Avalanche Place Ross Colton On LTIR, Recall Four From AHL
The Avalanche made a series of roster moves today as they continue their trend of making close to daily transactions. PuckPedia notes (Twitter link) that forward Ross Colton has been placed on LTIR. With the extra cap space, the team announced (Twitter link) that forwards Chris Wagner, Ivan Ivan, Nikita Prishchepov, and defenseman Keaton Middleton were all recalled from AHL Colorado.
While Colton’s LTIR placement might imply that he’s not close to returning, that isn’t the case. Evan Rawal of Colorado Hockey Now relays (Twitter link) that the 28-year-old will accompany the team on its five-game road trip and that when he does return, he’ll start on the wing even though he’s a natural center. What the placement does is open up one extra roster spot, allowing them to have a bit more depth on their roster heading into the start of that trip.
Colton got off to a particularly strong start for the Avs this season, tallying eight goals and an assist while averaging 18:38 per game, well above his career average of under 13 minutes a night. However, he suffered a foot injury in late October and only resumed skating recently.
The three forwards have been shuffled back and forth on a frequent basis this season in an effort to bank cap space and were papered down to the minors on Sunday. Ivan has been the most successful by far, tallying five goals and three assists while playing in all 25 games. Meanwhile, Wagner has a goal in 14 outings while Prishchepov, a seventh-round pick back in June, has been held off the scoresheet in his first seven career NHL appearances.
As for Middleton, it’s his first NHL recall since 2021 when he got into three games with the Avalanche. Since then, the 26-year-old has played exclusively in the minors with the Eagles. After putting up 15 points and 136 penalty minutes in 71 games last season, Middleton has four assists and 11 penalty minutes in 17 AHL appearances in 2024-25. He’ll be eligible for unrestricted free agency next summer.
West Notes: Avalanche, Wild, Ehlers
The Colorado Avalanche have assigned forwards Ivan Ivan, Nikita Prishchepov, and Chris Wagner to the minor leagues in what appears to be a paper transaction. The move will help Colorado accrue morsels of salary cap before their next game on Tuesday. Injuries have continued to pile up in Colorado, pushing all three players into Saturday’s loss to Edmonton.
Ivan stamped his spot on the third line with a two-goal game last week, but he hasn’t managed any more scoring in the three games since. Still, he’s received far more attention than Wagner and Prishchepov, who respectively recorded a measly five and six minutes of ice time in Colorado’s last game. The trio make up the bulk of Colorado’s bottom-six ice time, and the Avalanche will now take advantage of their waiver exemption status to bank some daily cap space.
In other Western Conference notes:
- Minnesota Wild general manager Bill Guerin reportedly did not want to include defenseman Daemon Hunt in the trade package the was used to pluck David Jiricek from the Columbus Blue Jackets yesterday (as per Dylan Loucks of The Hockey News). The Wild sent Hunt and four draft picks to Columbus to acquire Jiricek and a fifth-round pick, and Guerin told the media that he hated including Hunt in the deal but felt that the price he paid to acquire the former sixth-overall pick was fair. The Wild paid a heavy price to acquire the 21-year-old Jiricek, but if he develops into the defenseman the Wild expect, he and current Wild defender Brock Faber will give the team a solid core to build around for years to come.
- Winnipeg Jets forward Nikolaj Ehlers missed today’s game against the Dallas Stars and is day-to-day with a lower-body injury (as per Mike McIntyre of the Winnipeg Free Press). Jets head coach Scott Arniel didn’t have much in the way of an update after today’s game but did tell the media that Ehlers will see the team doctors in Winnipeg tomorrow. Ehlers is in the final season of a seven-year $42MM contract and will become an unrestricted free agent next July. The 28-year-old has had a fantastic start to the season with nine goals and 16 assists in 24 games.
Avalanche Issue Multiple Injury Updates
The season has brought a never-ending string of injuries for the Colorado Avalanche. They’re facing absences to five different players – including Gabriel Landeskog and Ross Colton, who are each on injured reserve, and Jonathan Drouin, who is week-to-week. Unfortunately, their injury list is only going to grow longer – with Meghan Angley of Guerilla Sports sharing that Oliver Kylington is day-to-day, Josh Manson is week-to-week, and Miles Wood is month-to-month. All three players are dealing with upper-body injuries.
