All that and more on this edition of Deen’s Daily — August 30.

Colorado Hockey Now

The additions of Victor Olofsson and Joel Kiviranta in August means the Avs now have 12 NHL regular veterans under contract for the 2025-26 season. But the expectation is that Logan O’Connor will start the season injured.

That means at least one non-regular should crack the opening roster. Will it be Ivan Ivan for the second year in a row? Or will a new trade acquisition and two rookies give him a run for his money?

READ MORE: 4 Prospects That Could Earn a Permanent Roster Spot With Avalanche

Around The NHL

Pittsburgh Hockey Now: Assessing the power rankings for the Metropolitan Division. Where will the Pens finish? 

Montreal Hockey Now: The Habs upgraded their defense with Noah Dobson. Is it enough? 

Philly Hockey Now: Penn State is hosting Michigan State in an outdoor game on Jan. 31.

Florida Hockey Now: The Panthers have mostly the same roster as the one that won the Stanley Cup in June. But three new names means new numbers.

Vegas Hockey Now: More on the Mitch Marner exit from Toronto, and how it landed him in Vegas.

New Jersey Hockey Now: Luke Hughes still doesn’t have a contract for this season. Devils GM Tom Fitzgerald talks about the standoff.

The post Deen’s Daily: Avalanche’s Opening Night Roster Spot; Penn State Outdoor Game; Is Dobson Enough For Habs? appeared first on Colorado Hockey Now.

It’s hard to predict where this season is going to go in terms of roster build. Often times, the storylines in August or September have no bearing on the roster by January, let alone after the trade deadline and into the postseason. But that doesn’t take away from the competitive nature of some of the talent in the pipeline.

The Avs have struggled with developing homegrown talent and prospects in recent years. This is well documented. They’ve not had much luck with guys on entry-level contracts making an impact since Alex Newhook and Bowen Byram.

But they’re hoping that could change this year.

Here are four inexperienced skaters that could make a difference at camp, and earn a permanent role in the lineup.

Zakhar Bardakov

This is the most obvious choice. Not necessarily because he’s already the best of the bunch; he might be. But because general manager Chris MacFarland went out of his way twice in June to mention Bardakov as a possible opening night player without even being asked.

Bardakov is a center, which the Avs need. He’s also 24 years old and has years of experience playing against top talent in the KHL. So he’s not necessarily a true pro hockey rookie.

At his age, and coming from the KHL, he’s likely not interested in being a full-time AHL player. He’ll have to earn his roster spot and after that, trust with Jared Bednar to get the ice time he wants. But that starts with a strong first impression at training camp.

If Bardakov cracks the opening night roster, he’d likely play with Joel Kiviranta and Parker Kelly. That’s not a bad pair of hard-working players to learn from. It could help him develop his game and trust with the coach.

Nikita Prishchepov

This might be the most intriguing one, at least to me. I’d argue that, of all the AHL regulars who are probably going to get called up at some point this season, Prishchepov is the most talented. He’s got the most finesse, skill, and probably even potential to be a legitimate middle six point producer in the NHL.

But we’ve seen this story before. The Avs have had talented prospects come through the pipeline that haven’t developed into NHL regulars. Guys like Sampo Ranta, Shane Bowers, and Martin Kaut come to mind.

Could Prishchepov be different? I know the production wasn’t there, but he was up there with Ivan Ivan as one of the more impressive AHL depth options last season. He’s also been skating at Family Sports for weeks and working hard to really ensure he can make an impression at training camp.

Gavin Brindley

This is a player we probably should be talking about more. Brindley wasn’t just a throw-in from the Columbus Blue Jackets in the Charlie Coyle and Miles Wood deal. He’s a 21-year-old prospect that the Avs had high on their draft list in 2023 when they selected Calum Ritchie and Mikhail Gulyayev late in the first round.

Brindley ended up getting selected No. 34 overall — just seven spots after Ritchie and three behind Gulyayev.

Listed at just 5’8, 173 lbs, Brindley is going to have his work cut out for him. At that size, he’ll need to be strong on the forecheck and play a fearless brand of hockey to stick out, especially with Bednar.

He’s probably the only guy I’d put up there with Prishchepov in terms of raw talent.

Ivan Ivan

I mentioned him earlier, but if anyone was closest to achieving this goal in 2024-25, it was him. Ivan dressed in 40 games for the Avalanche in a depth role. He had flashes of offensive production early in the season, but that went away as the season progressed.

But just having that experience will work in Ivan’s favor. He did enough last year to earn Bednar’s trust, and he likely has the most insider information from this group on what the head coach wants from a depth forward. Can he capitalize on that?

