Avalanche Training Camp Day 3 Notebook: Zakhar Bardakov is winning a job

Training camp wrapped up today for the Colorado Avalanche as Day 3 was a much lighter day ahead of the team’s double-header tomorrow against the Utah Mammoth. As was the case with previous days, here were the groups so you can see what kind of changes the team made with captain Gabe Landeskog taking a maintenance day.

An important note is that Brent Burns was listed as the “extra” defenseman in Group 2 but didn’t skate because he “had a little tweak there yesterday” according to head coach Jared Bednar. I had written in my training camp preview that I wanted to see Burns, the NHL‘s top active Ironman with 925 straight games played, get through camp healthy because of Colorado’s insane injury curse. And yet here we are.

I’m not going to be overly alarmist about it just because I’m jaded by years of Avalanche injury issues plaguing the franchise. If Burns doesn’t skate or play next week, then I’ll start to lose my marbles a bit. Until this, I couldn’t help but chuckle because of course.

On the ice, the sessions were abbreviated since all but a handful of players (Burns, Nathan MacKinnon, Joel Kiviranta, Ross Colton, Mackenzie Blackwood, Cooper Gay, Hank Kempf, and Mathis Langevin) will be playing in one of the two games tomorrow, one at Magness Arena in the afternoon and one at Ball Arena in the evening.

With that in mind, there were still a few guys who caught my eye today. I won’t separate the standouts the same way I have in previous days so here’s the list followed by the interviews done in the locker room. Those interviews include Avs forward Martin Necas addressing the rumor that he didn’t like his time in Colorado in the spring, which had popped up over the summer.

Day 3 standouts

Sam Malinski

I liked a lot of what I saw from Malinski today. In what little simulated game action we saw, he was aggressive in holding the line (important for a defenseman playing on his off-side) and looked comfortable activating offensively the way he normally would.

He also has not been shy about firing one-timers when he a gets a D-to-D pass along the blueline and that is one area he could really enjoy playing on the left side as a right-shot. In fact, that’s how he scored his first NHL goal. If you’re looking to weaponize this awkward fit, that’s a good place to start and I have liked seeing Malinski not be afraid to let it rip through the last few days.

This is always true of Malinski, but I really do appreciate his mobility. He’s so solid on his edges and while he may not be big, he is well-balanced and that help keeps him upright when he gets leaned on.

Wyatt Aamodt

Look, I’ve been good about including a lot of forwards in my write-ups of Days 1 and 2, but I’m always a person who enjoys watching defensemen first foremost. I spent a good chunk of my day keying in on the blueliners and I like Aamodt. His skating has been slowly improving over the last few years to the point where he just might be able to handle NHL speed.

The two games we saw of him in Games 81 and 82 of last season were very encouraging as he was damn good in both games. He’s a gritty, hard-nosed player who gets by honestly and puts in the work. Today, I saw him attacking offensively more than I am accustomed and that is the mentality that will inch him closer to playing real Avalanche hockey.

The Avs consistently has the highest-scoring defense and not just because Cale Makar is a freak of nature (he is, though) and a big part of that is the way the team wants it defenders to activate with the puck. If Aamodt can bring that part of his game along a little more, he could eventually push Keaton Middleton for that 7th D job.

Cale Makar

I’m slipping Makar in here because there wasn’t a single standout moment for him, but I did catch myself on multiple occasions watching him and thinking, “How is he so much better than everyone else and it doesn’t even look like he’s trying?”

A true unicorn.

Zakhar Bardakov

I’m always weary of trying to hype of training camp All-Stars (Brian Willsie is, to date, one of the best training camp players I’ve ever watched), but Bardakov genuinely looks really good. He’s been flying out there and he is a well-built human being. He skates with power and purpose and that is a key trait to a guy trying to win a job as the fourth-line center.

We talked with Parker Kelly quite a bit about having him as a linemate through all three days so far and how he can help the transition to North America and Kelly talked about him taking it upon himself to take Bardakov under his wing. The language barrier exists but it is getting a little better each day. I’m excited to see what Bardakov can do in a real game because these camp days have gotten me believing the Avs are going to be just fine at center.

Danil Gushchin

Promoted from the Colorado Eagles small-stars line, Guschin and Val Nichushkin (“Gushchin & Nichushkin” sounds like a Russian law firm, doesn’t it?) had instant chemistry on the puck. They were fun together, but Gushchin really got to flex some of the puck skills that made him such an effective AHL player last season.

The Avs acquired him largely to upgrade the Eagles because he’s quite a bit better at that level than the player he was traded for, Oskar Olausson, but if he can show well over the next few weeks, he can make some noise. I liked his play with the puck today and it’s always fun to watch Nichushkin find someone to get hyped with.

Martin Necas

This isn’t about anything he did on the ice, but about him talking about Colorado being one of the best places to live in the NHL. We are always fans of pro-Colorado life sentiments. You can hear what he said in his interview below!

Avs interviews

Cale Makar, Martin Necas, Victor Olofsson

Jared Bednar

Parker Kelly

This is from today’s podcast, but we spent nearly 30 minutes talking with Kelly on his decision to re-sign with the Avalanche, his journey to the NHL, his struggles to transition from wing to center last year, and new linemate Zakhar Bardakov. Also, he really doesn’t like packing his suits.