Jared Bednar has many reasons to look forward to when all of his forwards are healthy.
Among those reasons, is an opportunity for the head coach to deploy four lines deep of talent. He’ll get to shift recently acquired Nazem Kadri to center and Nicolas Roy to the wing. And he’d get to find the chemistry he’d like before the playoffs begin next month.
The Avalanche currently have Gabe Landeskog, Artturi Lehkonen, and Logan O’Connor on the shelf. Ross Colton is also out, albeit we’ll get more clarity on his status ahead of the game in Seattle.
“I want to find a rhythm. It’s not just chemistry, it’s a rhythm of how we deploy our guys,” Bednar said on his weekly Altitude Sports Radio appearance on Wednesday. “Like, who’s gonna play with Naz? I want to get him back in the middle of the ice. I’d to get Landy back with [Martin] Necas and [Nathan] MacKinnon. Brock Nelson has been playing a lot with [Valeri Nichushkin] and Colts and maybe we keep that together. And does Lehkonen go with Naz and Roy? Like how does it all shape up? I want to have all those [three] guys at center.”
Bednar has been using Kadri as the left winger on the top line in Landeskog’s absence. It was a move made out of necessity following a sudden injury to Landeskog, which was announced an hour before Kadri made his re-debut with the club. Roy has been centering the third line since arriving, albeit it’s likely he’s a winger more often than not in the playoffs.
What Bednar laid out on Wednesday was three lines that would surely give other teams issues. Having Landeskog back on the top line when he returns is a no-brainer. The captain has progressively grown back into that role this season, even with two injuries sandwiched in between the games he’s played.
But the idea of keeping Colton on the second line and instead using Lehkonen with Kadri is fascinating in many ways. Colton hasn’t had the most offensively productive season, but he’s looked like a good fit with Nelson on the second line.
Lehkonen and Kadri played together a little bit during the 2022 playoffs — particularly early in the Western Conference Final series and in the later stages of the Stanley Cup Final. And Roy would be a good fit on the right.
To get to this point, Colorado needs at least three of its forwards back. One of them, Colton, might play on Thursday.
“He took a shot from a player during the game, and he kind of tightened up, so he’s got an upper-body injury. Hopefully he loosens up and can play in Seattle,” Bednar said postgame, who scored in the first period.
As for Lehkonen, Landeskog, and O’Connor? It sounds like they all might be returning around the same time.
“I think by the looks of our injuries, we should have some time with [experimenting]. Those wingers are a couple of weeks out, I guess,” Bednar said on Altitude Sports radio. “There’s still quite a bit of season here left.”
The beauty of Colorado’s deep lineup is that Bednar has options. Those nine forwards, in some capacity, are likely going to make up the top nine. That leaves a fourth kine of Jack Drury between Parker Kelly and O’Connor. If O’Connor remains out, Joel Kiviranta slots in nicely. And you’d still have Gavin Brindley and Zakhar Bardakov as extras.
Bednar has never hesitated to shake up line combinations if things aren’t working. We could very well see Kadri back on the wing with MacKinnon at some point. It’s just as likely that Lehkonen gets to play up there again. But if what Bednar is thinking right now comes true, those two guys would both be on an insanely talented third line together.