Samuel Girard Returns To Full Practice Following Concussion
- Colorado Avalanche defender Samuel Girard has returned to full practice, wearing a regular jersey at the team’s Sunday morning skate per Colorado Hockey Now’s Evan Rawal (Twitter link). Girard has been battling a concussion that held him out of the team’s final two regular-season contests. They seem to have benefited from taking their time with the defender, who is now possible for Sunday’s Game One – though nothing has been confirmed. Girard has once again provided stout depth for Colorado, scoring 18 points in 59 games and averaging over 19 minutes of ice time.
Avalanche Notes: Landeskog, O’Connor, Girard
While there has been plenty of speculation over the last calendar year that the Colorado Avalanche may see the return of their captain Gabriel Landeskog by the beginning of the 2024 Stanley Cup playoffs, it appears this theory may have legs. In a report today from Colleen Flynn of The Hockey News, Landeskog will be traveling with the team to Winnipeg to start their first-round series against the Jets.
Infamously, Landeskog’s last game came on June 26th, 2022, the same date that the Avalanche unseated the Tampa Bay Lightning at the top of the hockey world, claiming their third Stanley Cup Championship in franchise history. After the Stanley Cup celebration, however, Landeskog underwent arthroscopic knee surgery and has missed every game since.
Being that a return is unlikely given that it has never been done in the NHL prior, Landeskog’s drive and determination have at least produced non-zero odds of a potential return. As the Avalanche look to make it beyond the first found of the Stanley Cup playoffs this spring, the return of their captain would certainly help their cause.
Other Avalanche notes:
- In the same report from Flynn, forward Logan O’Connor will also be joining the team on their flight to Manitoba. Nevertheless, there has been no indication that O’Connor is close to returning in time for the start of Round One, as he continues to recover from hip surgery that has kept him out of the lineup since the first week of March.
- Unlike O’Connor, one player who is close to a return is defenseman Samuel Girard once again according to Colleen Flynn of The Hockey News. Girard has been out with a concussion for about a week and remains questionable to return for the first game of the series against the Jets. If the Avalanche are able to get a few players back at the beginning of the series, the hockey world saw not all that long ago how dangerous a fully healthy Colorado lineup can be.
Jonathan Drouin Ruled Out For Opening Round Due To Injury; Avalanche Recall Three Players
The Avalanche will be without a key part of their forward group for the opening round against Winnipeg. The team announced today (Twitter link) that winger Jonathan Drouin will miss the first-round series due to a lower-body injury.
The 29-year-old suffered the injury in the second period of Colorado’s regular season finale against Edmonton and did not return. It was a game where Edmonton elected to sit as many of its key players as possible while the Avs elected to dress pretty much their intended playoff lineup, a decision that clearly wound up not working out for them.
After a rough finish to his time with Montreal, Drouin elected to take a low-cost one-year deal with Colorado in the hopes of boosting his value for next summer. After a slow start, he certainly did just that. Drouin produced at nearly a point-per-game level over the final two months of the season, earning himself a full-time promotion to the top line in the process. All told, his first year with the Avalanche ended with 19 goals and 37 assists in 79 games; his 56 points rank eighth among all pending unrestricted free agents.
Colorado only has two extra forwards on their active roster at the moment. One is winger Joel Kiviranta, who had just nine points in 56 games this season. The other is Chris Wagner, who Evan Rawal of Colorado Hockey Now reports (Twitter link) has been recalled from AHL Colorado. Both are better suited as fourth-line depth players so some line reshuffling certainly will be happening before their series gets underway on Sunday.
Not long after the injury, the team confirmed Wagner’s recall while also announcing (Twitter link) that Brad Hunt and Arvid Holm have also been recalled. Hunt, a defenseman, had a very productive year, notching 16 goals and 33 assists in 70 games. Holm, meanwhile, will serve as Colorado’s third-string emergency netminder. The 25-year-old, who will become a Group Six free agent this summer, posted a 2.97 GAA with a save percentage of just .887 in a dozen games with the Eagles this season.
Avalanche Sign Sean Behrens To Entry-Level Contract
The Colorado Avalanche have signed University of Denver defenseman Sean Behrens to his entry-level contract (Twitter link). It’s a three-year deal, set to begin in the 2024-25 season. Behrens will finish this season on an amateur try-out with the Colorado Eagles, who play their final two regular-season games this weekend.