Manson’s injury is the most pressing of the new set. The top-four defender left the team’s Friday loss to Dallas in the second period after falling awkwardly into the boards. He dropped his gloves immediately and seemed to be favoring his wrist or hand. Manson has been a key piece of the Avalanche blue-line with reliable depth injured around him. He averaged nearly 20 minutes of ice time through five games before injury, recording one assist and seven shots on net in the role. Manson’s season-long stat line sits at six points, 16 penalty minutes, and a team-leading 51 hits in 24 games. He was replaced on Saturday by John Ludvig, playing in just his sixth game of the season. Ludvig has two points and 11 hits this season – putting him on pace to rival Manson’s stats across 24 games, if he keeps up this pace of points and hits.
Kylington’s injury is also new. Kylington seemed to sustain the injury in Colorado’s Wednesday win over Vegas. He didn’t play in either game this weekend, and is now confirmed as needing a bit more time until he’s back to full health. Kylington has two points, four penalty minutes, and a -2 through eight appearances this season. He’s been a depth defender at-best when the lineup calls on him, but Manson joining the list of injuries could open more of a role if Kylington returns soon.
The injuries to the forward group are old news by this point. Drouin’s upper-body injury is technically new, suffered on November 27th, though it returns him to an inactive list that he’s already spent three weeks on this season. Drouin suffered what’s believed to be a separate upper-body injury in Colorado’s season opener, and was placed on injured reserve from October 20th to November 14th. He’s only played in five games this season, but has managed an impressive four points – split evenly – while averaging over 20 minutes of ice time. Miles Wood is in a similar spot, headed to IR from October 28th to November 14th – then reinjuring himself and moving back to the reserve just two weeks later. He’ll now be out for the long-term, depriving Colorado of an impactful depth forward who had three points in 16 games this season.
Colorado already recalled Nikita Prishchepov in response to new injuries, but could also look into a depth defenseman with Manson now out for the foreseeable future. Their best options would likely be veteran depth defenders Jacob MacDonald and Calle Rosen – though both players, and the rest of the Eagles blue-line, are left-handed; the opposite side of right-shot Manson.
Avalanche Recall Nikita Prishchepov, Assign Chase Bradley
The Colorado Avalanche have recalled forward Nikita Prishchepov to the NHL. It’s already Prishchepov’s fifth call-up of the season, with his last stint on the Avalanche roster ending on November 14th. In a corresponding move, Colorado has assigned forward Chase Bradley to the AHL, ending the first call-up of his NHL career after just three days.
Bradley stepped into the first two NHL games of his career on the short recall, but failed to record any notable stat changes while averaging just 5:35 in ice time. It’s Bradley’s first year of professional hockey, after spending the last three seasons climbing the University of Connecticut lineup. He recorded 51 points in 95 games with the Huskies, including 22 points in 31 games last season – good for second on the team in scoring behind Nashville Predators prospect Matthew Wood. While his NHL scoring is yet to come, Bradley has found a bit more production in the minors – posting three goals and four points through his first 17 AHL games.
Prishchepov is in a very similar spot, playing through his first year of professional hockey with a strong start in the minors – six points in 12 games – but so far no scoring through six NHL games. Prishchepov became the third player drafted in the 2024 NHL Draft – and the first selected outside of the top-15 picks – to make his NHL debut. Recording a point would make him just the second 2024 draftee to score, behind first-overall pick Macklin Celebrini.
Predators Acquire Justus Annunen From Avalanche
The Nashville Predators have acquired goaltender Justus Annunen and a 2025 sixth-round pick from the Colorado Avalanche, in exchange for veteran goaltender Scott Wedgewood.
Goaltending has been the sore spot of Colorado’s early season. They’ve already iced four different goaltenders while dealing with nagging injury and inconsistent play from both Annunen and starter Alexandar Georgiev. The latter has seemed to finally get his feet back under him, posting three wins and a .891 save percentage over Colorado’s last five games – an improvement over his season-long stat line of seven wins and a .872 save percentage in 15 games. Perhaps on the back of that momentum, Colorado has decided to buy some added veteran experience for their backup role – acquiring the 32-year-old Wedgewood in his seventh NHL season.
