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Ross Colton

Avalanche Activate Ross Colton, Place Jonathan Drouin On IR

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The Avalanche will welcome back an important forward tonight as the team announced (Twitter link) that forward Ross Colton has been activated off LTIR.  To make room for him on the active roster, winger Jonathan Drouin has been moved to injured reserve retroactive to November 23rd.

Colton will make his return versus Detroit tonight after missing the last 17 games.  The 28-year-old was shifted to LTIR earlier this week but since it was retroactive to late October when he first sustained his foot injury, he has already missed the required 10 games and 24 days to return to the lineup.

Before being injured, Colton was off to a hot start with eight goals and an assist while logging 18:38 per game, more than five minutes higher than his career average ATOI.  He’s expected to start on the second line but head coach Jared Bednar has indicated that he wants to move Colton onto the top line in the near future.

As for Drouin, he has missed the last two weeks due to an upper-body injury but has been skating in recent days.  The retroactive placement for him means he’s already missed the required seven days to return to the lineup so as soon as he’s cleared by team doctors, he can be activated.

His second season with the Avs hasn’t gone as well as his first.  After putting up 19 goals and 37 assists for a career-best 56 points in 2023-24, Drouin’s upper-body injury troubles have limited him to just five games so far.  While he has been relatively productive in those with two goals and two assists, this certainly hasn’t been the start to the season he has wanted, especially with it being another contract year after inking a one-year, $2.5MM deal to return to the Avs in free agency back in the summer.

Avalanche Place Ross Colton On LTIR, Recall Four From AHL

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The Avalanche made a series of roster moves today as they continue their trend of making close to daily transactions.  PuckPedia notes (Twitter link) that forward Ross Colton has been placed on LTIR.  With the extra cap space, the team announced (Twitter link) that forwards Chris Wagner, Ivan Ivan, Nikita Prishchepov, and defenseman Keaton Middleton were all recalled from AHL Colorado.

While Colton’s LTIR placement might imply that he’s not close to returning, that isn’t the case.  Evan Rawal of Colorado Hockey Now relays (Twitter link) that the 28-year-old will accompany the team on its five-game road trip and that when he does return, he’ll start on the wing even though he’s a natural center.  What the placement does is open up one extra roster spot, allowing them to have a bit more depth on their roster heading into the start of that trip.

Colton got off to a particularly strong start for the Avs this season, tallying eight goals and an assist while averaging 18:38 per game, well above his career average of under 13 minutes a night.  However, he suffered a foot injury in late October and only resumed skating recently.

The three forwards have been shuffled back and forth on a frequent basis this season in an effort to bank cap space and were papered down to the minors on Sunday.  Ivan has been the most successful by far, tallying five goals and three assists while playing in all 25 games.  Meanwhile, Wagner has a goal in 14 outings while Prishchepov, a seventh-round pick back in June, has been held off the scoresheet in his first seven career NHL appearances.

As for Middleton, it’s his first NHL recall since 2021 when he got into three games with the Avalanche.  Since then, the 26-year-old has played exclusively in the minors with the Eagles.  After putting up 15 points and 136 penalty minutes in 71 games last season, Middleton has four assists and 11 penalty minutes in 17 AHL appearances in 2024-25.  He’ll be eligible for unrestricted free agency next summer.

Central Notes: Hintz, Lundkvist, Colton, Bortuzzo

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Dallas Stars forward Roope Hintz will miss tonight’s game against the Chicago Blackhawks with an undisclosed injury (as per Stars senior staff writer Mike Heika). Hoope reportedly tweaked something and was replaced in the Stars lineup by Colin Blackwell. Hintz has eight goals and five assists in 20 games this season and is on pace to top 30 goals for the third consecutive season, provided he doesn’t miss too much time due to injury.

In other Central Division notes:

  • Mike Heika also provided a short update on Stars defenseman Nils Lundkvist who is skating at the moment but isn’t ready to return to the lineup. Lundkvist has missed three straight games with a lower-body injury that he suffered a week ago in a 5-2 win over San Jose Sharks. The 24-year-old has never been one to produce much offense but has been particularly quiet this season with just a single assist in 15 games. His underlying numbers this season have been quite good, particularly his CF% which is at a solid 60%.
  • Colorado Avalanche forward Ross Colton is expected to begin skating soon (as per Mile High Hockey). Colton has been out of action since October 28th with a broken foot and is likely on schedule given the original six-to-eight-week recovery timeline that he was given. Colton was having a terrific season prior to going down to injury, as he has eight goals and an assist in ten games this season. The 28-year-old is in his second season with the Avalanche and is coming off a career year last season in which he posted 40 points in 80 games.
  • Utah Hockey Club defenseman Robert Bortuzzo was forced to leave last night’s game against the Montreal Canadiens with a lower-body injury (as per Craig Morgan of PHNX Sports). The team hasn’t offered an update on the 35-year-old, but it is expected they will have an update before they take to the ice Friday night against the Edmonton Oilers. Bortuzzo has been in and out of the lineup for much of this season and cleared waivers less than a week ago. The 14-year NHL veteran signed a one-year two-way deal in the offseason with Utah and has served as a depth defenseman.