The post 4 Prospects That Could Earn a Permanent Roster Spot With Avalanche appeared first on Colorado Hockey Now.

Ivan Ivan was the only Avalanche player to find the back of the net and goaltending was a mess. The team battled at some points to stay in the game but never found a way to get into a rhythm. Colorado broke down and played more in survival mode than on the attack for a chance at a comeback.

Mikko Rantanen Earns NHL’s 2nd Star of the Week

Seven different Tampa Bay shooters lit up either Justus Annunen or Alexandar Georgiev — and only a few were unstoppable. On the other end of the ice, Andrei Vasilevskiy made 23 saves on 25 shots.

The Bolts dominated from the start and were more aggressive than the Avalanche, who failed to execute on both sides of the puck.

“Our minds weren’t in. It felt like at some points, our body wanted to do the right thing, and just our execution was bad. We were just slower than them to every puck. That’s just kind of the way the night went,” Cale Makar said.

Good: Ivan Ivan’s Goals

Not much good came out of the Avalanche’s loss other than Ivan’s two goals.

His first was from Valeri Nichushkin’s shot rebound at 11:04 in the first. Ivan scrambled in front of the net with two Lightning players to grab the loose puck and shove it past Vasilevskiy.

The 22-year-old’s second goal in the third period was a shot right down the lane that Vasilevskiy stopped but the rebound bounced off Brayden Point’s skate and slid past the goalie.

“I think it was a positive for me. But other than that, it was unacceptable the way we played,” Ivan told Altitude TV after the game. “I know it was the last game in the road trip, but this is not the way we wanted to end the road trip.”

Bad: Goaltending and Execution

Annunen allowed three goals on six shots before being pulled and replaced by Georgiev in the first period. The team broke down in front of Georgiev on several plays which led to another three goals. Bednar put Annunen back in for the third period where he allowed two more.

“Didn’t love to start from Juice (Annunen) so go to Gorgie (Georgiev). If we could, because we had a little jump and got a couple chances in the first period where I thought that game was still in reach, and then it wasn’t. So then we went back to Juice and give Gorgie some rest …,” Bednar said. “Then once it got out of reach, I didn’t want to leave Gorgie in, so it is what it is. But he competed hard in the net. I can’t fault him on any of those goals.”

Ivan had the most shots on goal with five and the next highest was three from Joel Kiviranta. There was a disconnect with the team as a whole which caused a breakdown in the Avs’ system.

“I just felt execution for us wasn’t there tonight, and then again, just drifting into the wrong places and defensively, just not there for us,” Makar said.

This is a game that needs to be addressed immediately and forgotten just as quickly.

More Avalanche News

• Notebook: How a Rising Salary Cap Could Reshape NHL Salaries
• Deen’s Daily: Joe Thornton’s Epic Retirement Night; Drouin, Nichushkin, Kylington Break Through
• Good & Bad: Full Team Effort in Avalanche Win

The post Good & Bad: Poor Goaltending, Execution in Avs Loss to Lightning appeared first on Colorado Hockey Now.

Game Recap: Girard scored in OT to lift the Avalanche to a 3-2 victory over the Nashville Predators. Colorado seems to have turned things around over the past four games. What’s changed?

Sam Malinski: Colorado’s third-pair blueliner scored his first goal of the season on Sunday. Colleen Flynn caught up with Malinski following Monday’s morning skate to chat about his season to date.

Nathan MacKinnon: Colorado’s top center earned NHL weekly honors, recording nine points in three games to be named the second star of the week. MacKinnon’s nine points came in two games because the third was a 1-0 shutout loss to the Winnipeg Jets, who were led by the first star of the week, goalie Connor Hellebuyck.

Kaapo Kahkonen: The Avs placed goalie Kaapo Kahkonen on waivers on Monday. He was on the roster for precisely one month but only ended up playing a single game — a 5-2 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning. Whether or not the team gave him a fair shake is debatable, but the visa issues he had, which kept him out of Denver for more than a week after being claimed, didn’t help his case. He likely missed an extra start or two because of it.

Around The NHL

Pittsburgh Hockey Now: I’m not sure there’s anything positive that can be taken from the Penguins’ loss on Monday. The Dallas Stars came to their building, scored six goals in the first period, and left with a 7-1 triumph. It was a lifeless game for the Pens, who continue to struggle in 2024-25. Catch the game story here.

Philly Hockey Now: After sitting for two games as a healthy scratch, Matvei Michkov was back in the Flyers lineup on Monday. Philly blew their early 3-0 lead but came back to win in the shootout.

