Updates on Landeskog, Nichushkin, and more at media day

Training camp starts today, and there were plenty of updates from Jared Bednar to start the year.

The Colorado Avalanche held its annual media day yesterday, hearing from Jared Bednar and star players on the team for the first time in this new 2024-25 NHL season. With lots of questions surrounding the team as the season gets underway, it was interesting to get a peek at what was on hand from those on staff.

Bednar continued stating there was no timeline for captain Gabriel Landeskog, who is closer and closer to eyeing a return to game action for the first time in over two years. While this isn’t a surprise, Landeskog has certainly gotten better – and people will be looking closely at how involved he is at training camp the rest of the week.

Plus, more was said about the unknowns of Valeri Nichushkin’s status. Joe Sakic already stated the Russian forward will return to the Avs this season, and Bednar confirmed so, but still needed to hash out the details for his return. For the first time, the head coach of the Avalanche mentioned there will need to be some forgiveness and tough conversations in the locker room.

But, said forgiveness may have already been done. Cale Makar, Devon Toews, and Nathan MacKinnon all stated they’re ready to welcome Nichushkin back with open arms and support him with whatever is needed for him to transition back to the top performer he can be. The players seem to be behind him, but can everyone else be too?

Goaltending was also addressed, with Bednar suggesting Justus Annunen will be the backup netminder to Alexandar Georgiev. This would allow Georgiev’s workload to go down if Annunen plays like he did last season, and signals another goaltender off the waiver wire will likely not come into the team, similar to Ivan Prosvetov last season.

Finally, with Cal Ritchie being the talk of the town for the past month or so, Bednar did hint at the possibility of him earning some playing time depending on his preseason performances. The time to play young players is now, and it may be something they have to do with Landeskog, Nichushkin, and Artturi Lehkonen all unavailable to start the year – the latter of the two still recovering from offseason shoulder surgery and not participating in preseason festivities.

With training camp getting underway today, there will be several stories to watch outside of those mentioned at media day. But fear not, we’ve basically made it through the offseason, and meaningful hockey is just around the corner!