With Ian Cole nearing return, Avs send Conor Timmins to the AHL

It was the story of training camp, but Conor Timmins’ time in the NHL is over…for now.

Averaging just 10:25 of ice time in the first two games of the season, and not quite having the trust of the coaching staff late in games, the Avs are sending the 21-year-old Timmins to the Colorado Eagles of the AHL to get him some more ice time.

Make no mistake, this will not be the last time Avs fans see Timmins up in the NHL. He forced his way onto the NHL roster with his strong play in camp and preseason, but with the coaching staff having more trust in other players at the moment, he will go down to the AHL knowing what he needs to work on, and doing so while playing a lot more than he would for the Avs. He will be back in due time.

One reason the Avs can afford to be patient with him? The superhuman Ian Cole, scheduled for a December return originally, has been cleared for contact and is well ahead of schedule.

“That’s a possibility,” Jared Bednar said after practice when asked if he could play within the week. “We’ll continue to watch his progress in practice now that he’s 5 on 5 in full participation and we’ll make a judgment on when he’s going to play.”

One area of concern that Cole could be a lot of help is the penalty kill. In their first two games, the Avs have allowed three goals against to the opposing team’s power play on just eight attempts. Cole, who averaged a team-high 3:17 per game on the PK last year, will no doubt be counted on to help in that area.

News and Notes from Practice

• It was a very light practice for the Avs forward core, with only 9 forwards skating. Nazem Kadri, Joonas Donskoi, Pierre-Edouard Bellemare, J.T. Compher, and Andre Burakovsky were all absent from practice, but head coach Jared Bednar said he doesn’t anticipate any of them missing any time long term.
• Because the Avs are so dinged up, they will not have a mandatory practice on Tuesday, but instead will spend time at the gym and get back to the ice on Wednesday.
• With Timmins heading down, Bednar said they will “probably” recall another defenseman. The two obvious candidates would be Calle Rosen, who had a very good preseason, and veteran Kevin Connauton. It’s no guarantee the callup would play over veteran Mark Barberio, who practiced on a pair with Ryan Graves today. This is assuming Ian Cole isn’t given the green light to play on Thursday by the coaching staff.
• The Avs spent most of practice working on cycle work down low and breakout work with the defensemen. The top two pairs of Sam Girard/Erik Johnson and Nikita Zadorov/Cale Makar stayed the same.
• The coaching staff ended practice with a fun drill that emphasized skill development, as players would take a pass from the staff on both their forehand and backhand and try to maneuver the puck around sticks laying on the ice to get their shot off. Anyone who missed the net or hit the stick was eliminated. It came down to Nathan MacKinnon, Erik Johnson, and Cale Makar, but the ultimate winner was Johnson.