Something to keep an eye on: Erik Johnson is at 998 career regular-season games. The Flyers play the Avs in three games from now. If EJ is healthy scratched for either of the next two, he’ll be on track to reach 1,000 games against the Avalanche next Monday.

Chicago Hockey Now: Andreas Athanasiou is on waivers. The 30-year-old is on the second year of a contract paying him $4.25 million annually. He’s desperately in need of a change.

The post Deen’s Daily: EJ Nears 1,000 Games; Girard Is the OT Hero; Penguins Embarassed at Home appeared first on Colorado Hockey Now.

Artturi Lehkonen returned against Seattle last week and has played some of the best hockey we’ve ever seen from him. He’s averaging more than 24 minutes per game and has two goals and four points in three appearances. Lehkonen had shoulder surgery in May, following Colorado’s six-game series loss to the Dallas Stars, and has spent nearly six months recovering. Despite the arduous process to get back up to speed, Lehkonen hasn’t missed a beat. And he’s playing an insane amount of minutes.

Entering 2024-25, Lehkonen had played more than 25 minutes on three occasions. He’s eclipsed that number twice already since returning and will likely continue to play heavy minutes for as long as he’s the left-wing option on the top line with Nathan MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen. Valeri Nichushkin’s return on Friday should offer similar results. The Russian forward has a history of making an impact upon returning from a lengthy absence. And unlike Lehkonen, he’s not coming back after physically recovering from an injury.

But as a result of their absences to start the season, along with the injuries later suffered by Jonathan Drouin, Ross Colton, and Miles Wood, the Avs have needed to use more rookie forwards than they’re used to. Some of them were probably rushed to the NHL (see Matt Stienburg), and others were already in the fight for a roster spot (see Nikolai Kovalenko). But no matter how they’ve gotten here, and regardless of whether they’re still here or will remain when the missing forwards return, there’s something a little bit different about this group.

Calum Ritchie scored his first NHL goal before getting returned to the Oshawa Generals of the OHL. Ivan Ivan has three goals and five points in 15 games while Kovalenko has two goals and six points. Another rookie, Nikita Prishchepov, who was drafted in the seventh round in June, has done an admirable job despite not yet recording his first point — albeit he’s been close to scoring nearly every game.

This begs the question: Do the Avalanche finally have an exciting group of prospects again?

It sure seems like it.

I often think back to the days of Martin Kaut and Sampo Ranta — how that was supposed to be the next pair of forwards to develop into permanent NHLers. Neither did enough to impress and both are out of the NHL. Then there was Alex Newhook, who’s often linked with defenseman Bowen Byram — a much stronger group of prospects. While both are full-time NHLers — and Stanley Cup Champions — the Avs instead used that duo to acquire their No. 2 and No. 3 centers, Casey Mittelstadt and Ross Colton. The focus then shifted to Jean-Luc Foudy and Oskar Olausson. And while both are still in the system, they’ve either dealt with injuries (Foudy) or have been underwhelming (Olausson).

This latest crop looks to have some promise. Kovalenko is the oldest of the bunch and should be around all year. As for Ivan, I know I’ve written about this before but he’s at least making the front office second guess sending him down or taking him out of the lineup. Prishchepov will be back in the minors as soon as the reinforcements are back — probably on Friday when Nichushkin enters the lineup. But he’s shown that he could be a player, too. And lastly, Ritchie. He’s the youngest but also has the highest upside.

There’s a reality where all four of these guys are key pieces of the Avs’ lineup within the next 12-24 months. There’s a reality where Colorado, facing a cap crunch, could shed a veteran or two and replace them full-time with one of these more cost-effective options. Such is the way of the NHL in a hard salary cap world. After Andre Burakovsky, Nico Sturm, Nicolas Aube-Kubel, and Nazem Kadri left via free agency in 2022, the team didn’t have young up-and-comers to step in for them. They struggled with depth issues all year as a result.

They might not be the sexiest names. But, guys like Prishchepov, Ivan, Kovalenko, and Ritchie can help extend a Cup window. The Pittsburgh Penguins were famous for this for well over a decade.

Perhaps the Avs finally have the pieces in place to feel good about their next crop of depth forwards. And had it not been for the injuries, they might not have even known what they had.

The post Notebook: Do the Avalanche Finally Have Exciting Prospects Again? appeared first on Colorado Hockey Now.

It was a brutal start, and the Avs never recovered. Even when they started to find their legs, they couldn’t get more than one goal past Andrei Vasilevskiy before the third period. And despite an exceptional amount of movement on several power plays in the second period, their inability to find a scoring lane kept them from making the game interesting. Instead, Matt Stienburg was assessed a five-minute major for charging and a game misconduct later in the period on a boneheaded play. Already down to 11 forwards, Colorado had to play with 10 the rest of the way.

