• Landy is full go, hungry.

  • Nichushkin had his first normal offseason since before the 2022 Cup win

  • Sources tell The Gazette there has been progress made on an extension with the Czech native in recent weeks. There is optimism it can get done.

  • Bednar on Blackwood “Things seem to be going good,” Bednar said. “Week-to-week I would say right now, but he’s going to be limited and missing some time in camp as well. We’re hoping he’s ready to go for the start of the season; if not right at the start, then maybe the first week or two.”

  • Devon Toews admitted he did a lot of legwork convincing Brock Nelson to re-sign with the Avalanche. He said Zach Parise, who finished his career in Colorado, also talked to the veteran forward. Both Toews and Bednar believe Nelson has another level he can hit now that he’s settled in. “He’s got more to give to us, and I think he knows it, too,” Toews said.

  • Bednar admitted the third-line center spot is the one hole in the lineup. He mentioned Ross Colton has played center before and that Jack Drury is someone who can fill that role, so they’ll experiment with that in camp. He also noted that Artturi Lehkonen is someone they could use on the third line to spread things out around that lineup. That would likely mean new addition Victor Olofsson gets a look in the top six.

  • Dave Hakstol will indeed run the power play, Bednar said. The power play was the difference against Dallas but don’t expect sweeping changes. MacKinnon said he hadn’t met with Hakstol yet. Bednar said the search for a new assistant took a long time, but they liked Hakstol’s previous head coaching experience.
    With more right-shots than left-shots on the blue line, Bednar said Sam Malinski will open camp playing his off-side and they’ll go from there.

-Burns is popular in the room

5 comments

  1. How do you guys feel about Necas at 9.8-10.2? Feels about right for me with cap increase adjusted into the salary. People will say it is high but it will be a steal in the end.

    Sad to read reports on Blackwood not being ready to go. I know injuries happen in training but dammit at some point I’m going to say the Avs need to invest in a new facility and upgrade the staff where it is required.

    Always love hearing the leaders are leading and even former leaders chipping in that were barely on the Avs lol… Glad Nelson is coming back but we paid a high price for him respective to the other similarly productive 2Cs from last year. He needs to take that step up they alluded to and I believe it is possible.

    Please do not put Lehkonen at 3C. That does not feel like a solution. I would not mind him getting moved away from Mack though and I still really need to see the big line of Nuke-Nelson-Landy for a bit before I think about moving Lehky down to the 2nd line. What a bummer we don’t have LOC for a bit…

    I don’t expect much change from the PP other than addressing failed entries more quickly and focusing on movement in the offensive zone. I think they should actually move away from the hyper focus on Mack and Makar. No more obvious systems, designed shooters or puck movers. Just throw it on net and sprint to recover.

    Hope Sam does well on his off-side. I love the acquisition of Burns he honestly sounds like a perfect fit on the bottom pairing.

  2. Great details. I wonder if, halfway through the season, we’ll think it was obvious that Hakstol and Burns were big additions. I also hope we’ll see 30g from at least one of Nelson and Landeskog.

  3. I’m irrationally excited to have Burns on our team just for the fun factor, alone. Also, I have a feeling that Nelson and Landy is going to be a killer combination. God I can’t fucking wait for the season to begin!

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