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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.

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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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Avalanche Provide Updates On Kaapo Kahkonen And Valeri Nichushkin

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While Colorado added some goalie depth a little more than a week ago with the claiming of Kaapo Kahkonen off waivers from Winnipeg, he wasn’t available to them as he went through the work visa process.  However, the team announced (Twitter link) that he has joined the team and will take part in practice with them today, meaning he has cleared that process.

Goaltending has been an issue for the Avs early on this season with Alexandar Georgiev and Justus Annunen combining to allow 24 goals on just 123 shots for a combined save percentage of .805.  While this is certainly a case of a small sample size, it’s also an area of concern with Georgiev struggling at times in the second half of last season.

While Kahkonen is coming off somewhat of a rough year himself that saw him post a 3.64 GAA and a .898 SV% in 37 games between San Jose and New Jersey, he will at least give them another option with some NHL experience with Annunen having just 20 career appearances under his belt.  Kahkonen will likely need a few practices before he’s game-ready with how long he had to sit but he should be a playable option for them before too long.

With Kahkonen joining the active roster, a corresponding move was needed to formally activate him as they were already at the maximum of 23 players.  That was made with the team moving Devon Toews to injured reserve.  His presence there might be short-lived, however, as Evan Rawal of The Denver Gazette notes (Twitter link) that Toews took part in practice for the Avs today.

Meanwhile, the team also revealed that winger Valeri Nichushkin has arrived in Denver and will begin to work out and skate on his own.  He remains in the NHL/NHLPA Player Assistance Program and isn’t eligible to return to NHL action until November 13th.  However, the fact that he is coming to the city several weeks in advance to start working out suggests that he’s on track to return at that time.

For the time being, Nichushkin’s $6.125MM AAV is not counting against Colorado’s cap number.  Assuming he gets the green light next month, he’ll come back on their books.  That said, with Gabriel Landeskog and Tucker Poolman presently on LTIR, they will have enough cap flexibility to activate him without any issues at that time.

Colorado Avalanche Dealing With Multiple Injuries

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The Colorado Avalanche currently have the worst record in the league in the young 2024-25 NHL season and it appears the bad news will continue to pour in. Evan Rawal of The Denver Gazette reports forward Jonathan Drouin will not play tomorrow night due to injury, joining defenseman Devon Toews. Jesse Montano of Guerilla Sports followed up on Rawal’s report sharing that Drouin would “miss some time”.

Factoring in Valeri Nichushkin’s current suspension and the injuries to Gabriel Landeskog and Artturi Lehkonen — the Avalanche have nearly $28MM (31.1%) sidelined due to injury. Few teams have the necessary depth up front to cover that kind of blow and Colorado’s record is proof positive. Much of the blame can be placed at the feet of the organization’s goaltending who have allowed the highest goals-against-per-game average out of the gates and have combined for a -10.7 goals saved above average according to HockeyReference.

The offense has been fairly average early on this season averaging 3.25 GF/G but the Avalanche’s ability to outscore opponents is quickly faltering. The team has the benefit of deploying Nathan MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen who can carry their lines but the substantial issues are growing in the team’s bottom-six.

Colorado’s bottom six has combined for a -3.6 E +/- while MacKinnon alone has managed a league-leading +3.7 E +/-. The conglomeration of miscellaneous parts in the bottom six has failed to generate much offense in the first few games of the season nor are they steering the opposition to do the same.

A slightly below-average bottom-six wouldn’t typically be that concerning to a contending team early on in the regular season. The Avalanche’s goaltending duo of Alexandar Georgiev and Justus Annunen have had the worst start compared to all other teams. Rawal reported that Kaapo Kähkönen’s visa issues are headed toward a resolution meaning Colorado could have a stable netminder join the team soon.

West Notes: Toews, LaCombe, Spence

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Colorado Avalanche defenseman Devon Toews will not dress tonight when the team takes on the Boston Bruins (as per Avalanche play-by-play announcer Conor McGahey). The 30-year-old will miss his second consecutive game with a lower-body injury as the Avalanche will be looking to get into the win column for the first time this season.

Colorado has started the year 0-3 as they try to overcome a growing list of injury concerns. They will be in tough against the Bruins without the services of Toews. Oliver Kylington will take Toews’s place on the top pair once again alongside Cale Makar, while Sam Malinski will likely occupy Toews’s spot on the second power-play unit.

In other Western Conference notes:

  • Anaheim Ducks defenseman Jackson LaCombe took the morning skate with the team but won’t play tonight as he continues to deal with an illness (as per Derek Lee of The Hockey News). The 23-year-old has yet to play this season as he will miss his third consecutive game to start the year. The Eden Prairie, Minnesota native signed a two-year $1.85MM extension with the Ducks in July and will likely compete with Olen Zellweger for a spot in Anaheim’s defense core going forward.
  • Dennis Bernstein of The Fourth Period is reporting that the Los Angeles Kings scratched Jordan Spence tonight against the Toronto Maple Leafs. The Kings opted for a third pairing of Caleb Jones and Andreas Englund which is very telling given the commitment Los Angeles showed to Spence in the summer by signing him to a two-year deal worth $3MM. The 23-year-old has had an abysmal start to the season, getting pinned in the defensive zone regularly while struggling with turnovers. The Kings hoped Spence would claim a spot on their backend after Matt Roy departed to Washington in free agency, but his struggles have become too much for the Kings to ignore. Spence’s time in the press box will likely be short-lived though as the Kings are being throttled by the Maple Leafs tonight and are sure to make changes before they take the ice tomorrow night against the Montreal Canadiens.

