DENVER — With half the preseason already completed, the Avalanche still have 40 skaters on their roster — among the most remaining in the league. But head coach Jared Bednar expects that to change following Tuesday night’s preseason home finale against the Vegas Golden Knights.
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“Tonight’s going to be a big night for a lot of guys,” he said.
Colorado’s big three of Nathan MacKinnon, Mikko Rantanen and Cale Makar are all making their preseason debut. But they won’t be joined by their usual linemates Jonathan Drouin or Devon Toews.
Makar skated with rookie Sean Behrens during the skate. The other blueliners, Erik Brannstrom, Calvin de Haan, Calle Rosen and Jack Ahcan filled out the rest of the blueline.
At forward, MacKinnon and Rantanen are expected to play with Nikolai Kovalenko. The Russian winger is getting a long look at starting in the top six. While the two spots that need to be filled are technically on Casey Mittelstadt’s wing, the idea of perhaps pairing Drouin with the second-line center and spreading the four veteran forwards might also be a possibility.
“The best thing he can do is just continue to do what you’ve done to this point,” Bednar said of Kovalenko.
The coach is also giving Jere Innala power-play time with the big three on the top unit to continue to see what he can bring. Bednar confirmed Mittelstadt will play next game, likely with Calum Ritchie, who is also among the forwards vying for a top-six role. There’s also Ross Colton, who for the first time, was mentioned by Bednar as a possible winger in the top six if needed. In this scenario, the Avs would probably need to trust Ritchie to center the third line. But given Bednar’s comments about the young forward’s defensive game on Sunday, they might not have enough time to get him to the level they’d need.
There’s still a lot to figure out.
“In training camp and early in the year, I’m a much more patient coach than I am later on because I don’t want to see the same mistakes being repeated,” Bednar said. “If you can’t digest the information that we’re giving you and implement it into a game, you have the runway, especially as a younger player.”
Alexandar Georgiev will play tonight, and he may get the full game just as Justus Annunen did on Sunday.
Rounding out the forward group at morning skate were Miles Wood, Jason Polin, Matthew Phillips, Matt Stienburg, Pierre-Edouard Bellemare, Ivan Ivan, Jayson Megna, T.J. Tynan, and Jean-Luc Foudy. One of them will be scratched since each of MacKinnon, Rantanen, Innala and Kovalenko are all confirmed to play.
