Colorado Avalanche Preseason Studs & Duds

The preseason is over! The next time I write this column will be for the first real game of the season next week against the Los Angeles Kings. We did it, everyone!

Anyway, this version of Studs and Duds will be different because it will be focused on the entire preseason and not solely tonight’s game. Onward!

Studs

Fredrik Olofsson

Coming into training camp, there was a pretty serious glut among the forwards in consideration for the last couple of forward spots and that logjam only grew with the team deciding Kurtis MacDermid would focus his efforts solely at forward to start the season.

Enter Olofsson, who was the first offseason move the Avs made when they acquired him for future considerations from the Dallas Stars. The first of several former Stars to join the Avs (along with Riley Tufte, Joel Kiviranta on a PTO, and Tanner Kero on an AHL deal), Olofsson’s versatility was a selling point to the Avalanche but his path to the roster following Tomas Tatar’s late-summer signing was through the fourth-line center job.

His primary competition for that spot through the preseason was holdover Ben Meyers and newcomers Ondrej Pavel, Peter Holland, and very briefly, Tufte. Olofsson outplayed all of them and should have secured the job with his heavy, consistent play.

For a guy the Stars were so quick to jettison, landing on the roster of the team that beat Dallas out for the Central Division title last year is a pretty good upgrade for him. Now the focus should turn to keeping the job, but for now I’m dabbing Olofsson up.

Riley Tufte

Tufte came in with a little hype as Avalanche GM Chris MacFarland mentioned his name basically every time he talked about the forward depth and Tufte’s overall body of work in the preseason was the kind of performance you want to see from the fringes of your NHL roster.

The attempt to turn him into a center didn’t even last an entire game but he scored three goals in his first three games and got a look alongside Ross Colton and Miles Wood tonight. It didn’t go particularly well, but he didn’t come into town thinking he was going to get looks in Colorado’s top nine.

What he did do, however, is put himself on the map for potentially making the team outright or being among the very first call-up options from the Colorado Eagles. His size and skating clearly appeal to Jared Bednar and I feel confident we see him at least get an Anton Blidh level of look at Tufte in Denver this season.

Oskar Olausson

Olausson went from an underwhelming season last year into a pretty vanilla showing at the Rookie Faceoff in Vegas into a strong preseason finish that vaulted him into the conversation for a call-up.

It was a very encouraging development for the kid and he punctuated his final game with a beauty of a game-winning goal in overtime. His game needs a lot of work and he needs to build off the momentum he built in the preseason, but for the first time since the Avs drafted him in the first round, there is real momentum to build from.

Justus Annunen

When it became clear coming into the preseason that Pavel Francouz was not ready to go, a lot of conversation started about what the Avalanche might do in this position. Would they sign a veteran free agent such as Jaro Halak? Make a trade? Wait to puck a goalie off waivers? Ride with the youngster in Annunen?

We still aren’t 100% because the last few waves of re-assignments have yet to happen across the league so the idea of a waiver claim is still possible, but Annunen got the chance to state his case to be the backup until Francouz returns.

With no timeline yet on the books for that return, Annunen took his opportunity and ran with it. Preseason stat-tracking is pretty much non-existent but Annunen played a sturdy game that drew glowing praise from head coach Jared Bednar when the Avs sent a skeleton crew to Minnesota and pushed a lineup of Wild regulars to a more competitive night than anybody was likely expecting. Annunen was a major part of that according to the few people who got to see it.

That praise translated into another opportunity for Annunen and he is, at least for the moment, currently slated to backup Alexandar Georgiev to begin the season and could play as soon as Colorado’s second game of the season in San Jose.

Avs fans have waited patiently for Annunen to get an extended look at the Finnish netminder and his play just may have dictated that chance to open this season.

Duds

Sam Malinski

We went from the brilliance of him going head-to-head with Logan Cooley in Vegas at the Rookie Faceoff to him having a pretty brutal performance against Vegas tonight to cap a preseason that showcased a skilled player but one who still has a ton to learn at the pro level.

Malinski isn’t a dud so much as a classic rookie who is playing on a roster that wants to win the next 98 games they play to raise their second Stanley Cup in three years and he did not look suited to help them right away.

Some AHL seasoning was always likely on the docket for Malinski and he certainly wasn’t without his positive moments along the way but his work in his own zone needs enough smoothing out that, barring injury, he should probably be in Loveland for a bit to get his crash course in pro hockey.

