Where the roster stands two months before training camp.
In just about two months from now members of the Colorado Avalanche will officially report for training camp. While much will be written about the camp battles and open roster positions leading up to that crucial main camp, there are still questioning lingering if there’s been enough added organizationally to be ready for puck drop in the fall. Currently the Avalanche has 41 NHL contracts signed for the upcoming season, with two slide-eligible deals for prospects Calum Ritchie and Saige Weinstein which would come off that total if they are reassigned to their junior teams.
Goaltending
The biggest question remaining in the construction of the 2024-25 roster is that of an additional goaltender — even after the acquisition and surely imminent signing of Kevin Mandolese. NHL clubs generally like to carry five goaltenders on NHL contract for full organizational depth and the ability to send players as needed up and down through to the AHL and ECHL. Even last year before backup Pavel Francouz became unable to play and the subsequent waiver claim of Ivan Prosvetov the Avalanche had five on NHL deals with Arvid Holm in addition to Justus Annunen and Trent Miner in the minors. Mandolese seems to be the part-time/AHL backup replacement for Holm plus only Annunen and Miner remain along with Alexandar Georgiev. Clearly still some work to be done here.
Are the Avalanche waiting for a cheap backup type to shake loose and take a league minimum $775k deal at the last minute, such as the NHL veteran netminder Martin Jones? Most of the third goaltender types sign quickly when the new league year begins but a guy like Antti Raanta could still be in play. Or does Colorado have a bigger idea in mind with the newly drafted Ilya Nabokov who has one more year left on his KHL deal in Russia? If he can get out of that contract things are set up perfectly for Nabokov to slide into a starting job with the Eagles now and then he could be ready for a NHL job in 2025-26 after that one-year apprenticeship in the AHL just in time to coincide with the expiration of Georgiev’s contract. Until another goalie is signed all things are possible.
Fourth line center
Unless a major acquisition is made there seems to be a hole at fourth line center for the upcoming season. Last year’s stand-ins Freddy Olofsson moved on to Europe and Yakov Trenin got paid by the Minnesota Wild so the Avalanche need someone to take on that job. Veteran depth forward Chris Wagner played 15 total games for Colorado in 2024 after recovering from an offseason injury and is probably the easiest and cheapest solution to the vacancy.
If the Avalanche want to get progressive there’s their newly inked top prospect center Calum Ritchie to give an opportunity to. While a traditional fourth line role with newcomer Parker Kelly and Joel Kiviranta seeing limited minutes and responsibilities wouldn’t do him any favors there’s nothing to say the coaching staff couldn’t get creative with his usage spotting on other lines, add in time on special teams units or even more of a hybrid third line center role split with Ross Colton. All could be a prudent plan to get Ritchie to the NHL if there’s desire for it.
Depth forwards
Currently there are 12 NHL forwards on the Avalanche roster but that includes Gabe Landeskog and Valeri Nichushkin. To begin the season the squad will need at least one temporary fill-in for Nichushkin and perhaps more if surgery recovery doesn’t have Landeskog, Logan O’Connor and Artturi Lehkonen (or any other surprises) ready for opening night. The safe bet is to count out just Nichushkin and Landeskog for now so that leaves 10 NHL forwards for the start of the season. The last couple of years the Avalanche made late summer signings to bring in the likes of Tomas Tatar and Evan Rodrigues but they may not have the budget for even that type of addition this offseason.
One of those 10 spots should go to the aforementioned fourth line center position so Colorado would be in need of one winger to round out the 12 forwards. It would be nice to turn to internal solutions such as Nikolai Kovalenko and Jean-Luc Foudy who need a long stretch of opportunity in the coming season to solidify their viability in the NHL. Kovalenko probably gets first crack at the job but if there any extra additions on NHL contract before the season that could push him to the minors to start the season.
Photo by Jonathan Kozub/NHLI via Getty Images
Defense
Likely the area with the least room is on the backend as the Avalanche have seven NHL contract defensemen in Cale Makar, Devon Toews, Sam Girard, Josh Manson, Calvin de Haan, Erik Brännström, and Sam Malinski presumably for the Avalanche and six pencilled in for the AHL in Jacob MacDonald, Calle Rosen, Keaton Middleton, Wyatt Aamodt, Jack Achan, and the Eagles’ shiny new prospect du jour Sean Behrens.
I still believe Malinski, by virtue of entering the year without waiver exemption, stays on the roster over Jacob MacDonald who signed a two-year deal and given his injury history over the last several years makes him a more unattractive claim. If there are any holes to fill it likely comes in the form of AHL deals to round out Eagles depth and if the Avalanche have a need at defense it probably gets addressed at the trade deadline rather than before the season begins.
AHL depth
The organization clearly had an affinity for the 2019-20 Colorado Eagles as the aforementioned Rosen and MacDonald were brought back with recent signings. TJ Tynan who won the AHL MVP with Colorado in 2020-21 is back as well as Jayson Megna who recently inked a two-year AHL deal. Megna would be an easy recall for the Avalanche who gave Megna 49 NHL games over the course of four seasons from 2019-2022 but he’s only on AHL contract — for now.
There could be another brief call-up on the horizon given to the likes of Oskar Olausson, Ondrej Pavel and Jason Polin or NHL debuts for Ivan Ivan and Matt Stienburg. New to the organization Finnish free agent Jere Innala and NCAA free agent Chase Bradley could debut as well but none of these AHL bound players are expected to figure into roster construction for the forthcoming 2024-25 Avalanche season.
Who would you like to see added before puck drops on the season?