Wedgewood is off to a bit of a shaky start this year, with just one win and a .878 Sv% through five games with Nashville so far. He was a much more notable piece of the Dallas Stars’ success over the last two seasons, recording a .915 in 21 games in 2022-23 and a .899 in 32 games last year. Both performances stood well behind perennial Stars starter Jake Oettinger, convincing Nashville to sign the veteran Wedgewood to a two-year, $3MM contract this summer. That deal, coupled with starter Juuse Saros‘ eight-year, $61.92MM contract extension, effectively pushed top prospect Yaroslav Askarov out of the Predators organization. With no clear path to a starting or backup role in the NHL, Askarov was instead traded to the San Jose Sharks for top prospect David Edstrom, goalie prospect Magnus Chrona, and a 2025 first-round pick.
Predators general manager Barry Trotz told Sportsnet at the time of his trade that the Predators had a robust development plan for Askarov – one that would track him into the Nashville starting role. With the star Russian moved out, Nashville will now replace their role of top goalie prospect with the 24-year-old Annunen. It was meant to be a breakout year for the Finnish netminder, after posting a dazzling .928 in 14 games with Colorado last season; and adding a .908 in 23 AHL games. He won Colorado’s backup role out of training camp, but hasn’t found the same success he showed last season – with a meager six wins and .872 save percentage in 11 appearances. Annunen, originally a third-round pick in 2018, has been lauded as one of the best goalie prospects across the hockey world in recent years – spurred by a four-year, 49-game career in Finland’s Liiga, where he posted 22 wins and a .906. He’s stayed productive in North American pros, with a collective .905 across 114 career AHL games, and a .902 in 29 NHL games, over the last four seasons.
With Wedgewood moved out, Annunen should have a clear path to Nashville’s backup role behind Saros. Starting minutes will be hard to come by – Saros has a .912 in 20 games this season – but Annunen should offer far more upside than career depth-goaltender Wedgewood. Nashville will hope to bank on that upside, while Colorado hopes a greater veteran presence can right their ship – sensible approaches for the teams that respectively rank seventh and fourth in the Central Division.
Kylington Out With Undisclosed Injury
- The injuries continue to pile up for the Avalanche. Evan Rawal of the Denver Gazette relays (Twitter link) that defenseman Oliver Kylington is dealing with an injury and isn’t with the team in Dallas. The 27-year-old has had a quiet start to the season for Colorado, missing time due to illness and being healthy scratched at times. Overall, Kylington has suited up in eight games so far, picking up a goal and an assist but his playing time is just 12:10 per night, more than five minutes below his ATOI with Calgary last season.
Avalanche Place Miles Wood On IR, Recall Chris Wagner
The Colorado Avalanche won’t have forward Miles Wood for at least a week. The organization announced that Wood has been placed on IR and that they’ve recalled forward Chris Wagner from their AHL affiliate, the Colorado Eagles, in his stead.
It’s the second time Wood has landed on the injured reserve this season. He missed seven games from late October to mid-November and was only on his sixth game back from his previous activation.
The injury to Wood may be a re-aggravation of the upper-body injury that kept him out of the lineup a few weeks ago. He tried to deliver a hit in last night’s contest against the Vegas Golden Knights and was visibly in pain after missing his mark. Wood had scored one goal and two points in his six games back from injury with another goal in 10 games prior.
Replacing Wood in the lineup will be a frequent recall of the Avalanche this season. Wagner has already played in 12 games for Colorado this season, one game shy of his total mark from a year ago. With the number of injuries Colorado has had in their forward group, Wagner should easily eclipse that total for the most games he’s played since the 2020-21 NHL season.
Wagner has spent most of his two-year stint with the Avalanche organization just north on I-25 with the Eagles. Since returning to the Avalanche last year, he’s scored nine goals and 15 points in 26 games for AHL Colorado.
Central Notes: Hintz, Lundkvist, Colton, Bortuzzo
Dallas Stars forward Roope Hintz will miss tonight’s game against the Chicago Blackhawks with an undisclosed injury (as per Stars senior staff writer Mike Heika). Hoope reportedly tweaked something and was replaced in the Stars lineup by Colin Blackwell. Hintz has eight goals and five assists in 20 games this season and is on pace to top 30 goals for the third consecutive season, provided he doesn’t miss too much time due to injury.
In other Central Division notes:
- Mike Heika also provided a short update on Stars defenseman Nils Lundkvist who is skating at the moment but isn’t ready to return to the lineup. Lundkvist has missed three straight games with a lower-body injury that he suffered a week ago in a 5-2 win over San Jose Sharks. The 24-year-old has never been one to produce much offense but has been particularly quiet this season with just a single assist in 15 games. His underlying numbers this season have been quite good, particularly his CF% which is at a solid 60%.