Behrens is coming off a National Championship win with the University of Denver, where he’s spent the last three seasons. He’s earned a prominent role with the Pioneers, ranking third on the team’s blue line in scoring this season with 31 points in 44 games and rotating into top-pair minutes. The performance brought Behrens’ collegiate totals up to 81 points in 112 games – making him Denver’s third-highest scoring defender since 2016, behind Ian Mitchell and Mike Benning.
Colorado drafted Behrens in the second round of the 2021 NHL Draft, following an impressive, yet contentious, couple of seasons with the U.S. National Team Development Program. Behrens served an incredibly important role with the NTDP, operating on his off-hand next to Luke Hughes for much of his U18 season. And while he performed well, some scouts remained bearish given his small stature.
Behrens has directly addressed those concerns in college, putting on mass and adding a substantial amount of grit, strength, and defensive awareness to his game. Those improvements are maybe best quantified by his team-leading 70 blocked shots this season. He’s become a defender that can make an big play in all three zones – whether it be through nifty dangling, an impressive pass, or a big hit. Behrens will certainly face plenty of challenges as he looks to maintain that physicality into the pro scene, but he could find a fast track to success in an Avalanche system that’s brought up similarly undersized talents in Samuel Girard and Tyson Barrie.
Ivan Prosvetov Linked To KHL
After losing his backup spot midseason, it appears Avalanche goalie Ivan Prosvetov‘s days in the NHL are over. He’s set to sign a three-year contract with CSKA Moscow of the Kontinental Hockey League upon reaching Group 6 unrestricted free agency this summer, reports Pavel Panyshev of Championat.
Prosvetov hadn’t played an NHL game since February, when he was placed on waivers and subsequently assigned to AHL Colorado. While he’s two years away from standard UFA eligibility, he qualifies for a Group 6 exemption this summer because he’ll be 25 on June 30th and has played fewer than 28 NHL games while simultaneously completing at least three professional seasons. He was likely to receive interest in the open market after posting a .922 SV% in 20 AHL games, but he’s reportedly opting to return to his native Moscow instead.
The 2018 fourth-round pick of the Coyotes changed organizations early this season when Colorado claimed him off waivers in October. With Pavel Francouz sidelined with a groin injury that forced his retirement, it marked his first shot at a full-time backup gig after four seasons in minor-league roles in Arizona. He made eight starts and three relief appearances in limited action across the first few months of the campaign, both career-highs. He didn’t manage to move the needle much, though, recording a .895 SV% and 3.16 GAA with a 4-3-1 record. They weren’t awful numbers, but not enough to keep him in the majors ahead of higher-ceiling (and younger) prospect Justus Annunen, who’s since secured a roster spot alongside Alexandar Georgiev entering postseason play.
Prosvetov spent most of his junior career in North America, last suiting up in league play in Russia at the U-17 level eight years ago. He’ll likely be the starter for CSKA, filling the role vacated by Flyers netminder Ivan Fedotov when the Russian side terminated his contract a few weeks back. A three-year deal would keep him in the country’s capital through 2026-27.
Pavel Francouz Confirms Retirement
Avalanche netminder Pavel Francouz confirmed his retirement in an interview with ČT Sport on Friday. GM Chris MacFarland told reporters last month that retirement was overwhelmingly likely for the veteran backup due to groin and knee injuries that held him out of the 2023-24 season entirely and marred most of 2022-23. The Czechia native played in parts of four seasons with the Avs.
Francouz played the majority of his professional career overseas, making his top-level debut with his hometown team HC Plzeň in the Czech Extraliga back in 2008-09. He didn’t latch on as a starter until 2012-13 with HC Litvínov, where he remained for three seasons. He was named the best goalie in the Extraliga in two of those campaigns, compiling a .928 SV% and 14 shutouts in 140 games. He was even better in postseason play with Litvínov, putting up a .949 SV%, 1.57 GAA, and six shutouts in 26 games and ending his run with a league championship in 2015.
He then moved to the brighter lights of the Kontinental Hockey League, signing a three-year contract with Traktor Chelyabinsk. Francouz spent another three seasons with the Russian side, earning Best Goaltender and First All-Team honors in the 2017-18 campaign with an impeccable .946 SV%, 1.80 GAA and five shutouts in 35 appearances. He was also the starter for Czechia at the 2018 Winter Olympics, putting up a .905 SV% in six games, but failed to medal.
