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Jayson Megna

Anaheim Ducks Claim Jayson Megna; Alex Galchenyuk Clears

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The Anaheim Ducks have added a depth forward, grabbing Jayson Megna off waivers from the Colorado Avalanche. Alex Galchenyuk, who was on waivers with him, has cleared according to Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet.

Megna, 32, certainly didn’t seem like much of a target given the fact that he hasn’t scored a single point in 14 games this season, but the Ducks must see something they like in the veteran minor league forward. He comes with a league-minimum salary and 162 games of NHL experience, though it’s hard to believe he’ll be a regular in the Anaheim lineup.

It has been nearly six years since Megna scored a goal in the NHL, his last coming on February 9, 2017. During his stint with Colorado this season, he was averaging just over seven minutes a night and recorded six shots on goal.

Galchenyuk, meanwhile, can now be assigned to the minor leagues, though it is unclear if the Avalanche will do so after losing Nathan MacKinnon last night. The team is without nearly a dozen roster players, so might need to keep the veteran forward up for the time being.

Alex Galchenyuk, Jayson Megna Placed On Waivers

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The Colorado Avalanche have placed both Alex Galchenyuk and Jayson Megna on waivers, giving them some extra roster flexibility as they continue to deal with injuries. Galchenyuk needed to clear after signing a contract recently, and Megna had exhausted the exempt status he gained from clearing in October.

Colorado also moved Bowen Byram to injured reserve today, giving them room to recall Charles Hudon. Byram’s placement is retroactive and he has not suffered a setback, meaning he still should be back relatively soon.

The problem, though, is that both Artturi Lehkonen and Jean-Luc Foudy are dealing with injuries and are listed as day-to-day. The team has ten different players dealing with one ailment or another, and need some flexibility to be able to put together a cohesive lineup. For instance, the group has just six defensemen on the roster at the moment, but 15 forwards due to so many minor injuries up front. Waiving Galchenyuk and Megna will allow them to rebalance, if necessary.

It seems unlikely that either player will be claimed, given their lack of production. Neither one has scored an NHL point this season.

Colorado Avalanche Recall Oskar Olausson

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The Colorado Avalanche, still not comfortable with their NHL depth, have recalled 2021 first-round pick Oskar Olausson from the minor leagues. Jayson Megna is coming back up as well after he, Anton Blidh, and Andreas Englund were assigned yesterday.

Olausson, 20, comes up following a win by the Avalanche on Monday that saw them ice their fourth line for just a handful of shifts. Megna played 5:25, Dryden Hunt 5:41, and Blidh saw the ice for just 4:16. Even Martin Kaut was under ten minutes in the match despite it going to a shootout, putting huge pressure on the top players. Nathan MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen played nearly 30 minutes, while even Evan Rodrigues broke the 24-minute mark thanks to huge powerplay time.

With Englund staying down, it likely means that Samuel Girard will return to the lineup tonight, giving the team another defenseman to rely on. Cale Makar played more than 32 minutes on Monday, while Englund saw just 11.

While they are winning, and now sit second in the Central, this isn’t how the Avalanche likely want to operate for long. They need to be able to find a mix of players that can take some heat off the top names, or risk burning them out in the early part of the year. Olausson, who has barely any professional experience under his belt, will get the next chance to show what he can do.

In 16 games with the Colorado Eagles, the young forward has eight points.

Colorado Avalanche Recall Andreas Englund, Jayson Megna

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The Colorado Avalanche are hitting the road, and they’re bringing some extra players with them. Andreas Englund and Jayson Megna have both been recalled today, joining Anton Blidh who was brought up last night. The team is heading to Carolina to play the Hurricanes tomorrow, with stops in Washington and Dallas before returning home.

Englund, 26, got into his first game with the Avalanche a few days ago in place of the injured Kurtis MacDermid and played just over 10 minutes. That was his first NHL appearance with any organization other than the Ottawa Senators, and the 6’3″ defenseman did rather well in his limited exposure. Whether he stays in the lineup is still to be determined but that long reach and physicality fit in nicely whenever he was put on the ice.

Megna, meanwhile, has already played five games for Colorado this season, but hasn’t cracked the eight-minute mark in any of them. The 32-year-old forward hasn’t scored an NHL goal since 2016-17, despite a handful of appearances every year. Given how little the team has played him even when he does dress, don’t expect much from the minor league veteran.

Sampo Ranta, who has been a regular call-up recently, was not included in this latest round. The youngster is still looking for his first NHL point and will have to wait for his next opportunity.

