Morning skate notebook: Tyson Jost sent down to San Antonio

Just a few minutes removed here from Jared Bednar’s morning presser, as the Avs resume their schedule against the Washington Capitals tonight.

The news:

• Tyson Jost is healthy again. That’s the good news. The surprising rest of the story is that he will be doing his hockey-playing with the San Antonio Rampage of the AHL for at least the next few days. Jost has been assigned to the Rampage in what Bednar indicated is a conditioning assignment, where he can get a lot more ice time down there instead of what likely would have been a lower-line role coming back from his latest lower-body injury. Bednar said, if all goes as expected, Jost should be back up with the Avs soon.
• That means rookie Vladislav Kamenev has effectively taken Jost’s job, at least for the short term. The recently-acquired Russian will make his Avs debut tonight, centering a line with Sven Andrighetto and Nail Yakupov. This will be Kamenev’s third career game, his previous two coming last season with Nashville.
• Tyson Barrie will not play tonight. He’s got an upper-body injury. The good news: it’s not serious and Barrie will go on the Avs’ upcoming two-game road trip to Nashville and Detroit.
• That means the Avs have just six defensemen right now, and that means Chris Bigras, Andrei Mironov and Nikita Zadorov – all healthy scratches at some point recently – will play.  Bigras and Mironov are expected to be a pair, while Samuel Girard will be a pair with Erik Johnson.
• Gabriel Bourque will be the lone healthy scratch among forwards. Alexander Kerfoot will center a line with J.T. Compher and Colin Wilson. Carl Soderberg will return to the lineup, centering Matt Nieto and Blake Comeau.
• The Avs will get Washington’s backup goalie, Phillipp Grubauer, tonight. He is 0-4-1, with a 3.49 GAA and .890 saves percentage. So, of course he’ll probably stand on his head.
• Speaking of Girard, who will make his home debut and who prefers to be call Sam instead of Samuel, I spent a couple minutes talking with him, including an addressing of his pending junior status (he’s not going anywhere, I’m told).