Why did it start with just 11? Without Ross Colton (broken foot, out 6-8 weeks) and Miles Wood (upper body, out 7-10 days), the Avs called up T.J. Tynan to replace one of them. The last remaining spot was given to Oliver Kylington. Anytime you have to play a defenseman at forward due to the lack of healthy options, it’s a problem. But if that blueliner also starts on the third line, it’s an entirely bigger issue. Colorado’s third line, which included Parker Kelly and Nikolai Kovalenko, gave up the first two goals, both against Tampa Bay’s dominant top line. Kylington was later relegated to the fourth line.

Ivan Ivan and Cale Makar had Colorado’s goals. The assists for Ivan’s tally were given to Nathan MacKinnon and Makar, extending both of their season-opening point streaks to 11 games.

READ MORE: Cale Makar Nears Bobby Orr’s Record Point Streak

There wasn’t a lot of good to take from this game. At least not from the Avalanche’s side. So let’s start with what didn’t go well.

Bad: The Avalanche’s start

The energy was sucked entirely out of the building at the 1:01 mark of the first period. Truly, it was a gut punch. After goalie Kaapo Kahkonen made a routine stop on Tampa Bay’s first shot, the netminder, in his Avalanche debut, let in three goals on the next four shots he faced.

And after the first goal, you can tell there was a sense of “uh oh” among Avs fans. They’d been waiting three weeks for Kahkonen to come in and potentially be another option in goal, and instead, it looked similar to what they’d seen from several of Alexandar Georgiev’s starts.

First, Nikita Kucherov wired a one-timer past Kahkonen off a feed from Brayden Point. I wouldn’t entirely pin this one on Kahkonen. Kucherov — one of the NHL’s most elite talents and the reigning Art Ross Trophy winner — was all alone in the slot. Not a defenseman or backchecking forward in sight. And it’s not that this goal was Kahkonen’s fault. It’s just the feeling of letting in an early goal on one of the first few shots of the game, a common theme from the early parts of this season.

Tampa continued to press and Guentzel scored at 3:36 before Conor Geekie added another at 5:32. When you look up and down the lineup, it’s no contest. The Avs’ injuries were probably way too much to win this game. But the most frustrating part about the Avs’ early performance was seeing even the top line get outplayed. No matter what the injuries look like, Colorado had a handful of shifts early that had Mikko Rantanen, Samuel Girard, MacKinnon, and Makar on the ice. And even in those instances, Tampa Bay was toying with the Avs early.

Credit to Colorado for dominating the third period. One or two extra saves in the first could’ve made this more interesting.

Bad: Matt Stienburg’s hit on Erik Cernak

At the time of his match penalty, Stienburg already had a clean hit earlier in the game on Zemgus Girgensons. And the outcome of it was a power play for his club. I guess Stienburg was trying to replicate his effectiveness in the second period but did it in about the worst way possible. With an official just a couple of feet away, Stienburg charged at Cernak, jumped into a hit with speed, and caught him in the head against the boards. Bad, bad hit.

Lightning center Anthony Cirelli came in to stick up for his teammate and ended up getting two minutes for roughing. It was somewhat of a gift for the Avs, as Cirelli probably had every right to jump in. The teams played 4-on-4 for two minutes before the Avalanche successfully killed off the remaining three minutes of the major, which carried into the third period.

Read More: Artturi Lehkonen Aiming To Return Next Tuesday

Good: Jon Cooper

Starting with Tampa Bay, head coach Jon Cooper deserves to be praised for how he handled the line matchups in the early going. Colorado was the home team, which means Bednar gets the last change. But on both of the first two goals, as soon as the Avs sent Kylington, Kelly, and Kovalenko over the boards, Cooper called his guys off and sent out his dominant top line. Excellent coaching that led to quick results for his team.

“It’s awareness mistakes young players make,” Bednar said of what led to Tampa Bay’s early goals. “Just not reading it quick enough and not getting quite in the right spot.”

Fun side note: When I was leaving Ball Arena after morning skate, I ran into Cooper and MacKinnon having a private 1-on-1 conversation in the loading dock. You have to imagine it was about the upcoming 4 Nations Faceoff, where Cooper will coach Team Canada and MacKinnon will be a crucial piece of their roster.

Good: The Avs’ power play

I might be grasping at straws here, but I do want to give a little bit of a hat tip to Colorado’s power play despite its inability to capitalize in the second period.

