After three days of camp work, the Colorado Avalanche have already started sorting out who’s staying in the mix and who’s headed elsewhere. The first official on-ice sessions came and went with the usual training-camp rhythm - split groups, long practices, drills, controlled 5-on-5 work and small-area battles around the net - but the more revealing part of the week arrived with the first round of roster cuts.
The Avalanche trimmed 11 players from the camp roster, cutting the group down to 45. Jayson Megna, Yanick Turcotte, Jake Wise, Hank Kempf and goaltender Nikita Novosyolov were assigned to Colorado Eagles camp.
Shawn Carrier, Teddy Lechner, Ondrej Ruml, Linus Funck, Alexandre Raymond and Tobias Tvrznik were sent back to their junior clubs. Beckett Hamilton remains in camp and is expected to get into an upcoming preseason game.
There was also movement around who was on the ice and who was resting as camp wrapped up its official portion. Taylor Makar, Nikita Prishchepov, Alex Gagne and Ilya Nabokov got the day off because they’re expected to be involved in both back-to-back preseason games.
Cale Makar also sat out Saturday, though that was scheduled. He had already been working in a red non-contact jersey earlier in the week while rehabbing the lower-body injury he suffered, and he stayed out longer Friday than he had the day before.
The signs there were encouraging: he looked good through the drills and should be back to full-go soon.
Friday’s session had a sharper edge to it, with the focus clearly on getting the details right before preseason games begin. Jared Bednar’s drills were carried out with purpose, and the group on the ice that morning leaned a little more toward the depth side of the roster, bringing a bit more physicality with it.
Zach L’Heureux kept showing the kind of different energy and approach he’s brought consistently. Fabian Lysell had a few more aggressive moments than he did on day one, and Jaden Schwartz flashed some skillful plays as well.
Saturday’s smaller skate offered another look at the goalie picture, where one name continues to stand out: Nikita Novosyolov. With Trent Miner injured and not even taking shots in rehab yet, Novosyolov has become a player to watch.
He’s been steady since development camp and keeps trending in the right direction. If that continues, he should see plenty of AHL action with the Colorado Eagles.
The preseason schedule is also shaping how the Avalanche handle the next stretch. New CBA rules mean players with 100 games of NHL experience can’t appear in more than two preseason games, which affects even someone like Fedor Svechkov.
Bednar said the regulars are more likely to play at home, including Sunday’s home game against the Utah Mammoth at 5:00 p.m. MT.
One extra wrinkle came at the end of Friday’s work when the team finished practice with a mandatory skate that included a few heats of speed-skating-style figure-eights and then the traditional mountain. There are new fitness-testing rules in the CBA, but that finishing touch still appeared to fit within what’s allowed.
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The bigger watch, of course, is Cale Makar. He is still recovering from an upper-body injury and will not take part in the first two preseason games, but the Avalanche expect him to skate individually and be back in the mix for later practices and games. For a team trying to get its first look at camp battles without losing sight of its top defenseman, his timetable remains the detail hanging over these opening decisions. [Read more 🡒]