- Colorado Avalanche forward Ross Colton is expected to begin skating soon (as per Mile High Hockey). Colton has been out of action since October 28th with a broken foot and is likely on schedule given the original six-to-eight-week recovery timeline that he was given. Colton was having a terrific season prior to going down to injury, as he has eight goals and an assist in ten games this season. The 28-year-old is in his second season with the Avalanche and is coming off a career year last season in which he posted 40 points in 80 games.
- Utah Hockey Club defenseman Robert Bortuzzo was forced to leave last night’s game against the Montreal Canadiens with a lower-body injury (as per Craig Morgan of PHNX Sports). The team hasn’t offered an update on the 35-year-old, but it is expected they will have an update before they take to the ice Friday night against the Edmonton Oilers. Bortuzzo has been in and out of the lineup for much of this season and cleared waivers less than a week ago. The 14-year NHL veteran signed a one-year two-way deal in the offseason with Utah and has served as a depth defenseman.
Avalanche’s Jonathan Drouin Out Week-To-Week
10:06 a.m.: With Drouin set to miss extended time once again, the Avalanche announced they’ve recalled first-year pro Chase Bradley from AHL Colorado. Bradley, 22, has three goals and an assist in 17 games after signing an entry-level deal with the Avs over the summer. Drafted in the seventh round by the Red Wings in 2020, Detroit decided to forego his signing rights after Bradley opted to turn pro after his junior year with the University of Connecticut.
Paper transactions demoting Nikolai Kovalenko and Ivan Ivan were also reversed, bringing them back up to the NHL roster ahead of tonight’s game against the Golden Knights. The Avs had an open roster spot for Bradley, so Drouin doesn’t need to land on injured reserve to accommodate his recall.
9:29 a.m.: Avalanche winger Jonathan Drouin will be out week-to-week with an upper-body injury, head coach Jared Bednar said on 92.5 FM Altitude Sports Radio on Wednesday (via Evan Rawal of the Denver Gazette).
Drouin, 29, missed Monday’s 8-2 defeat at the hands of the Lightning with the ailment. It’s unclear when he sustained the injury and if it’s related to the upper-body issue he suffered in the season opener that cost him 16 games.
The Quebec native had just recently returned to action from that previous upper-body issue on Nov. 15. His most recent appearance, a 7-4 win over the Panthers on Saturday, was easily the best performance of his five showings this season. He played a season-high 23:37 and scored twice on four shots, his first two goals of the campaign.
The 11-year veteran now faces another longer-term absence in an injury-riddled 2024-25 campaign for the Avs. They’ve had at least three regular forwards out of the lineup for most games this season, including a brief stretch around Halloween where they were without four of their top five wingers. They were down to just captain Gabriel Landeskog and Ross Colton being unavailable for the past few games, but they’ll again be without a trio of top-nine pieces for the next couple of weeks. Colton isn’t due back until the middle of December after sustaining a broken foot late last month.
Drouin has almost exclusively served as Colorado’s top-line left wing alongside former major junior teammate Nathan MacKinnon in his brief action this season, although he has seen a few reps on the second line alongside Casey Mittelstadt and Valeri Nichushkin. He had four points in five games while averaging a career-high 20:40 per game, on pace for the best year of his career if not for his upper-body injuries.
The third overall pick in the 2013 draft is coming off a career-best 2023-24 campaign, his first in Colorado. He recorded a career-best 37 assists, 56 points, a +12 rating, and 33 blocks en route to receiving a one-year, $2.5MM deal to return to the Avs on July 1.
Rookie Ivan Ivan slid into a top-six role alongside Mittelstadt and Nichushkin with Drouin out on Monday and could continue to do so on a trial basis. The 22-year-old has been passable, with eight points in 22 games to pair with strong possession numbers (54.3 CF%, 52.0 xGF%).
Upper-Body Injury For Drouin
- Avalanche winger Jonathan Drouin has been limited to just five games this season after missing more than a month due to an upper-body injury. Now, the team announced (Twitter link) that he’s dealing with another upper-body injury, one that kept him out of the lineup against Tampa Bay. Drouin has been productive when in the lineup as he has two goals and two helpers in his limited appearances so far.