- The Avalanche officially registered the recall of forward Shane Bowers today, per the AHL’s transactions log, paving the way for him to make his NHL debut tonight. The 23-year-old was a first-round pick (28th overall) back in 2017 and is the final first rounder from that draft class to make an NHL appearance. Bowers is off to a good start with AHL Colorado with six points in his first ten games this season.
Avalanche Rumors
Alex Galchenyuk Signs AHL Contract
Now that he has been cleared from injury, Alex Galchenyuk has signed an AHL contract with the Colorado Eagles, according to Chris Johnston of NorthStar Bets. The veteran forward was in Colorado Avalanche camp on a professional tryout when he suffered the injury, and head coach Jared Bednar had told reporters at the time that he expected him back with the organization at some point.
An AHL deal will allow the 28-year-old to get back up to speed in the minor leagues and try to prove he deserves another NHL deal, a path he has taken before. In 2021, after clearing waivers with the Carolina Hurricanes, Galchenyuk was traded to the Toronto Maple Leafs, who stuck him in the minor leagues to “rebuild” his game. After six excellent appearances with the Toronto Marlies – the only AHL games of his career – Galchenyuk was back up and a regular in the Toronto lineup.
Last season, he scored 21 points in 60 games with the Arizona Coyotes, and headed into the offseason looking for a new opportunity. It seemed like Colorado could be the perfect place, given how much depth they lost at the forward position, but an injury robbed him of the chance. Now, with the Avalanche dealing with injuries upfront, perhaps there will be a new opening for him to reclaim his place as an NHLer.
It is unlikely that Galchenyuk ever returns to the 30-goal scorer he was as a young player in Montreal but perhaps he can carve out a new role as a reliable secondary scoring option deeper in the lineup. He’ll have to prove it for the Eagles first.
Colorado Avalanche Recall Sampo Ranta
The Avalanche have been busy with roster shuffling this season, and their streak of moves continues today with the recall of forward Sampo Ranta from their AHL affiliate, the Colorado Eagles.
This move comes after it was revealed that the Avalanche would be without forward Valeri Nichushkin for a month as he recovers from ankle surgery. Martin Kaut had been playing alongside Evan Rodrigues and Alex Newhook but was sent down on Sunday. This recall paves the way for Ranta to take Kaut’s role on that line, or perhaps he will replace Mikhail Maltsev (who was also sent down) on the team’s fourth line.
Ranta, 22, was a third-round pick at the 2018 NHL draft and has been a solid mid-tier prospect for the Avalanche since he concluded his collegiate career. Ranta was a strong scorer in his final year at the University of Michigan, scoring 31 points in 31 games, and has been a modest scorer at the AHL level with 14 points in 38 games last year.
Ranta has 10 total NHL games on his resume, all coming last season. He’s in a position to grow that number in the coming weeks as the Avalanche look to stabilize their forward corps in the midst of injury troubles that have shaken up the team’s roster.
Valeri Nichushkin Undergoes Ankle Surgery
The Colorado Avalanche will be without some key players for the next little while, according to head coach Jared Bednar. As Peter Baugh of The Athletic tweets from Bednar’s media availability today, Valeri Nichushkin underwent ankle surgery and will be out a month, while Bowen Byram is week-to-week with a lower-body injury. Samuel Girard, who is also missing, is listed as day-to-day.
Nichushkin, who was signed to an eight-year, $49MM extension this offseason, has turned into a legitimate star in the league over the last year. After some strong defensive results in his first two seasons with the Avalanche, his offense spiked in 2021-22 to tally 25 goals and 52 points in 62 games. Even more effective in the team’s Stanley Cup championship run, he came back this season further improved.
Through seven games, Nichushkin had seven goals and 12 points, while playing more than 20 minutes a game thanks to his excellent defensive contributions. Bednar could put him on the ice in basically any situation and without Gabriel Landeskog to start the year, he was the third musketeer with Nathan MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen. Despite now missing four games, Nichushkin still sits fourth in Colorado scoring, only behind those two and Cale Makar. His seven goals are still tied for the team lead.
Now, the team has to move forward without the big Russian forward, for at least another month’s worth of games. Losing Byram as well who was logging nearly 21 minutes a night is another tough blow.
The 21-year-old defenseman seemed completely recovered from the concussion issues that plagued his early career, and was contributing in all situations for the Avalanche. Not only was Byram part of the three-defenseman powerplay that the team was using but he was even taking shifts on the penalty kill and had a shorthanded goal. Turning into a legitimate force, another stretch out of the lineup due to injury is poor timing for the young defenseman. Not only will he take some time to get back up to speed but this is Byram’s platform year, with restricted free agency scheduled for next summer. Missing games will hurt his negotiation, though he will not be arbitration eligible and thus doesn’t have a ton of leverage anyway.
The Avalanche are back in action Thursday evening against the Nashville Predators, the first of a three-game homestand.
