The Avalanche will use Hockey Fights Cancer Night on November 7th to spotlight six people whose stories go far beyond the rink.
Presented by UCHealth, the night will honor Anata Walsh, Mike Kalush, Rhonda Sharp, Robert Masters, Sandy Siems-Fraser and Toni Moses. The team had already welcomed each of them earlier this season for morning skate, and they also spent time inside the Avalanche locker room.
Walsh’s story began in 2025, when she was diagnosed with stage 2A breast cancer while 36 weeks pregnant with her second son. After treatment at UCHealth, she now has no evidence of disease, and her son is doing great.
Kalush was diagnosed with large B-cell lymphoma after discovering a lump under his arm. He has gone through several treatments at UCHealth, including CAR-T cell therapy, which offers a new strategy for combating lymphoma.
Sharp was diagnosed with gastro esophageal carcinoma and has received multiple treatments. She’s focused on living fully, with travel, family visits, time with friends and a bucket list she’s determined to keep checking off.
Masters has faced cancer three times before and beaten it each time. Doctors recently found a tumor in his esophagus, and it was removed. He owns a local distiller called The Family Jones and once served as the manager for the Chicago Blackhawks minor league team.
Siems-Fraser was diagnosed in 2017 with a grade 2 well-differentiated neuroendocrine tumor. She was told she had a 5% chance, but after treatment at UCHealth, several clinical trials and procedures, she beat the odds and has been off treatments since June 2026.
Moses was diagnosed with stage 4 ovarian cancer in 2019 and continues to receive treatment. She works as a UCHealth nurse in Greeley and says her dual perspective as both caregiver and patient has helped her understand what people are going through.
In Other News...
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Colorados forward depth has already been under pressure, and Zachary LHeureuxs absence only adds to the challenge. The Avalanche have been without him since Oct. 10 because of an upper-body injury, and placing him on long-term injured reserve retroactive to that date underscores how much time they expect to go without him. For a team trying to keep its lines steady, losing another forward this early in the season is not an easy spot to absorb.
Jared Bednar has already labeled the injury long-term, though he stopped short of offering a return date, and LHeureux still has not resumed skating as he works through the recovery process off the ice. That leaves Colorado waiting for any sign of progress while the rest of the roster has to keep carrying the load. In a season where depth is always tested, this is one more absence the Avalanche would rather not be managing for long. [Read more 🡒]
Avalanche May Have Found A Draft Gem With One Big Catch
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The catch is the same one that tends to follow skilled young defensemen with this kind of profile: Elofsson is undersized and still has work to do in his own end. Colorado clearly saw enough in the offensive package to take the swing, but his path to becoming more than a promising draft value will depend on whether he can round out the defensive side while continuing to produce at a high level. [Read more 🡒]
Avalanche Interest In Dylan Larkin Comes With One Huge Problem
The idea of Dylan Larkin in Colorado has enough appeal to keep circulating, but the practical hurdles are still doing most of the talking. Elliotte Friedman said a trade sending the Detroit Red Wings captain to the Avalanche is unlikely unless something major changes, and the reason is pretty straightforward: Colorado does not currently have the trade capital or the salary cap space to make that kind of move work.
For the Avalanche, that leaves the interest in Larkin more as a concept than a real transaction path for now. Detroit would also have to come down on its asking price, and until that happens, the fit remains more theoretical than realistic. It is the kind of rumor that makes sense on paper, but not in the current NHL marketplace. [Read more 🡒]