Sean Behrens Plans To Spend One Or Two More Years At Denver
- After an impressive freshman season at the University of Denver, Avalanche defenseman prospect Sean Behrens told Peter Baugh of The Athletic (subscription link) that he sees himself remaining in college for one or two more years. The 19-year-old was a second-round pick (61st overall) last summer and had 29 points in 37 games as he helped lead the Pioneers to the NCAA title. With Colorado moving blueline prospects Justin Barron and Drew Helleson at the trade deadline, Behrens is now clearly their top prospect on the back end.
Francouz Leaves Friday's Game Early
- Avalanche goaltender Pavel Francouz left Friday’s game against Edmonton early after being hit in the head with a puck on the bench, notes Mike Chambers of the Denver Post. There’s no word on how long the 31-year-old might be out for but any absence would be significant as Francouz has impressed this season with a 2.52 GAA and .918 SV% in 20 games. Justus Annunen has been recalled from AHL Colorado in a corresponding move.
NHL Announces 2022 Global Series
The NHL is going overseas again. The league announced the 2022 NHL Global Series games, which will feature the Nashville Predators, San Jose Sharks, Colorado Avalanche, and Columbus Blue Jackets playing in European cities during the regular season.
Two of those games will open the NHL season. The Sharks and Predators will do battle in a pair of games in Prague, Czechia at O2 Arena on October 7 and 8. Those games follow exhibition matches for both clubs, with the Sharks taking on Eisbaren Berlin in Germany on October 4 and the Predators battling SC Bern in Switzerland on October 3.
Then, a month later, the Avalanche and Blue Jackets will meet in Tampere, Finland for a pair of games on November 4 and 5.
Columbus and Colorado are obvious candidates for games in Finland, since they have some of the biggest current stars the country has produced. Patrik Laine and Mikko Rantanen will be the headliners, though others like Artturi Lehkonen and even general manager Jarmo Kekalainen will certainly draw some attention as well. Laine and Kekalainen are even from Tampere specifically, meaning this is a homecoming of sorts for the Blue Jackets.
It’s no different for the Czech games, where Tomas Hertl of the Sharks will be the big draw. Hertl just signed a massive extension with the Sharks that makes him the team’s highest-paid forward and will lead his club into his hometown a decade after he left for the NHL. Teammate Radim Simek is also from the Czech Republic, as is Nashville goaltender David Rittich, though the latter is not yet signed for next season.
Nazem Kadri Will Return To Lineup Tonight
- Via a cryptic tweet, it appears as though Colorado Avalanche center Nazem Kadri is making his return to the lineup tonight after missing the entirety of April with an upper-body injury. The original hope was that Kadri would be able to recover from the injury, suffered on March 31st against the San Jose Sharks, in time for the playoffs. That goal appears to have been exceeded here, and Kadri will get the chance to add to his career-high 83 points with six games left to go in the season. The team still managed to go 7-1-0 in his absence.
Byram Pondered Ending His Season Back In January, Toews Will Miss Upcoming Road Trip
Back in January, Avalanche defenseman Bowen Byram contemplated not returning this season or even hanging up his skates altogether, relays Mike Chambers of The Denver Post. He had recently returned to Colorado’s lineup before his concussion symptoms returned and had to shut things down at that time. The progress that the 20-year-old made in his recovery nudged him towards trying to come back this season which he did last week and he has gotten into six games since then. Byram’s playing time since then has been a bit limited relative to his early-season usage which is certainly understandable both in terms of allowing him to ease back into things plus Colorado’s top seed in the Western Conference. He could be an interesting wild card for the Avs heading into the postseason as he certainly has given their third pairing a lift.
- Still with Colorado, defenseman Devon Toews won’t suit up tonight and won’t accompany the team on their upcoming three-game road trip, notes Peter Baugh of The Athletic (Twitter link). The good news for the Avalanche is that head coach Jared Bednar indicated that the injury isn’t cause for concern which means he should be good to go for the playoffs, if not a game or two before then. The 28-year-old is logging more than 25 minutes a game on the back end this season, second to only Cale Makar for Colorado.
Ben Meyers To Debut At Home Against Carolina Hurricanes
- The Colorado Avalanche announced that forward Ben Meyers will make his NHL debut tonight as the Avalanche take on the Carolina Hurricanes at home. Colorado signed the undrafted college free agent earlier this week after his season at the University of Minnesota had come to an end at the hands of Minnesota State. A finalist for the Hobey Baker Award, Meyers figures to provide solid scoring depth for a deep, talented Avalanche team as they head into the playoffs. Avalanche Head Coach Jared Bednar said he plans to have Meyers center Andrew Cogliano and Logan O’Connor in tonight’s game.
Colorado Avalanche Sign Ben Meyers
Arguably the top college free agent from this year’s crop was Minnesota captain Ben Meyers, and he has decided on where he’ll start his professional career. The Hobey Baker finalist has signed a two-year entry-level contract with the Colorado Avalanche which begins immediately, meaning he is eligible to play down the stretch but not in this year’s playoffs. The deal has a cap hit of $912,500, and the breakdown, per CapFriendly, is as follows:
2021-22: $807,500 base, $92,500 SB, $25,000 GP bonus
2022-23: $832,5000 base, $92,5000 SB, $212,500 Schedule ‘A’ bonus
Burning the first year of the contract is an obvious selling point for the 23-year-old Meyers, who will become a restricted free agent following the 2022-23 season. Undrafted, he spent three years with the Golden Gophers, becoming one of the most reliable offensive players in the country. In 34 games this season he racked up 17 goals and 41 points, while also being selected to participate in the Olympics for Team USA. On the international stage he was a clear standout, scoring two goals and four points in four games.