Martin Kaut, Mikhail Maltsev Re-Assigned To AHL
The Colorado Avalanche made some roster tweaks early this morning, sending both Martin Kaut and Mikhail Maltsev to their AHL affiliate, the Colorado Eagles. This isn’t the first roster shuffle of the year for either of these players, as both have split time this year between the Eagles and the Avalanche.
Bowen Byram Dealing With Lower-Body Injury
- For those who watched today’s NHL Global Series contest in Tampere, Finland between the Colorado Avalanche and Columbus Blue Jackets, noticeably absent from Colorado’s blueline was Bowen Byram. The defenseman was replaced in the lineup by Jacob MacDonald, who was playing in just his fourth game of the season. Thus far, there is no word on the severity of Byram’s injury, however The Athletic’s Peter Baugh reports that it’s a lower-body injury. While no injury is good news, for Byram, who has dealt with a number of concussion-related issues in his past, having the injury apparently be unrelated to that is somewhat of a relief. The former fourth-overall pick is off to a strong start to the season, scoring two goals to go with three assists in 10 games to date.
Lower-Body Injury For Ben Meyers With The Eagles
- The Avalanche sent Ben Meyers down to the minors a couple of weeks ago to get some playing time after having a very limited role with the big club earlier in the season. However, as Bennett Durando of The Denver Post relays (Twitter link), the 23-year-old suffered a lower-body injury in his second game with the Eagles. He’s hoping to get back on the ice within a week but this certainly isn’t helping his development in his first full professional season.
Valeri Nichushkin Misses Second Straight Game
- Colorado Avalanche forward Valeri Nichushkin will miss his second straight game tonight with a lower-body injury, per The Denver Post’s Bennett Durando. Nichushkin remains day-to-day and the team’s “hope” is that he rejoins the squad for their first practice in Finland, ahead of their Global Series matchup next week against the Columbus Blue Jackets in Tampere. Despite missing a game already, Nichushkin still holds the team lead in goals (seven) and points (12).
Colorado Avalanche Reassign Jayson Megna, Recall Mikhail Maltsev
The Colorado Avalanche have made a roster swap today ahead of a week-long East Coast road trip, reassigning forward Jayson Megna to the AHL’s Colorado Eagles and recalling forward Mikhail Maltsev.
Megna has played five games this season, including three with the Avalanche and two with the Eagles. The veteran of 408 AHL games is entering his fourth season in the Avalanche organization and has one point in those two games with the Eagles. He’s coming off one of his strongest AHL campaigns on record, recording 33 points in 38 games.
The 32-year-old Megna offers less upside than the 24-year-old Maltsev, though, who’s struggled to find a full-time role in Colorado after recording nine points in 33 games with the New Jersey Devils in 2020-21. He’s been off to a strong start in the minors, though, recording four assists through four games to help fuel a 2-2-0 start. The Avalanche are looking for a depth spark, as they’ve got just two goals from their bottom six to start the year. The team hopes Maltsev’s strong puck distribution carries over to the NHL for now and can help ignite some depth scoring.
Colorado Avalanche Recall Martin Kaut
Oct 24: While earlier today the Avalanche announced that both Kaut and Megna were recalled, that tweet has now been deleted. The AHL transaction portal has Kaut and Mikhail Maltsev recalled, though the team has not yet confirmed it.
Oct 23: The Colorado Avalanche did some roster tweaking late last night, announcing that they’d sent down forwards Martin Kaut and Jayson Megna to the AHL. The move comes just after the Avalanche concluded a 3-2 win over the Vegas Golden Knights, their third win of this young season.
These two reassignments should not come as a surprise to anyone closely watching the Avalanche’s moves this season. As The Athletic’s Peter Baugh notes, this transaction was likely made with the salary cap in mind rather than for any reasons related to Megna or Kaut’s performance. The Avalanche have precious little cap space to work with, so they choose to send players such as Megna or Kaut to the minors on off days in order to “accumulate” cap space—banked room that will be potentially more useful later in the season.
As can be seen here, both Kaut and Megna have been part of up-and-down transactions multiple times already this season, so it’s definitely reasonable to expect the team to bring one or even both of these players back to their active roster in time for their next game, which is on Tuesday against the New York Rangers. It’s also possible that they go in a different direction with their roster, by either calling different replacements up from their AHL affiliate or rolling with a few extra defensemen in their lineup (which would be a highly unconventional choice).
Both Kaut and Megna have split time this season between the Avalanche’s main squad and their AHL affiliate. The 32-year-old Megna is a longtime veteran depth player who has been on the NHL/AHL bubble since making his professional debut in 2012-13. Kaut, 23, is in a bit of a different situation at this time in his career, as he finds himself on the roster bubble just a few years after being selected 16th overall at the 2018 draft. Like Megna, Kaut is yet to score in his three NHL games this season although he has had some production at the AHL level.