"I just need to show my best": Still a teenager, Martin Kaut is trying to prove he belongs

Fresh off his best showing in an Avalanche uniform, Martin Kaut wasn’t resting on his laurels.

After Friday’s practice, Kaut didn’t head to the locker room early. Instead, he stayed out late and spent some solo time with Avs skills coach Shawn Allard. Kaut would sit in the slot with his stick down while Allard would launch low shots, with the intention of Kaut deflecting them at different angles into the net.

The soon to be 20-year-old is taking a shot at making the Avs full time, and the staff is giving him every opportunity. On Saturday, he will play again, as the Avs face off against the Minnesota Wild. That will make him the only skater to have appeared in all three of the Avs’ preseason games.

Kaut is ready for the opportunity. In the AHL last year, he put up a modest 26 points in 63 games, but he knows that playing in North American for that first year was beneficial.

“More better,” the soft-spoken Kaut said when asked how he feels this year. “Last year for me was really important because of the smaller rink and living without family. I want to start in the NHL this year, and this is my goal.”

After playing with Tyson Jost in the preseason opener, Kaut was given a chance to play with two full-time NHL players on Thursday in J.T. Compher and Matt Nieto. He made the most of it.

“He was way better tonight than the other night,” Bednar said after the Avs 2-1 loss to Dallas at home. “You get him on a line with some similar type players that have a similar mindset. He was good. That’s a step forward. Again, that’s the best NHL exhibition game he’s played for us.”

Getting the chance to play with other NHL players is giving Kaut the confidence he needs to breakthrough.

“For sure,” Kaut told BSN Denver when asked if these opportunities are giving him more confidence. “I just need to show my best, like my shot. I need to play like Compher and Nieto and be a two-way forward.”

With forward Colin Wilson only Friday stepping on the ice for the first time in camp, and star forward Mikko Rantanen without a contract, there is room for Kaut to step in, if he earns it. Bednar has already seen the improvement just from last year.

“He’s way quicker,” Bednar said about Kaut. “He’s way stronger. I like that he’s sort of figured out the way he needs to play in order to be successful, and that’s a straight-line game. For me, he has to have an element of heaviness to his game and an element of determination, and he’s had that through training camp.”

It won’t be easy for Kaut to lock down that final spot, but he’s starting to plant the seed in the coaching staff’s head that he may be ready sooner than later.

That’s just what they want.