After six seasons of solidifying his resume as one of the top goalies in Europe, Francouz finally earned his first NHL deal – a one-year, one-way pact with the Avs for the 2018-19 season worth $690K. He spent most of the season on assignment to AHL Colorado, only making two NHL appearances in relief, but won the backup job behind Philipp Grubauer heading into 2019-20. He immediately positioned himself as one of the best backups in the league, posting a .923 SV% in 30 starts and four relief appearances and earning some year-end All-Star consideration. Lower-body injuries unfortunately reared their head immediately, costing him all of the COVID-shortened 2020-21 campaign. Upon his return, he again excelled in a backup role behind Darcy Kuemper, making 21 regular-season and seven playoff appearances as the Avs won the Stanley Cup.
Unfortunately, he would never fully rebound from those lower-body injuries. They limited him to 16 starts in 2022-23 and cost him all of the current season, forcing his retirement at age 33.
Francouz concludes his brief but solid NHL career with a .919 SV%, 2.49 GAA and four shutouts in 64 starts and nine relief appearances. He compiled a 44-21-6 record for Colorado and saved 25 goals above average across his four major league campaigns. PHR congratulates Francouz on a spectacular international career and his solid NHL run and wishes him the best in his post-playing days.
Miles Wood Returns Sunday From Lower-Body Injury
- The Avalanche have the services of depth winger Miles Wood back in the lineup against the Golden Knights today, per the game’s roster report. The 28-year-old had missed three games with a lower-body injury. Wood, who signed a six-year, $15MM contract to join the Avs last offseason, returns in a third-line role with Ross Colton and trade-deadline pickup Brandon Duhaime. He has nine goals and 24 points in 72 games on the year.
Samuel Girard Enters Concussion Protocol
- Avalanche defenseman Samuel Girard left today’s game against the Jets with an upper-body injury and didn’t return, per the team. Head coach Jared Bednar said post-game that he’s entered concussion protocol. It’s a tough blow to a team already reeling from the 7-0 loss to Winnipeg, now primed to lose home-ice advantage in their upcoming first-round series. The 25-year-old Girard has yet again anchored their second pairing behind Cale Makar and Devon Toews, ranking third among Colorado d-men in average time on ice (19:39) and fourth in points per game (0.31). While his three goals and 15 assists in 58 contests have been underwhelming offensive production from the blue-liner, he’s cleaned up his possession game after a difficult couple of seasons. His 55.9 CF% and +7.5 expected rating are his highest since 2020-21.
Rantanen To Return Saturday, Wood Doubtful
It appears as if the Avalanche will get their top winger back in the lineup for a key divisional matchup on Saturday against Winnipeg. NHL.com’s Ryan Boulding relays (Twitter link) that Mikko Rantanen is listed as probable for that contest after missing the last week while being in concussion protocol. The 27-year-old is within striking distance of setting a new career-high in points as he has 102 through 77 games so far; he had 105 in 2022-23.
Colorado Avalanche Reassign Chris Wagner
Earlier this morning, the Colorado Avalanche announced the organization has reassigned forward Chris Wagner to their AHL affiliate, the Colorado Eagles. While an otherwise unremarkable transaction, the reassignment of Wagner points to the return of Mikko Rantanen to the lineup.
While Rantanen has been out for the team’s last two games due to a concussion, Wagner has been with the team for the better part of two weeks, playing in four of the team’s last five games. In those four contests, Wanger has averaged 6:45 of ice time over 46 shifts, scoring one goal in total.
Before signing a one-year, $775K contract extension with the Avalanche a few days ago, Wagner had primarily been playing in AHL Colorado but has been an oft-called-upon depth forward at the NHL level. Over 13 games with the Avalanche this season, Wagner has scored one goal and two points overall, while also scoring four goals and eight points over 17 games with the Eagles.
With respect to Wagner, Colorado will be more than happy to get Rantanen back into the lineup with three games remaining in the regular season. The Avalanche’s schedule will not get any easier down the stretch after losing an important contest against the Dallas Stars this past weekend. In hopes of earning a fourth-straight Division title, Colorado lines up against the Winnipeg Jets, Vegas Golden Knights, and Edmonton Oilers to close out their regular season.