Pretty much all season, the PP has led the way in at least keeping the Avs at or near .500. And the most impressive part of it, which we saw again today, is their ability to continue to produce even as players go down.

MacKinnon, Makar, Rantanen, and Casey Mittelstadt have made up four parts on the top unit all year. Opening night had Jonathan Drouin as the fifth man, but after his injury, Ross Colton replaced him and currently sits tied for the lead in power-play goals with four. Ivan only got an opportunity today because Colton went down. But it wasn’t the first time. When Colton left last week’s game in Utah in the second period, Ivan joined the top unit and scored his first career goal on the power play. Then Colton came back and scored again on the PP before breaking his foot on Monday.

No matter who they put there, the goals are coming. It’s only a matter of time before Valeri Nichushkin returns and elevates it even more.

“They did a nice job. They went 1-for-4 and we could have had a couple more in there,” Bednar said. “We definitely had at least two [chances] in the slot that got through and at least one other one, where we found the slot but they just get a last-second deflection.”

The post Good & Bad: Avalanche Fall Behind Early, Lose 5-2 to Tampa Bay appeared first on Colorado Hockey Now.

The Avs don’t quite have the same jam in their crease. Swayman is making $8.25 million this season and Ullmark will have the same AAV starting next year. But, when they were together in Boston, the Bruins didn’t have a starting goalie. They had two guys who they cycled through and often played the hotter hand for a stretch of games a a time.

Sound familiar? If not, get used to it.

After Alexandar Georgiev started the first five games of the season, the Avs turned to Justus Annunen for each of the last four. And after speaking with Jared Bednar about his goaltenders, I’m inclined to ask, who is the Avalanche’s starting goalie?

“Going forward, we’re just going to play who we feel gives the best chance to win on that given night. We’re not handing out starts in advance,” Bednar said on Saturday. “The day before is as early as it’s gonna get for a while here.”

Sounds to me like Bednar, for the first time in the Georgiev era, is not outright calling him his starting goalie. And for good reason.

Georgiev struggled mightily in each of his first four starts and the Avs started the season 0-4 for the first time in 26 years. But in his fifth game, he looked a bit better. He still let in three goals on 19 shots — the last of which was a game-tying goal from a tough angle with 12.9 seconds remaining in regulation. But ever since that game, Annunen has taken over the crease and not given it up.

First, it was a 4-1 victory in San Jose. Then, a 3-2 triumph in Seattle followed by a 5-1 rout of Utah Hockey Club to complete a perfect 3-0-0 road trip. And when the Avs got back to Ball Arena on Sunday, Annunen was again the starter and made 26 saves in the 5-4 victory. He surrendered eight goals in four starts, though the last four came in the third period of Sunday’s win.

“Justus has played great. He’s giving us a chance. It just seems like he’s reading the play really well. He’s there early, understands where the shots coming from,” Bednar said. “He’s out pretty far as a big goalie so lots of things are hitting him and he’s gobbling up rebounds in the slot.”

So if you’re wondering who Bednar’s starter is, it’s simply the guy dressing on any given night — the guy he could rely on for a stretch of games. Is this recent stretch enough for Annunen to take over starting duties all year? Maybe. But it’s nowhere near a guarantee.

“Regardless of how the first four games went with our goaltending, we’re going to take advantage of guys when they get hot,” Bednar said. “We want to keep guys active but results are the most important thing and he’s getting us those right now.

“Pretty much every position on our team, they earn their ice time. It doesn’t really change for our goaltending. This could easily be Georgiev on a hot streak. It’s a long year. So as of right now, we’re just going to take it easy and choose our best goalie the night before a game,” Bednar added.

Calum Ritchie

The Calum Ritchie experiment went about as well as I thought it would. And honestly, if you’re an Avs fan, you should be excited for what this kid has to offer in the future. Over his seven games, we saw bits and pieces of the talent he has and why he’s a highly touted prospect. But we also saw the growing pains, mostly defensively, that he’ll have to work on to get back up to the big club. After all, he’s still only 19 years old and has a lot more development time ahead of him.

I always appreciate kids that make the jump on a good team. If Ritchie was on the Anaheim Ducks or San Jose Sharks, he’d probably get a much longer leash in the NHL and would’ve likely played more minutes than he did with the Avs. But it takes a lot to develop on a team that has little patience for developing younger players at a time when the main focus is winning hockey games.

This move will be good for Ritchie. He’s going to dominate in the OHL again and will likely be the top center for Canada at the World Juniors in a couple of months. His development is going to be crucial for the Avs, especially if they can get three valuable seasons out of his entry-level contract. I’m excited to see what Ritchie does at training camp next fall.