Along with Wyatt Aamodt, who signed with the Avalanche earlier this week, Colorado has now brought in two of the captains from this year’s Frozen Four. While Aamodt is more of a depth play, Meyers is a legitimate NHL option right away and was being courted by nearly the entire league. In fact, he could actually see action in the next few weeks despite not being eligible for the playoffs. Colorado has ten games left in the regular season and could slot Meyers into the lineup to help them chase down the Presidents’ Trophy, which brings guaranteed home ice throughout the postseason.
While he wouldn’t be considered a power forward exactly, standing 5’11” and weighing 194-lbs, Meyers is certainly not a perimeter player. Willing to fight through traffic, play in front of the net, and battle in the corners, he’s exactly the kind of player that quickly becomes a fan favorite. That’s exactly what happened in Minnesota, where the Delano native became an alternate captain as a sophomore and one of the most beloved players at the top program by his junior year.
A top-three finish for the Hobey Baker this season capped off an incredible year, though the Gophers would eventually fall to Aamodt and the Minnesota State Mavericks before reaching the NCAA Championship game. With NHL interest likely at an all-time high, it makes sense for him to capitalize on the market and sign with a top NHL team. The Avalanche, of course, have a whole litany of pending unrestricted free agents upfront and could have a number of spots open next season. Nazem Kadri, Andre Burakovsky, Valeri Nichushkin, Darren Helm, Nico Sturm, and Andrew Cogliano are all set to hit the open market this summer, leaving an opportunity for a player like Meyers to grab a full-time spot.
Snapshots: Kadri, Brown, Michigan State
The injury situation for the Colorado Avalanche’s top six forwards went from bad to worse over a week ago when Nazem Kadri went down with an upper-body injury. While the team did expect Kadri to be healthy before the Stanley Cup Playoffs, Colorado Hockey Now’s Adrian Dater reports that he could be back well before then, potentially returning to the lineup within the next week. Kadri actually still leads the Avalanche with 83 points, a mark he’s held as Nathan MacKinnon and Gabriel Landeskog have both missed significant time with injuries this year. The team’s actually only played three games without Kadri, as a sparse schedule over the past week and a half has done them favors. J.T. Compher has filled in Kadri’s spot, registering two points in three games (both came against Pittsburgh on April 5th). With Colorado having a stranglehold on the Western Conference regular-season title, the Avalanche hope to get Kadri back in order to continue building chemistry among their new acquisitions as the playoffs near.
A couple of other hockey-related notes:
- With Logan Brown expected to draw into the St. Louis Blues lineup again tonight, the Blues will no longer receive the conditional fourth-round pick sent to them by the Ottawa Senators in the trade in which they acquired him. The pick, slated to be Ottawa’s 2022 fourth-round selection, is retained by Ottawa if Brown plays in 30 regular-season games this season, which is the mark he’ll hit tonight. The trade will rest as a one-for-one swap for Brown and Zach Sanford, who the Senators flipped to the Winnipeg Jets at this year’s Trade Deadline for a 2022 fifth-round pick. The Blues remain with their own 2022 fourth-round pick.
- There’s coaching news regarding a Big Ten school, but maybe not the one some have been bracing for. Michigan State University announced today that the team has parted ways with head coach Danton Cole, who’d been behind the bench for five seasons with a record of 58-101-12. The team failed to make the NCAA Division I Men’s Ice Hockey Tournament under his tenure, and they haven’t been there since 2012. They’ve only made the tournament twice after winning the national championship in 2007, led by future NHLers Justin Abdelkader, Tim Kennedy, and Chris Mueller.
Colorado Avalanche Sign Wyatt Aamodt
The Colorado Avalanche have landed a top college free agent, signing Wyatt Aamodt to a one-year entry-level contract. The deal will start in 2022-23, and Aamodt will join the Colorado Eagles on an amateur tryout for the rest of this season. Aamodt recently completed his senior season with Minnesota State, leading them all the way to the National Championship game.
If you already have a bounty of elite puck-moving defensemen, what do you target? A free agent that does just about everything else. Aamodt, 24, is certainly not much of an offensive threat but uses his physicality to shut down an opponent’s best players. In 41 games this season he recorded six goals and 12 points, both easily the highest totals of his four-year college career, but as captain of the Mavericks had much more impact at the defensive end of the rink.
As an undrafted free agent, there won’t be huge expectations put on the young defenseman, but Aamodt should add some more depth to the Avalanche system for the risk-free proposition of a one-year entry-level deal. Getting his feet wet at the AHL level will give the Colorado management a chance to see how he transitions to professional hockey and some insight into whether he’ll be able to handle himself in the NHL.
That’s certainly not a guarantee, as the left-shot defenseman doesn’t actually have a ton of size behind that physical playstyle. While the NHL continues to lean toward adding length and mobility on the blueline, it will be interesting to see if his play results in a chance with the Avalanche next season.
Samuel Girard To Return To The Lineup
According to The Athletic’s Peter Baugh, the Colorado Avalanche will have defenseman Samuel Girard back in the lineup tonight, the first time since March 8th (link). Girard’s return comes at a good time for Colorado, who were already missing Ryan Murray on the left side before seeing Devon Toews go down last night after blocking a shot against the Winnipeg Jets. Though Toews is expected to be okay after the shot block, it’s unclear if he will have to miss any time.
Getting the 23-year-old Girard back in the lineup also helps to lengthen an already stellar Avalanche defense group as the team looks to get into a groove heading into the playoffs. Colorado is currently first in the entire NHL with 108 points, two ahead of the Florida Panthers, and 13 points ahead of the Calgary Flames for the top spot in the west. After a career year in 2020-21 with 32 points in 48 games, Girard has taken a small step back, having 27 points in 56 games this season, but has been a steady and reliable presence on the back-end for a dominant Avalanche team.