Morning Flurries: Another wave of small cuts from Avalanche camp

The roster now stands at 40 players going into the second half of preseason.

At the Colorado Avalanche are halfway through their preseason slate of games — and still in search of a win — they have gotten down to business making a few small trims to the roster over the last couple of days down a total of 40 players at this time. With the following three games expected to lean much more heavily to the real NHL squad there probably will be a hefty cut or two to leave just the players truly in the mix for a spot on the opening night roster.

In this cut of five none of the players participated in the game in Denver on Sunday night and probably were reassigned earlier in the day. Oskar Olausson not sticking around is the most notable development as he will work to earn a call up now in his last waiver exempt year.

Also, Nikita Prishchepov getting the assignment to Colorado Eagles camp and not back to his junior team in the QMJHL is a positive sign after he had an impressive early camp with the Avalanche. As a 20-year old Prishchepov could sign a contract to play with the Eagles, most likely just an AHL deal, but he could follow in the shoes of Ivan Ivan who earned himself a NHL contract after a successful first season in Loveland. Jacob MacDonald, Tye Felhaber and Chase Bradley will join him there.

Over the weekend three other cuts were also quietly announced by Colorado as a trio of players needed to clear waivers, which they subsequently did. Nothing too shocking here except maybe an early release for Mandolese if he was going to be the organization’s third goaltender, which he probably isn’t.

Also, from last night the Avalanche B squad fell to Utah in a 6-3 final score dropping them to 0-3 in the preseason. Sam Malinski was an overall standout in what was a rough night playing against a lot of NHL stars from Utah. Our recap has you covered with the details.

In case you missed it, top prospect Calum Ritchie scored a ridiculous goal in that contest which needs to be properly appreciated in slow mo to see the fake he sold before his beautiful backhand shot.

Preseason game number four is upcoming against the Vegas Golden Knights at Ball Arena on Tuesday, October 1st at 7:30 p.m.