Injured guys

Jean-Luc Foudy, Alex Beaucage, Chris Wagner, and most recent top draft pick Calum Ritchie all came into came injured and at various points in their recoveries and we didn’t get to see any of them play. Certainly Wagner and Foudy would have been somewhere in the mix for those roster battles but it would have been nice to see Ritchie following his shoulder surgery in the spring.

Ondrej Pavel finally got into a preseason game but it was the team’s fifth one before he was healthy enough to give it a go and while he scored the team’s only goal (short-handed at that), he had simply lost too much ground by that point to make it up on either Meyers or Olofsson for that 4C spot. He will be a guy the Avs likely give a shot during the season but it could have been a real competition all preseason had he been healthy enough.

Jason Polin also lost some momentum with multiple small injuries both at the Rookie Faceoff and in the preseason. He showed enough that the team should feel good about its investment in him to play a physical, mature game in a fourth-line role but the little setbacks were enough in a crowded field to lose out.

Maybe the guy whose immediate timeline was the most altered, however, was rookie Maros Jedlicka. He came in as a total unknown as Colorado’s seventh-round pick in June and then could not make it to development camp in time. The first looks at him were all very impressive as his competitiveness and physicality played up at the Rookie Faceoff and in all of his preseason appearances. It seemed he was on his way to getting an ELC from the Avalanche and staying in North America for the year but a long-term injury has him out for what is reportedly at least the next four months. That’s a terrible blow for a young man who was beginning the long journey to a potential NHL career.

Francouz is also here because he is, once again, a man of mysterious injured means.

Josh Manson only got into one preseason game, played 17 minutes, then didn’t practice much and did not play in Vegas tonight. He is supposedly scheduled to be healthy for opening night but given his extensive injury history in recent years, his status is worth monitoring because this organization’s number one weakness is defensive depth and he is a vital part of tying the group together with his mean streak.

Unsung Hero

The new guys

As you saw above, there isn’t a ton in here about most of the guys who will actually be on the NHL roster this year. The preseason isn’t really about them as most of them are just trying to stay healthy and get back into the routine of practices and games and travel and game shape and all of that.

Newcomers to an organization always have the added layer of learning new systems and finding chemistry with new linemates, so there’s always additional attention on them. The Avs have plenty of new faces at forward and you have to feel pretty good about what all of them did in this preseason. I mentioned Olofsson already so I’ll skip him, but the rest had their moments.

• Miles Wood, he of the shocking six-year deal on July 1, showcased that trademark speed and physicality.
• Ross Colton, especially in the Vegas game tonight, drove some play, shot the puck a lot, and was generally a physical nuisance and showed why he’s such an intriguing fit at the 3C spot as he also got some PK looks to see if he can help there.
• Tomas Tatar looked, well, like Tomas Tatar has long looked in his career.
• Ryan Johansen won some faceoffs, went to the net, and scored a couple of power play goals in the spot vacated by J.T. Compher’s departure to Detroit.
• Jonathan Drouin was probably the most exciting of the group as he got acclimated to a new-old linemate in Nathan MacKinnon. He registered a bundle of points, all assists of course, and looks like he could be a real player for the Avs if he can get his two-way game up to speed.

That’s a lot of good stuff!

The old guys

I don’t mean Jack Johnson or Andrew Cogliano here, I just mean familiar faces. The guys we all know. Here are a few of my thoughts on some of the returning regulars.

• Bowen Byram sure looks good with the puck. If he is actually healthy after his head hitting the glass late in tonight’s game, there’s so much excitement surrounding this young man taking his game to another level.
• Sam Girard looks like he’s already off to a flying start. The legs look in midseason form, which would be great because his first half last year was not nearly good enough.
• Val Nichushkin looks like he is no longer fighting the effects of his ankle problems dating back to the Stanley Cup Final. He was all over Vegas tonight. Him getting that dynamic skating element back to his game would be a very good development.
• Logan O’Connor looks, well, like Logan O’Connor. That’s a great thing.
• Last but certainly not least, Nathan MacKinnon looks like he is as locked in as he ever has been. It’s awfully tough to bet against Connor McDavid, who is also extremely motivated to win the hardware he most covets and not another Art Ross/Hart combo, but MacKinnon looks like he’s ready to show why he will be the NHL’s highest-paid player this season. Hoooo baby does he look like a man possessed.