Everything Avalanche to watch for at the Rookie Faceoff

The Colorado Avalanche open their rookie camp tomorrow with the team set to fly to Los Angeles to compete in this year’s Rookie Faceoff. It’s a fun event they do every year and gives the hardcore fans a deeper look at how the team’s prospects match up against the prospects of nearby clubs.

For the last several years, this has been more of a formality for the Avs as their prospect pool has greatly thinned due to trades of high draft picks to bolster the NHL team. Even when they have made picks, they have not always had access to their players because they have drafted so heavily from the NCAA, which does not allow its players to participate in the NHL preseason.

This year is a bit different for the Avs as they have a couple of their top prospects headed to LA to compete. The top prospects who won’t be headed to LA for the Avalanche include their two Russian gems, Mikhail Gulyayev and Ilya Nabokov, whose KHL seasons have already begun, and Jean-Luc Foudy, who is hoping the openings at the NHL level give him a chance to make the NHL team outright with a strong training camp.

The Avs will play three games over four days, beginning Friday against the Anaheim Ducks. The schedule is:

-Friday vs. Anaheim
-Saturday vs. Seattle
-Sunday OFF
-Monday vs. San Jose

Then they hop on the plane and head back to Denver to prepare for full training camp, which begins next Thursday.

Before things hit the ice tomorrow, I wanted to give a rundown of what to watch for as the weekend unfolds. Let’s start with the obvious.

Cal Ritchie, Center
6’2″, 187 lbs
23rd overall (2023)

Here’s the hype beast of not only the Rookie Faceoff, but the entire preseason. The Avalanche have signaled all summer that not only are they planning to give Ritchie an extended look in the preseason to make the NHL roster, but that they expect him to take one of the spots available.

He stayed in Denver much of the summer following development camp and a lengthy conversation with Avalanche head coach Jared Bednar. The club clearly expects Ritchie to take a significant opportunity and run with it.

I think the organization would much prefer that Ritchie start the season in the AHL and get his feet wet in the NHL first, but they don’t have that option and it’s probably for the best. The Avalanche have not been successful operating that way and have had real success dropping players in the NHL and challenging them instead.

Ritchie gets a headstart on big boy camp this weekend. His physicality and strength are the biggest question marks facing him as he attempts to jump to the NHL straight from the OHL and this weekend won’t give any meaningful looks at that.

It will, however, allow Ritchie to hit the ground running when full camp opens up next week and get him into a rhythm as he heads into the biggest week of his career. He blossomed in Oshawa last year and was a dominant force as the season wore on. We’re looking for his hockey sense to jump off the ice. Look for him to make plays that make you think, “Next to an established NHL player, that’s going to look damn good.”

Oskar Olausson, Wing
6’2″, 181 lbs
28th overall (2021)

It only feels like Olausson has been around forever, but that’s because he’s been appearing in games with the Colorado Eagles in the AHL since the spring of 2022.

The story with Olausson has not changed much. Despite his size and NHL-caliber shot, Olausson has engagement inconsistencies that hold his game back. He keeps to the perimeter a bit more than you’d like to see and his hockey sense is questionable as ever.

His production is identical in the last two seasons with back-to-back years of 11 goals and 9 assists, but two years ago it was in 63 games and last year only 39. His season ended prematurely with a shoulder injury and when we saw him at development camp in July, he was still wearing a non-contact jersey and was not a full participant.

He is expected to be a full-go this weekend and he needs to use this as a springboard. The Avalanche are weakest at the wing position in the NHL right now and he made an impression on Bednar last season. That positive trend needs to continue because if it doesn’t, it’s fair to wonder when it will ever happen for Olausson, whom the team took trade calls on at the deadline last season.

Matt Stienburg, Forward
6’1″, 183 lbs
63rd overall (2019)

Stienburg has been another slow-burn prospect as last year was his first full professional season. His appeal as a player does not come in his offensive profile so his 13 points (5g, 8a) in 54 games played fits him.

His selling point is his physicality. Stienburg is a wrecking ball of a forward capable of playing all three forward spots (he’s most translatable as a wing, but I won’t definitively say his career at center is over).

He’s miserable to play against and the Avalanche are hopeful he can continue to develop into their version of William Carrier. If there’s a big hit this weekend, there’s a decent chance Stienburg is involved.

Ondrej Pavel, Center
6’2″, 205 lbs
Undrafted

Pavel was a college free agent signing in the spring of 2023 out of Minnesota State. He’s a big-bodied center who was a stronger contender for the 4C job in Denver before Pierre-Edouard Bellemare’s PTO was signed, but Pavel still has a chance to make an impression.

He missed this event last year due to injury and just couldn’t quite get back to good health in time to make a notable impression during the preseason. He’s big, he’s physical, and in theory, he wins faceoffs.

This is an important event for Pavel to try to make a mark.

Jason Polin, Wing
6’0″, 198 lbs
Undrafted

Like Pavel, Polin was a college free-agent signing in the spring of 2023. After a great college career that saw him score 30 goals in his final season at Western Michigan, Polin started off last year’s Rookie Faceoff with multiple huge hits against the Arizona Coyotes.

