was dealt to the Devils at the trade deadline, where he closed out the season with a strong .923 SV% and 2.51 GAA in six appearances despite a 1-4-0 record. The Finland native has an .899 SV% and 3.33 GAA in 139 career NHL appearances over the past five seasons.

Snapshots: Drouin, Rempe, Lazar

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Evan Rawal of The Denver Gazette is reporting that injured Colorado Avalanche forward Jonathan Drouin is being upgraded to day-to-day, an indication that he could return to action soon. Drouin hasn’t dressed for a game since he suffered a lower-body injury in the first game of the season back on October 8th. The 29-year-old is reportedly still dealing with some pain but should be able to return when he is cleared to do so.

Colorado has not had issues putting the puck in the net this season. However, they are still without the services of several forwards and will be happy to have Drouin’s services when he gets back into the lineup.

In other notes from around the league:

  • The New York Rangers have reportedly recalled forward Matt Rempe from the Hartford Wolf Pack of the AHL (as per AHL Transactions). The 22-year-old was assigned to the AHL on Friday and dressed in two games with Hartford, where he was held without a point and went -3. New York had lent Rempe to Hartford to try and get him more playing time, but with a matchup this week against the Washington Capitals, and more specifically, Tom Wilson, the Rangers opted to bring the big man back to the NHL.
  • New Jersey Devils forward Curtis Lazar left tonight’s game against the Anaheim Ducks and did not return (as per Mike Morreale of NHL.com). The 29-year-old collided with Ducks captain Radko Gudas when Gudas tried to execute an ill-timed hip check on Lazar, which resulted in an awkward-looking collision. Lazar appeared unable to put any weight on his left leg as he exited the game and did not return for the third period. He played just 4:40. In a post-game interview, Devils head coach Sheldon Keefe told reporter Gabriel Trevino that Lazar will miss some time.

Miles Wood And Ross Colton To Play Tonight

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Matt Martin’s recently signed one-year deal with the New York Islanders will pay him a prorated salary of $775K for the season (as per PuckPedia). Martin’s deal is a one-way contract with an AAV of $875K, meaning he will make $775K in the AHL or NHL. The contract also includes a $100K bonus if the 35-year-old plays ten games in the NHL this season.

The bonus in the contract is a bit peculiar given that the Islanders were likely the only suitor for Martin’s services after he lingered unsigned in free agency for over three months. However, the $100K bonus won’t impact New York much as they can roll any overage into next season when they will have over $20MM in cap space.

In other evening notes:

  • Colorado Avalanche forwards Miles Wood and Ross Colton are expected to play tonight when the Avalanche take on the Ottawa Senators (as per Meghan Angley of Guerilla Sports). Both players missed team practice yesterday after they were banged up in Thursday night’s game against Utah. Colorado head coach Jared Bednar told the media yesterday that the team was trying to allow the players to recover so that they wouldn’t miss any game time. It would appear the tactic worked, which is good news for a team that has lost a pile of man games this season.
  • Pittsburgh Penguins forward Bryan Rust left last night’s game against the Vancouver Canucks with a lower-body injury (as per Ryan Gagne of The Hockey News). The 32-year-old was run into the boards by Canucks forward Nils Hoglander, who had some choice words for him as he left the ice. The Penguins were quick to rule the veteran out for the remainder of the game which isn’t a great sign for the struggling club moving forward. Pittsburgh has yet to provide an update and returned to Pittsburgh today after a disastrous road trip through Western Canada that saw the Penguins go 0-3-1. Pittsburgh plays at home on Tuesday against the Minnesota Wild.

Avalanche Recall Chris Wagner, Reassign Calum Ritchie To OHL

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Colorado Avalanche forward Calum Ritchie still had three games to play before burning the first year of his entry-level contract but the organization has opted to make its move prematurely. The Avalanche announced they reassigned Ritchie to the OHL’s Oshawa Generals and recalled forward Chris Wagner in a corresponding roster move.

Ritchie’s first seven games of his NHL career were somewhat of a mixed bag. He scored one goal in his first three contests while averaging 14:47 of ice time per game but didn’t have much to offer in the following four appearances. His ice time began dropping in Colorado’s loss to the Boston Bruins on October 16th and finished with just over seven minutes in last night’s win over the Seattle Kraken.

He primarily played on a line with Casey Mittelstadt and fellow rookie Nikolai Kovalenko as the trio collected five games together. The group finished with a net zero rating in x Goals For per 60 minutes and x Goals Against per 60 minutes according to MoneyPuck which is fair production from a line carrying two rookies.

Ritchie will continue his season on a Generals team including 2024 NHL Draft standouts Beckett Sennecke and Luca Marrelli. All signs indicate Ritchie will crack Team Canada’s U20 Roster for the 2024 IIHF World Junior Championships and help the Generals expand upon their 5-5-1 record through their first 11 contests.

Replacing Ritchie in the lineup will be Wagner who’s already managed two games with the Avalanche on the year. Colorado may not trust him with middle six minutes like Ritchie so don’t be surprised to see Ivan Ivan or Matthew Stienburg move up a line.

It’s important to note that Evan Rawal of The Denver Gazette shared earlier that Artturi Lehkonen and Jonathan Drouin could be close to a return giving more context to the early roster move for Ritchie. Both would represent immediate placements in the team’s top six giving Ritchie access to much less ice time than he started the campaign with.