Ivan Ivan and Nikolai Kovalenko

As for two of the other rookies, how about a couple of first-career goals this past week? Both were assisted by Colorado’s top two centers Nathan MacKinnon and Casey Mittelstadt.

Ivan Ivan scored Thursday on the power play against Utah Hockey Club. He joined the top PP unit after an injury to Ross Colton and did what Colton has done so well — score. It was a nice moment for the kid, who slowly looked more comfortable with each passing game. It’s obvious that some of the guys at the bottom of the lineup are only playing because of the injuries the team is dealing with. And Ivan may very well be one of those guys. But if he keeps playing like this, it’ll be hard to pull him from the lineup without at least giving it some thought. He’s giving Bednar every reason to make it a tough decision if the Avs get healthy at forward.

Nikolai Kovalenko followed suit the very next game, scoring a tally on a 6-on-5 attack with just seven seconds remaining in the first period. Kovalenko’s goal was the type of play we’ll likely see him replicate many times over his NHL career. He was parked in front of the crease, stick on the ice, waiting for a pass. Despite his 5’10 frame, Kovalenko is going to make a living in the NHL by scoring in the dirty areas. He has looked very comfortable and should be a top-12 forward on this team even if everyone is healthy. He’s that good.

Congrats to both of these guys.

Jonathan Drouin

My colleague Colleen Flynn wrote last week about how the lineup should look when Jonathan Drouin returns and it got me thinking about this. It seems right now like Drouin is going to be the first forward back. Artturi Lehkonen might follow suit shortly after, and then eventually Valeri Nichushkin too. But when Drouin comes back, I can’t help but say he should be slotted in on the second line with Mittelstadt and Kovalenko.

Let Ross Colton continue to ride shotgun with Mikko Rantanen and MacKinnon until you get Lehkonen back at least. But for now, I’d place Drouin on the second line and slot Logan O’Connor on the third line with Parker Kelly and Miles Wood. Joel Kiviranta can return to the fourth line with Chris Wagner and Ivan Ivan while Matt Stienburg can return to the AHL and get back to playing a bigger role.

The post Notebook: Who Is the Avalanche’s Starting Goalie? appeared first on Colorado Hockey Now.

Following Thursday’s 5-1 victory over Utah Hockey Club at Delta Center, the Avalanche have completely erased their 0-4-0 start, winning their fourth straight game to get back to .500. Justus Annunen made 25 saves to earn his third consecutive win for Colorado.

Ross Colton continued his scoring ways. He capitalized on the power play for the fourth time to reach seven goals in the first eight games. Unfortunately for the NHL’s second-leading scorer, Colton left the game with an upper-body injury and did not return. He took a slash to the hand. There were no further updates about him after the game, but the Avs will have two days off before they play again at home on Sunday.

Colorado added to their lead thanks to Cale Makar’s third of the season. The superstar defenseman has 15 points in eight games and leads the NHL in points. In the second period, Casey Mittelstadt scored to make it 3-0 before Ivan Ivan scored his first career NHL goal on the power play. Mittelstadt finished the night with a goal and two assists.

The fifth goal came from Joel Kiviranta in the third period. It’s his fourth goal in three games, scoring at least a goal in each contest.

Colorado has outscored the opposition 16-5 in the past 11 periods (and one OT).

It all started last Friday. The Avs entered the first intermission trailing the Anaheim Ducks 2-0. Despite dominating the first 20 minutes, Colorado was on its way to potentially starting a season 0-5 for the first time in team history. But instead, head coach Jared Bednar’s club scored four of five goals, capped off by an OT winner from Nathan MacKinnon to win 4-3.

In the following three games, Annunen got the nod, winning 4-1. 3-2 and now 5-1. He was the star of the show in San Jose and had another solid showing in Seattle in a game where Kiviranta had his first multi-goal game in the regular season.

In the first-ever game against Utah Hockey Club, Annunen’s 25 stops were the highlight.

Good: Justus Annunen

Outside of a third-period breakaway goal for Lawson Crouse when the Avs already had a four-goal lead, Annunen was perfect and did his part in allowing Colorado to continue its winning ways.

As mentioned, he was needed in San Jose when Colorado was outplayed for most of the middle parts of the game. And in Seattle, Colorado allowed six shots on goal before the game was three minutes old. Annunen kept the Kraken off the board until the Avs scored first.

Annunen wasn’t needed in quite the same way on Thursday, but there’s something to be said about how he’s calmed things down in the crease over the past three days.

