Preseason Recap: Avalanche fall 6-1 to Vegas and trim 10 from the roster

Now there are 30 hopefuls for Avalanche opening night.

For preseason game number four the Colorado Avalanche beefed up their roster a bit more than the bare bones offerings of the past week. It was the preseason debut for Avalanche stars Nathan MacKinnon, Mikko Rantanen and Cale Makar hoping to show a little bit more pizazz in front of the home crowd for their final preseason game at Ball Arena.

It was a quick start for the home team with the Avalanche cashing in on the power play early as at 3:57 Jere Innala got on the board assisted by Makar and MacKinnon. That was unfortunately the peak of this game for Colorado as they gave up six unanswered goals to Vegas’ non-NHL squad and lost the game in a 6-1 final score after getting outshot 37-28.

There wasn’t much positive to take out of the game other than Nikolai Kovalenko was a good fit on the top line with Rantanen and MacKinnon as he generated chances and kept up with their pace of play. Kovalenko also drew three minor penalties in what devolved into a penalty-fest for both teams.

Quickly following the contest the Avalanche announced their largest cut to date and sent 10 players to join the Colorado Eagles camp including three who will have to clear waivers over the next day.

This was a needed cut to get players to AHL camp and for the Avalanche to get serious about their real roster taking shape. It’s too bad Jean-Luc Foudy had to go but finding himself on a line tonight with Jason Megna didn’t lead to much of a future at this juncture. There could have been an argument that Jere Innala and Jason Polin were still in the mix to displace one of the prospects especially after Innala’s goal tonight but now there’s some welcome clarity with who remains.

Those that have remained beyond the regular Avalanche players includes prospects Calum Ritchie, Nikolai Kovalenko and perhaps the biggest surprise Ivan Ivan. On the veteran side, Pierre-Edouard Bellemare continues on with his try-out and for some reason TJ Tynan needs to get in another game. Parker Kelly and Joel Kiviranta could be seen as on the roster bubble but there isn’t much reason to believe that at this point. Adam Scheel is the lone minor league goaltender still around presumably just in case they don’t want either Justus Annunen or Alexandar Georgiev to sit on the bench.

There currently are 30 players remaining on the official roster, which still includes the injured Gabe Landeskog, Artturi Lehkonen, Ondrej Pavel and apparently now Chris Wagner is also banged up. Those four plus the still suspended Valeri Nichushkin and aforementioned Scheel are six easy eliminations for when opening night rosters are due next Monday. That means the Avalanche only need to trim from 24 to reach in all likelihood 22 as they try and bank cap space carrying less than the maximum 23 players.

Upcoming there are two final preseason games on the road starting with the rematch in Vegas on Thursday, October 3rd at 8 p.m. on NHL Network.