Injury Updates On Artturi Lehkonen, Jonathan Drouin

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  •  Evan Rawal of The Denver Gazette shared a few injury updates regarding Colorado Avalanche forwards Artturi Lehkonen and Jonathan Drouin. Lehkonen, who has not played since Colorado’s series-clinching loss to the Dallas Stars in Round Two of the 2024 Stanley Cup playoffs, is continuing to recover from offseason shoulder surgery. He is meeting with doctors once the team returns to Denver later this week and is hopeful he will be cleared. Drouin is working his way back from an upper-body injury and will be re-examined once the team returns from their three-game road trip.

    [SOURCE LINK]

Avalanche Expected To Activate Devon Toews, Assign Chris Wagner

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The Colorado Avalanche are expected to soon activate defenseman Devon Toews off of injured reserve and assign forward Chris Wagner to the AHL, per Evan Rawal of the Denver Gazette. Colorado placed Toews on IR on October 20th, retroactive to October 14th, with a lower-body injury. It still isn’t clear when Toews picked up the injury. He played through 22 minutes of ice time in Colorado’s second game of the year, but appeared as a late scratch in the subsequent game and continued to be downgraded until he was formally placed on IR. Wagner was recalled on October 20th, after Colorado placed winger Jonathan Drouin on IR with an upper-body injury.

Toews returned to his usual top-pair role and recorded one assist, two penalties, and three blocks in the first two games of Colorado’s season. He spent the bulk of that time next to Avalanche superstar Cale Makar. The two spent a team-leading 1,031 minutes of even-strength time together last season. Toews managed to reach the 50-point mark for a third-straight season in the role, adding double-digit goals (12) for the second time in his career.

Samuel Girard has stepped into the top-line role in Toews’ absence, recording one assist in four games with the boosted role. That won’t be enough to sustain the top role with Toews returning, likely moving Girard back to a pairing with Josh Manson and giving Colorado a choice between two of Calvin de Haan, Sam Malinski, Oliver Kylington, and John Ludvig for their bottom pair.

Meanwhile, Wagner will return to the minors after working into the lineup twice on his recall. He didn’t do much with the chances – recording three hits, three shots, one penalty, and a -1 while averaging fewer than seven minutes of ice time. Wagner’s departure will open more room for rookies Ivan Ivan and Matthew Stienburg to continue carving out a role, though Ivan’s sole assist in six games is the only scoring between the two. He’s one of six Avalanche forwards with just one point on the year, alongside linemate Joel Kiviranta and popular rookie Calum Ritchie – who each have one goal.

Avalanche Place Jonathan Drouin On Injured Reserve

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Oct. 22: According to the league’s media portal, Wagner was returned to AHL Colorado at some point yesterday. He sat in the press box for Sunday’s win over the Sharks.

Oct. 20: The Colorado Avalanche have placed forward Jonathan Drouin on injured reserve with an upper-body injury and recalled Chris Wagner. Drouin played a hardy 21:25 of ice time in Colorado’s season opener and didn’t seem limited, but he hasn’t skated since. Avalanche head coach Jared Bednar recently shared that Drouin would be reevaluated on October 28th, setting him up to miss at least five more games.

Colorado signed Drouin to another one-year contract this summer, awarding him a $1.675MM raise over his previous deal after he scored a career-high 56 points last season. It was a much-needed breakout year for Drouin, who found quick comfort playing next to former Halifax Mooseheads teammate Nathan MacKinnon. The duo contributed to a fantastic 97-14-11 record over two years together in Halifax, capping off their tandem with the first Memorial Cup win in Mooseheads history. Their chemistry translated to Colorado, where Drouin spent 940 minutes, or 65 percent of his total ice time, on the ice with MacKinnon.

Drouin was lined up to continue that top-line role this season, but in his absence, it’s instead gone to Ross Colton. Colton’s taken full advantage of the expanded minutes, scoring four goals and five points in his last four games. Meanwhile, Wagner will join a crowded bottom six, set to compete with Matthew Stienburg and Ivan Ivan for a fourth-line role. Both Stienburg and Ivan are playing through the first games of their NHL careers, though neither has been particularly inspiring – with Stienburg going scoreless through two games and Ivan posting one assist in five games. Wagner hasn’t found much production of his own but does offer 375 games of NHL experience and served as Colorado’s de facto call-up last season. He’ll look to return to his role of fourth-line glue guy quickly as the Avalanche look to buck a dismal 1-4-0 start to the season.

Goaltending Struggles Could Reignite Colorado's Interest In Mackenzie Blackwood

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  • Subpar goaltending has been a major storyline for the Colorado Avalanche early in the 2024-25 NHL season. On his ’32 Thoughts’ podcast, Elliotte Friedman reported the Avalanche had previous interest in San Jose Sharks’ goaltender Mackenzie Blackwood and may circle back should their goaltending woes continue. Blackwood has struggled to start the season with a .875 save percentage through three games but is an obvious trade candidate on an expiring contract for a rebuilding organization. There’s no deal expected soon but don’t be surprised to see Colorado make a major push for Blackwood by American Thanksgiving if they can’t get their goaltending straightened out.
  • Sticking in Colorado — Evan Rawal of The Denver Gazette reports the Avalanche are undecided on returning forward Calum Ritchie to his junior team in Oshawa to save a year on his contract. Ritchie is five games shy of burning the first year of his entry-level contract and has scored one goal on the season. His -7 rating through five games doesn’t invoke positive thoughts but much of that can be laid at the feet of the goaltending with Ritchie managing a +0.7 E+/- according to Hockey Reference. Re-ignite.

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