Bad: Literally the one Utah goal

When you play a near-perfect game and almost earn your first shutout of the season, there isn’t much bad to take away from a performance. Colorado scored two goals in the first period and Makar had as many shots as Utah (five) at the first intermission. The team added two more in the second intermission, leading 4-0 before the third period.

In the final frame, Utah outshot the Avs 11-4. Which, if you follow score effects, is quite normal. With Colorado already up by four, it’s completely understandable that Utah Hockey Club would be the team pressing and cheating to create more opportunities on offense. They’ve got nothing to lose by then.

On their only goal, Crouse caught Calvin de Haan flatfooted while Sam Malinski was calling to the bench for a change. He took advantage of the opportunity and made the Avs’ third pair look silly, breaking through the two blueliners and ending Annunen’s shutout bid with just 4:32 remaining.

I know, we’re grasping at straws here.

The post Good & Bad: Justus Annunen, Avalanche Shuts Down Utah in 5-1 Victory appeared first on Colorado Hockey Now.

I do want to preface this with two things. First, I apologize in advance for even writing something like this. I know salary cap intricacies are not everybody’s favorite subject, especially 48 hours before the season begins. But such is a reality in the triple hard-capped NHL.

And second, I believe the front office thinks very highly of new Avs assistant general manager Andrew Wilson, who before getting hired by Colorado this summer, worked in the NHL Central Registry. The purpose of the Central Registry is to maintain all player salary information and help the league verify trades, signings, salary cap maneuvers, etc. This is right up his alley and why general manager Chris MacFarland felt the need to bring him on board.

Anyway, let’s get into it.

The Avalanche announced on Sunday that they were sending Erik Brannstrom to Vancouver for Tucker Poolman at $2 million and a fourth-round pick. Poolman has played three games over the past two years and likely won’t play in the NHL ever again. He is an LTIR candidate and that’s where he’ll be all season. The following day, with rosters due, Colorado announced that Ivan Ivan and Nikolai Kovalenko were among the final roster cuts, and veteran forward Chris Wagner — who cleared waivers over the weekend — was on the opening night roster.

Did the Avs really send down two rookies who were expected to be on the opening night roster on Wednesday? Of course not. These were paper transactions. And when combined with the Poolman trade, makes all the sense in the (salary cap) world why MacFarland and his staff did what they did. But if you don’t understand completely how LTIR works, it might look like a strange set of moves.

LTIR Explained

When a team places a player on LTIR, their entire salary cap hit is no longer counted. This is true, but it’s also not true at the same time. Simply because it’s not always the case. The best way to explain it is that if a team is spending precisely $88 million (which is the salary cap ceiling this season), that means placing a player on LTIR will give you relief equal to his entire contract.

So for example, if the Avalanche were spending $88 million on the nose, and placed Landeskog on LTIR, they would have $7 million in relief to use on a replacement of some sort.

But here’s where it gets tricky. Let’s create another scenario. And in this hypothetical scenario, the Avalanche were using $87 million in cap space. If they were to then place Landeskog on LTIR, they would only get $6 million in relief. LTIR is used to accommodate teams that need to overspend because of an injured player who is expected to be out long-term. It’s not a money-in, money-out mechanism.

So if you already have $1 million in cap space, and you place Landeskog on LTIR and acquire another player to replace him who also makes $7 million, you lose the ability to use that extra $1 million you initially had because you had to dip into LTIR. So again, you’re at $87 million with Landeskog. Then you pick up another $7 million player to replace Landeskog. Now you’re at $94 million in actual salary. Landeskog is then placed on LTIR. And because the team only needs $6 million to get back to the cap ceiling, that’s all you’re going to get out of Landeskog’s LTIR relief.

You ultimately want to be as close to the salary cap ceiling as possible before placing a player on LTIR.

Now let’s look at the Avalanche’s cap picture. We know for sure Valeri Nichushkin’s $6.125 million is not going to count until he’s reinstated. So we can cut that out from the onset.

Let’s also put Ivan, Kovalenko, Wagner, and Poolman aside for now.

This is what the remaining roster looks like, including their salary cap hit:

Jonathan Drouin (2.5M) – Nathan MacKinnon (12.6M) – Mikko Rantanen (9.25M)
Casey Mittelstadt (5.75M) – Calum Ritchie (950K)
Miles Wood (2.5M) – Ross Colton (4M) – Logan O’Connor (1.05M)
Parker Kelly (825K) – Joel Kiviranta (775K)
Gabriel Landeskog (7M), Artturi Lehkonen ($4.5M)

Devon Toews (7.25M) – Cale Makar (9M)
Samuel Girard (5M) – Josh Manson (4.5M)
Calvin de Haan (800K) – Sam Malinski (850K)
John Ludvig (775K) – Oliver Kylington (1.05M)

Alexandar Georgiev (3.4M)
Justus Annunen (837.5K)

This roster above, which includes 10 healthy forwards, eight defensemen, two goaltenders, and an injured Landeskog and Lehkonen comes out to $85,162,500 ($85.1625 million).