He got hurt, however, and lost the momentum he was building. He found his way back to the Avalanche and scored one goal (vs. the Ottawa Senators) in seven NHL games. He has to make his mark with a high-motor, high-physicality style of game. He has a good enough shot to chip in a few goals here and there but has a chance to make an impression as a high-lineup player at this event.

Ivan Ivan, Center
6’0″, 190 lbs
Undrafted

Ivan Ivan was a darling of last year’s Rookie Faceoff event as a roster invite following a strong finish to his QMJHL career. He made a name for himself by scoring points in every game and was part of a Bash Bros. style tag team with Maros Jedlicka, who unfortunately suffered a serious injury and missed the entire season.

Ivan went the other way, working his way into the Colorado Eagles lineup and becoming a mainstay, scoring 12 goals and 31 points in 67 games while playing a strong two-way game for the Eagles. He earned an ELC with the Avalanche and is looking like a real find for the Avalanche scouting department.

Another strong effort at this event and the conversation grows a little louder with Ivan as a potential fit for the NHL roster down the road. It’s not likely going to be this year, but there is a long-term hole at 4C for the Avs and Ivan Ivan might be the player in the best position to earn looks there. It starts this weekend.

Nikita Prishchepov, Forward
6’1″, 194 lbs
217th overall (2024)

Max Curran, Forward
6’3′, 190 lbs
161st overall (2024)

Both recent draftees, I’m grouping these two because I just don’t have much in-person knowledge of either player. This is their first meaningful look in Avalanche uniforms and I’m excited to learn about both guys. They are part of the robust draft class the Avalanche just built over the summer. We’ll see, but I am keeping an eye on them both this weekend.

Chase Bradley, Wing
5’11”, 181 lbs
203rd overall (2020 by Detroit)

Bradley is Eric Lacroix’s player to watch this weekend and has an interesting profile. If the Avs were trying to re-create the success of Logan O’Connor, Bradley would nicely fit the model on paper.

He finished his college career at UConn and signed with the Avalanche in free agency. He’s already 22 and turns 23 in January, so he has to make an impression quickly or he’ll get lost in the shuffle.

Like the two players above, I don’t personally have much to say here except that he has a reputation as a strong skater, but he’s a guy on an NHL contract who is likely headed for the Eagles to start the season. I am excited to see more of him.

Sean Behrens, Defense
5’10”, 176 lbs
61st overall (2021)

Behrens signed out of the University of Denver as an extremely accomplished college player. In three seasons with the Pios, he won two national championships and was a top-pairing defender for the most recent championship last spring.

He began his pro career in the spring with the Colorado Eagles of the AHL, getting into two games.

Behrens is an undersized, puck-moving defenseman whose hockey IQ jumps off the ice in a big way. In talking with a few members of last year’s Pioneers team, the smarts of Behrens consistently came up alongside his work ethic. Simply put, Behrens is a guy who “gets it.”

He doesn’t have a clear path to the NHL right now, but as a mature defenseman whose size betrays a highly competitive playstyle, this is a guy we want to see standout this weekend.

Outside of his size limitations, the biggest question facing Behrens is the quality of his skating. For a player of his stature, you have to be a really good skater to stick in the NHL. Behrens is a fine skater, but you won’t confuse him with Sam Girard, whose feet have been his greatest asset since getting to the top league in the world.

Saige Weinstein, Defense
6’1″, 183 lbs
Undrafted

Weinstein is a fascinating case. He went undrafted but the Avalanche liked what they saw from him at this event two years ago so much that they signed him to an ELC as an 18-year-old.

That’s already a rare combination, but Weinstein doesn’t have the production or measurables you’d expect from a player the Avs felt that comfortable projecting forward. Given they signed him and he will continue his WHL career this season, the Avs essentially made a five-year commitment to Weinstein.

He didn’t light up the scoreboard with a career-high of 25 points last year for the Spokane Chiefs. He isn’t a hulking presence at just 6’1″, 183 lbs. What’s the appeal here?

We’ll get to see more of him this weekend, but a smooth-skating defensive defenseman is an archetype the Avalanche have struggled to develop internally. I am excited to how his game has progressed over the last year.

Josh Fluker, Defense
5’11”, 161 lbs
Unsigned

Fluker is my shot-in-the-dark pick player to make an impression this weekend. Like Weinstein two years ago, Fluker is only 18 but went undrafted. He was the seventh pick in the 2021 WHL Bantam Draft and was hyped as a potentially high-flying, puck-moving defenseman.

The reason I’m keeping an eye on him is his reputation as an excellent skater who can explode up the ice with the puck. His skills have not translated into production and his size and defense leave plenty to be desired, but this feels like the Avs getting comfortable with a player whose style is a nice fit with what they look for from defensemen.

As much as Weinstein is the Avs trying to round out their defensive prospects with an archetype they lack, Fluker is the kind of guy that you watch and say, “Yeah, that’s an Avs defenseman.”