Kurtis MacDermid Out 4-6 Weeks

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Hybrid winger/defenseman Kurtis MacDermid will be out four to six weeks with a lower-body injury, according to Colorado Avalanche head coach Jared Bednar. MacDermid left the game on Saturday and did not return. The team has recalled Jayson Megna and Sampo Ranta, with the latter expected to play tonight.

MacDermid, 28, is something of a utility player for the Avalanche, playing a handful of minutes whenever they need some added toughness in the lineup. In eight games this season he has one point, 14 penalty minutes, and 22 hits – all while averaging fewer than eight minutes a game. For his career, the 6’5″ behemoth has 23 points in 184 games.

Ranta, meanwhile, is an interesting prospect for the team, who suited up for two games earlier this season but barely played. The 22-year-old is still looking for his first NHL point and is by no means a replacement for MacDermid’s toughness. That role will go to Andreas Englund, who was recalled yesterday. He’ll make his Colorado debut and help on the penalty kill, adding another big frame to the blueline. In 33 NHL games, all with the Ottawa Senators, Englund has three points.

Colorado Recalls Jayson Megna

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With Shane Bowers suffering an injury early in his NHL debut on Thursday, the Avalanche needed to make a move to recall another forward for their game tonight against Carolina.  That move has now been made as the team announced (Twitter link) that Jayson Megna has been recalled from AHL Colorado.

Megna is no stranger to being shuffled back and forth this season as this is already his fourth recall and has been sent back down within two days each time.  Despite the limited time on the NHL roster, the 32-year-old has played in three games this season with the Avs already, logging 5:33 per contest on the fourth line.  He also has three goals and three assists in nine games with the Eagles.

It’s worth noting that Colorado entered today with just $500K in LTIR space, per CapFriendly.  Even though Megna’s on a league minimum contract, that’s not enough room to work him in.  Accordingly, they had to transfer another one of their injured players to LTIR, joining Darren Helm who was recently put on there.  Gabriel Landeskog and Valeri Nichushkin were the logical candidates on that front since both will miss the required minimum of 10 games and 24 days and CapFriendly reports (Twitter link) that it is Landeskog that has been moved to LTIR.

Colorado Avalanche Reassign Jayson Megna, Recall Mikhail Maltsev

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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

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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.

Waivers: 10/06/22

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Another day, another set of players on waivers as the regular season approaches. Everyone from yesterday cleared, while today’s group looks like this:

Boston Bruins

Vinni Lettieri
Joona Koppanen
Dan Renouf
Keith Kinkaid

Colorado Avalanche

Jayson Megna

Edmonton Oilers

Calvin Pickard
Slater Koekkoek

Los Angeles Kings

Lias Andersson

New York Rangers

Jonny Brodzinski

Anatolii Golyshev, Jayson Megna Clear Waivers

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Dec 9: Both players have cleared waivers. Golyshev will have his contract terminated, while Megna has been loaned (along with Jacob MacDonald) to the Colorado Eagles of the AHL.

Dec 8: The New York Islanders have placed Anatolii Golyshev on waivers today, and he’ll be joined by Jayson Megna of the Colorado Avalanche, according to Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet. Given Golyshev was already in the minor leagues and is waiver-exempt still, his placement is on unconditional waivers for the purpose of a contract termination.

It was easy to spot a termination coming for Golyshev, given he hasn’t yet received a single game at the NHL level. The 26-year-old was a fourth-round pick by the Islanders back in 2016, signed his one-year entry-level deal at the end of last season to get it out of the way, and then inked a one-year, $750K one-way deal with the Islanders in October. After a long, successful career in the KHL, it never seemed likely that Golyshev would sit in the minors all season.

The undersized forward has eight full seasons under his belt with Yekaterinburg in the KHL, hitting career-highs of 25 goals and 44 points in 2015-16. In 15 games with the Bridgeport Islanders, he had five goals and seven points, but will likely be heading back overseas. Technically, Golyshev will be a free agent able to sign with another NHL team, but that is unlikely in this case.

Megna meanwhile actually received a great opportunity with the Avalanche this season, continually filling in for whoever was injured at the time. With Nathan MacKinnon back and J.T. Compher closing in on a return, his spot is needed. In 20 games this season, the 31-year-old undrafted forward has registered three assists but hasn’t scored yet. In fact, he hasn’t tallied an NHL goal since the 2016-17 season with the Vancouver Canucks.

While there is a chance he is claimed because of his experience this season, there have been other forwards with higher upside clear recently. Megna will likely goto the minor leagues where he will remain a strong injury replacement for Colorado.

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