So in a scenario where Colorado just simply sends down Brannstrom and keeps Ivan and Kovalenko on the roster, you’re adding Kovalenko’s 896.25K and Ivan’s 840K to that cap hit. That comes out to approximately $86.9 million in total cap, which is pretty close to the fake hypothetical scenario I created above. So again, if in this scenario you placed Landeskog on LTIR, yes, you gain Landeskog’s $7 million in relief, but it wipes out the roughly $1.1 million in cap space you originally had. So technically, you’re only creating $5.9 million in cap flexibility. That isn’t even enough to reinstate Nichushkin in November.

By adding Poolman — another LTIR candidate — and Wagner, and at the same time submitting a paper transaction to “send down” Kovalenko and Ivan, you’re getting closer to your goal. So let’s start from $85.1625 million again. And let’s add Poolman (2M) and Wagner (775K). That puts you at precisely $87.955,625 million. That means the Avs are now only $44,375 from the cap ceiling. So now Landeskog and Poolman both going on LTIR free up $9 million minus $44,375. They’ve now created an extra $1 million of cap flexibility

In the first scenario without Poolman, Landeskog’s $7 million going on LTIR would’ve created $5.9 million in flexibility because you’re losing the roughly $1.1 million in original cap space that you had.

By adding Poolman and Landeskog to LTIR, you’re now gaining $9 million in relief but only losing a measly 44K in cap space. For a team looking to contend for a Stanley Cup, that extra $1 million in cap flexibility will go a long way.

Colorado accomplished this while acquiring a free fourth-round pick in the process.

* It’s worth noting that Landeskog eventually coming off LTIR and Nichushkin also being added back into the lineup will require a whole new set of cap gymnastics. But I’m going to assume MacFarland and Wilson already have a plan mapped out for this.

*Also, being in LTIR isn’t always a good thing, because then you can’t accrue daily cap space (similar to a compounding interest). But, the Avalanche knew they were going to use LTIR at some point this season. So acquiring Poolman made sense to add to the LTIR usage. Vancouver on the other hand didn’t want to be in LTIR anymore. They prefer to accrue daily cap space leading up to the trade deadline. So they paid a fourth-round pick to make it happen. The trade benefitted both teams.

*Shout out to Toronto’s front office. They literally got all the way within $1 of the cap ceiling before submitting their roster. Now when they dip into LTIR, they’re going to get the entire salary of those players in relief minus literally a dollar.

*All salary cap numbers in this article are courtesy of Puck Pedia. They also have the Avs getting dinged for $18,125 for Ondrej Pavel starting on season-opening IR. I’m not entirely sure why that’s the case but I will say, I did add that to my calculations above without actually mentioning it. I felt it might be confusing if it were written with the salaries earlier in the post.

The #GoAvsGo opening roster has $44K Projected Cap Space with 21 active players (11F/8D/2G).

IR: Landeskog, Lehkonen, Poolman
Susp no Cap Hit: Nichushkin

They could put an injured player to LTIR & then exceed cap by player's Cap Hit minus $44K.https://t.co/hNjzIZYqZ5

— PuckPedia (@PuckPedia) October 7, 2024

The post LTIR Explained: How the Avalanche Used the Tucker Poolman Trade To Maximize Cap Space appeared first on Colorado Hockey Now.

The 39-year-old was battling for positioning as the fourth-line center but the team has decided to look elsewhere. Parker Kelly, who was signed to a two-year deal has been getting a look at center as well as Ivan Ivan, who the team signed as an undrafted free agent last summer. The team also still has veteran center Chris Wagner with the team. He was also a candidate for the position at the start of training camp.

There’s also a possibility the team dips into the waiver wire over the next few days. Several players who are capable of filling a fourth-line center role will likely be placed on waivers by Monday.

Bellemare will be missed. His personality is something any dressing room would love to have. And he’s the most well-thought-out interview I’ve experienced in the NHL. I thought he fared well in limited preseason action.

The Avs’ forward group now looks something like this. They’ll have until Monday to submit their final roster.

Drouin — MacKinnon — Rantanen
Kovalenko — Mittelstadt — Ritchie
Wood – Colton – O’Connor
Kelly – Ivan – Kiviranta

Tynan, Wagner, Pavel
Landeskog, Nichushkin, Lehkonen

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