{"id":36289,"date":"2018-09-27T19:39:16","date_gmt":"2018-09-27T23:39:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/?p=36289"},"modified":"2018-09-27T19:39:16","modified_gmt":"2018-09-27T23:39:16","slug":"colorado-avalanche-roster-almost-finalized","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2018\/09\/27\/colorado-avalanche-roster-almost-finalized\/","title":{"rendered":"Colorado Avalanche Roster Almost Finalized"},"content":{"rendered":"

After their preseason loss to the Dallas Stars<\/a> last night, the Colorado Avalanche<\/a> reduced their roster again. Now down to 29, the Avalanche roster needs just six more cuts to reach the 23-man maximum.<\/p>\n

Colorado Avalanche Roster Almost Finalized<\/h1>\n

Another (mostly) unsurprising bunch of names went down to the AHL for the Avs. This leaves the toughest decisions for last, as expected. All six players released have been reassigned to the Avs’ AHL affiliate, the Colorado Eagles.<\/p>\n

Group Heading to AHL Eagles<\/h2>\n

The group sent down consisted of three forwards, two defensemen and a goalie. On offence, center\u00a0Igor Shvyrev\u00a0<\/strong>(a fifth-round pick in 2017), right wing\u00a0Martin Kaut<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0(first round selection in 2018), and left-wing\u00a0Ty Lewis<\/strong> (undrafted) were reassigned.<\/p>\n

Defensemen\u00a0Ryan Graves<\/strong> and\u00a0Sergei Boikov<\/strong>, 23 and 22 years old respectively, also head to the Eagles. Graves does have to clear waivers first, though, but is unlikely to be claimed.<\/p>\n

Finally, goaltender\u00a0Pavel Francouz<\/strong> leaves the Avalanche roster for now. He could be back up sooner than the rest, though, as he performed well in his preseason opportunities and has strong experience playing in the KHL.<\/p>\n

Six Cuts to Go<\/h2>\n

Of their final 29 players, the Avs have 16 forwards, 11 defensemen, and two goalies. Obviously, this makes goaltending the only position completely set for opening night.<\/p>\n

Most teams carry 14 forwards and seven defensemen, giving them wiggle room on a day-to-day basis. This essentially means two extra forwards and one extra defenseman.<\/p>\n

Forwards Left to Choose From<\/h3>\n

For the most part, the Avalanche roster seems predictable on offence. At least the top spots are easy to predict, and other line combinations appear frequently enough to probably draw some conclusions. Right off the top,\u00a0Gabriel Landeskog<\/a><\/strong>,\u00a0Nathan MacKinnon<\/a><\/strong> and\u00a0Mikko Rantanen<\/a><\/strong> are not only guaranteed to stay on the roster\u00a0but guaranteed to play on the same line together. This is a clear no-brainer after the trio dominated the league last season.<\/p>\n

Another likely grouping exists further down in the lineup; forwards\u00a0Carl Soderberg<\/a><\/strong>, Gabriel Bourque<\/a><\/strong>, and\u00a0Matthew Nieto<\/a><\/strong> gained confidence together last year, making for a solid depth line. From there, the lines may not be quite as clear, but the players still are. For example,\u00a0Matt Calvert<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>and\u00a0Colin Wilson<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>give Colorado experience that the rest of their roster doesn’t have. They’re seasoned veterans destined for depth roles with the club.<\/p>\n

Then, there are the emerging youngsters fighting to improve on strong seasons last year. Its nearly impossible to imagine the Avalanche roster without the likes of\u00a0Sven Andrighetto<\/a><\/strong>,\u00a0Tyson Jost<\/a><\/strong>,\u00a0J.T. Compher<\/a><\/strong>, or\u00a0Alexander Kerfoot<\/a><\/strong>. Already we’re at 12 forwards, the standard amount dressed on game-day.<\/p>\n

Picking the Extra Forwards<\/h4>\n

So, who’s left? The Avalanche might dress the above 12 on opening night, but they’ve got room to carry two more bodies. With four guys to choose from, there are still some interesting decisions to make.<\/p>\n

Last year,\u00a0Vladislav Kamenev<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>and\u00a0Dominic Toninato<\/a><\/strong> each played a few games for the Avs. They may have been favourites earlier in the discussions, but right winger\u00a0Logan O’Connor<\/strong> could be ahead in the race now. He’s had a strong training camp since signing as a free agent this summer. The ex-Denver University (NCAA DI) captain might have more to prove\u00a0but should wind up on the roster to start the year.<\/p>\n

The fourth forward,\u00a0Sheldon Dries<\/strong>, could be a dark horse candidate. It seems unlikely he jumps ahead of any one of the other three, but a great pre-season showing in their next game could change that quickly.<\/p>\n

Last Moves on Defense<\/h3>\n

Similar to the forward group, most of the defensemen left are guys expected to play regularly. However, 11 still sit on the roster, leaving four cuts to be made.<\/p>\n

Without a doubt, Colorado will have\u00a0Erik Johnson<\/a><\/strong>,\u00a0Tyson Barrie<\/a><\/strong>,\u00a0Nikita Zadorov<\/a><\/strong>,\u00a0Ian Cole<\/a><\/strong> and\u00a0Samuel Girard<\/a><\/strong> on their roster and probably in their lineup every night. Essentially, then, the other six defensemen left are fighting for two roster spots\u00a0and\u00a0only one<\/strong><\/em> spot in the lineup itself.<\/p>\n

Anton Lindholm<\/a><\/strong>,\u00a0Patrik Nemeth<\/a><\/strong>,\u00a0Mark Barberio<\/a><\/strong>,\u00a0David Warsofsky<\/a><\/strong>, and\u00a0Mark Alt<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>all logged NHL minutes last season, just to make things more complicated. Only\u00a0Conor Timmins<\/strong>, their second-round pick from 2017, has yet to play professional hockey. Unfortunately for him, that kind of qualifies him to be the most likely to be reassigned next.<\/p>\n

Next Up, Finishing the Preseason<\/h2>\n

All these battles will be solved sooner than later, as the team wraps up their preseason schedule on Sunday. This leaves the Avalanche roster, primarily the fringe players, two preseason games and three days to make one last impression. Expect all of them to suit up once or twice more to finish making those decisions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After their preseason loss to the Dallas Stars last night, the Colorado Avalanche reduced their roster again. Now down to 29, the Avalanche roster needs just six more cuts to reach the 23-man maximum. Colorado Avalanche Roster Almost Finalized Another (mostly) unsurprising bunch of names went down to the AHL for the Avs. This leaves […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2377,"featured_media":29150,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[28,34,3462],"tags":[112,36,3750,37,301,77,38,475,3276,1615],"class_list":["post-36289","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-avalanche","category-news","category-nhl-prospects","tag-ahl","tag-colorado-avalanche","tag-colorado-eagles","tag-hockey","tag-mikko-rantanen","tag-nathan-mackinnon","tag-nhl","tag-nhl-prospects","tag-pavel-francouz","tag-tyson-barrie"],"modified_by":"Ben Kerr","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36289","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2377"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36289"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36289\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29150"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36289"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36289"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36289"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}