Cut by Cut: Down to 23
After a few days of deliberations the Colorado Avalanche announced their final roster and cut down to 23 active players ahead of the 3pm MT deadline on October 1st.
Avalanche reduces roster to 23: https://t.co/nH0n2AGQOG
Updated Numerical Roster: https://t.co/tA6Isham3i
Updated Positional Roster: https://t.co/KX9taepEUshttps://t.co/jvwlqL8yn3
— Avalanche PR (@AvsPR) October 1, 2019
All in all two additional cuts were made after defenseman Kevin Connauton was reassigned to the Colorado Eagles for real this time. The other reassigned defenseman Calle Rosen was the unfortunate victim of a combined numbers game and waiver exempt status. After a strong camp Rosen should still see quite a few NHL games this year.
On the forward side Jayson Megna was also sent to the Eagles after he impressed Jared Bednar. Despite signing with the organization as scoring help and leadership for the AHL club he will probably find himself a callup or two.
Just for housekeeping necessities, defenseman Ian Cole was placed on injured non-roster as he continues to recover from off-season hip surgery. He is making progress and should play in a month or so.
As always the 23-man and subsequently Opening Night rosters are still just a snapshot in time and will change over the course of the season. Still, there’s some amount of significance to note who has passed the final cut.
Conor Timmins has made the roster and will presumably make his NHL debut on October 3rd in a remarkable turn of events following missing an entire year dealing with concussion recovery. It’s fantastic the coaching staff is making a commitment to him to begin that journey to playing in the NHL.
Also on the defensive side Ryan Graves seems to have found himself a penalty killing role and likely the reason the organization did not need to hold on to Connauton. However Mark Barberio remains with the Avalanche should the coaching need to insert a veteran into the lineup,
For now the Avalanche are carrying 14 forwards and a necessity once Mikko Rantanen was added back into the fold. That means Val Nichushkin has found a home, though that was never seriously in doubt. Vladislav Kamenev also grabbed a roster spot as the Avalanche continue to work with him and protect him from waivers for the time being.