Avalanche Recall Matthew Stienburg For NHL Debut

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Avalanche center prospect Matthew Stienburg will make his NHL debut tonight against the Bruins after the team announced he’d been recalled from AHL Colorado. Forwards Ivan Ivan and Nikolai Kovalenko were also brought back up to give the Avs 12 healthy forwards for tonight’s game after being papered down earlier in the week. Veteran Chris Wagner, who was sent down along with Ivan and Kovalenko, remains in the AHL.

Colorado’s 23-man roster is full after the moves. They had 10 forwards on the active roster, but one of them, Jonathan Drouin, remains day-to-day with an upper-body injury and can be placed on IR if they need an additional roster spot.

Stienburg, 24, is expected to center Ivan and Joel Kiviranta to comprise Colorado’s fourth line in his NHL debut, filling in for the role that Wagner held in their 6-2 loss to the Islanders on Monday. The 2019 third-round pick is off to a strong start in the AHL with the Eagles, scoring a goal and adding an assist through his first two games of the season.

Drafted out of the Canadian high school circuit, Stienburg played his college hockey at Cornell from 2019 to 2023. There, the 6’1″ pivot had 20 goals and 46 points in 73 games and was named to the ECAC’s Second All-Star Team in 2021-22, when he broke out for 29 points in only 28 contests. Injuries and COVID slashed Stienburg’s availability throughout school, costing him his entire sophomore season and limiting him to seven points in 18 games during his senior year. He’s in the final year of his two-year entry-level contract that he signed in August 2023.

Last season was Stienburg’s first as a full-time professional. He made 54 appearances for the Eagles, but wasn’t a factor offensively with just five goals and eight assists for 13 points with 63 PIMs and a +2 rating. In an extremely small sample size this year, he looks more comfortable with the pro game and will now get at least a brief look to see how his game grades out against NHL competition.

Central Notes: Wild, Avalanche, Korchinski

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The Minnesota Wild have shared that  Jared Spurgeon (lower-body) and Joel Eriksson Ek (broken nose) will both miss the team’s Tuesday night matchup against St. Louis. Forward Marcus Johansson is also questionable with an undisclosed injury, shares Michael Russo of The Athletic. Johansson was absent from the team’s Tuesday morning practice, while both Spurgeon and Eriksson Ek also missed the team’s Sunday game.

Injury news hasn’t favored Minnesota through the early going. The absentees – Spurgeon and Eriksson Ek – stand as two of the most-utilized Wild skaters, each playing over 19 minutes of ice time in the team’s season debut. Eriksson Ek recorded an assist and three shots in the outing, while Spurgeon’s only recorded stat was a pair of shots. The duo are both pillars of Minnesota’s lineup, and they left big shoes to fill when they went down with injuries. The Wild responded by moving Zach Bogosian and Marco Rossi into bigger roles on Sunday, though that outing resulted in an overtime loss to Winnipeg.

Minnesota now not only has to find fill-ins for a pair of top-liners, but could also need a replacement for Johansson’s spot on line-three. Johansson has recorded two points in three games through the early going – one of just five Wild with multiple points so far. It’ll be extra forward Travis Boyd who steps in, should Johansson be downgraded to out.

Other notes from the Midwest:

  • The Colorado Avalanche also have a pair of injury updates, announcing that defender Devon Toews (lower-body) is hopeful for the team’s Wednesday game, while forward Jonathan Drouin (upper-body) has been ruled out, per Corey Masisak of The Denver Post. Drouin seemed to suffer an injury in Colorado’s season opener last Wednesday, and has missed both games Colorado has played since. No specifics of his injury have been revealed. Toews also missed Colorado’s most recent game. The specifics of his injury are also unclear, especially with no clear indication of when the injury occurred. Oliver Kylington filled Toews’ role on the top-pair in his’ absence, and stands to continue garnering more minutes should the star sit out once again.
  • Chicago Blackhawks defenseman Kevin Korchinski scored a flashy, coast-to-coast goal in the AHL Rockford IceHogs’ season debut, leading to conversations about when Korchinski may be ready to return to the NHL. He played in 76 games on a deprived Blackhawks blue-line last season, but posted a less-than-inspiring 15 points and -39. That prompted Chicago to assign him to the minors to start this season, with Hawks general manager Kyle Davidson telling Scott Powers of The Athletic that the team hopes it’ll boost Korchinski’s confidence. Davidson acknowledged that the team may have asked too much of the rookie last season, and that building up his confidence will be top priority in the AHL. He told Powers, “You just want him to get that confidence back that he had in junior, and that’s going to take time, especially at the pro level.” IceHogs head coach Anders Sorensen agreed with Davidson, adding that he’s encouraging Korchinski to drive the puck downhill and challenge opposing forwards more. The 20-year-old defender certainly showed that ability with his inaugural AHL goal, and could be on a quick route back to the NHL roster once he gains the confidence to do that routinely.

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