Avalanche Place Ross Colton On Injured Reserve

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Oct. 30, 12:39 p.m.: Colton sustained a broken foot and will miss six to eight weeks, head coach Jared Bednar said (via Ryan Boulding of NHL.com). He’ll look to make his return in mid-December.

Oct. 30, 8:38 a.m.: The Avalanche placed Colton on injured reserve yesterday, per the NHL’s media portal. He’ll miss Colorado’s next two games at least before being eligible for activation on Nov. 4, but will likely miss more action than that. The Avalanche now have only 11 forwards on the active roster ahead of tonight’s contest against the Lightning, so expect them to either dress seven defensemen or make a corresponding recall later today.

Oct. 29: Avalanche forward Ross Colton is “going to miss some time” after blocking a shot with his foot in yesterday’s loss to the Blackhawks, head coach Jared Bednar told reporters postgame, including Evan Rawal of the Denver Gazette. He was mobile after the game but left Ball Arena in a walking boot.

It’s another tough break for a Colorado forward corps without Gabriel Landeskog, Artturi Lehkonen and Valeri Nichushkin for the entire season and Jonathan Drouin for every game except for the season opener. The latter is getting close to returning, with Rawal reporting over the weekend that Drouin has been upgraded to day-to-day with his upper-body injury. But for a team with Stanley Cup aspirations, missing its top four wingers simultaneously, especially for the better part of a month, rightfully feels like an unending and insurmountable challenge.

Colton, 28, had stepped up to fill those voids as best he could. Expected to be their No. 3 center behind Nathan MacKinnon and Casey Mittelstadt, Colton has shifted to first-line left-wing duties alongside MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen. He’s responded with a team-leading eight goals and a league-leading four power-play goals, averaging 18:38 per game while maintaining his physical standard of play. He leads the team with 28 hits and leads Avs forwards with nine blocks, a tendency that’s unfortunately led to what looks to be a multi-week absence.

While Drouin is nearing a return, there’s no indication of whether he’s an option for tomorrow’s game against the Lightning. If he can, it’ll be a one-for-one swap in the lineup, with Drouin replacing Colton on the top line. The Avalanche also have a full 23-man roster, meaning Colton must take Drouin’s spot on injured reserve. If Drouin can’t return, the Avalanche will likely dress 11 forwards and seven defensemen. They have eight defensemen and three goaltenders on the active roster, so they aren’t carrying an extra forward.

Colton scored the Stanley Cup-clinching goal for Tampa Bay as a rookie in 2021 and had a career-high 40 points in 80 games for the Avs in 2023-24. It was his first season in Colorado after they picked up his signing rights from the Bolts for a 2023 second-round pick. After weeks of negotiations, the restricted free agent inked a four-year, $16MM pact to stick around in Denver. He’s in the second season of that deal and will be an unrestricted free agent in 2027.

Evening Notes: Martin, Colton, Wood, Rust

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Matt Martin’s recently signed one-year deal with the New York Islanders will pay him a prorated salary of $775K for the season (as per PuckPedia). Martin’s deal is a one-way contract with an AAV of $875K, meaning he will make $775K in the AHL or NHL. The contract also includes a $100K bonus if the 35-year-old plays ten games in the NHL this season.

The bonus in the contract is a bit peculiar given that the Islanders were likely the only suitor for Martin’s services after he lingered unsigned in free agency for over three months. However, the $100K bonus won’t impact New York much as they can roll any overage into next season when they will have over $20MM in cap space.

In other evening notes:

  • Colorado Avalanche forwards Miles Wood and Ross Colton are expected to play tonight when the Avalanche take on the Ottawa Senators (as per Meghan Angley of Guerilla Sports). Both players missed team practice yesterday after they were banged up in Thursday night’s game against Utah. Colorado head coach Jared Bednar told the media yesterday that the team was trying to allow the players to recover so that they wouldn’t miss any game time. It would appear the tactic worked, which is good news for a team that has lost a pile of man games this season.
  • Pittsburgh Penguins forward Bryan Rust left last night’s game against the Vancouver Canucks with a lower-body injury (as per Ryan Gagne of The Hockey News). The 32-year-old was run into the boards by Canucks forward Nils Hoglander, who had some choice words for him as he left the ice. The Penguins were quick to rule the veteran out for the remainder of the game which isn’t a great sign for the struggling club moving forward. Pittsburgh has yet to provide an update and returned to Pittsburgh today after a disastrous road trip through Western Canada that saw the Penguins go 0-3-1. Pittsburgh plays at home on Tuesday against the Minnesota Wild.

List Of Players Getting Trade Protection On July 1st

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In the current Collective Bargaining Agreement between the NHL and NHLPA, the league players can procure three types of No-Move Clauses in their contracts. The only stipulations to these clauses are that the player in question must be 27 years of age or older and must have accrued seven years of service time at the NHL level. The three types of No-Move Clauses are as follows: No Movement Clause (NMC), No Trade Clause (NTC), and Modified NMC or NTC.

Per the current CBA, an NMC means that a player cannot be waived, assigned to minors, or traded without their consent, and they also must be protected in the event of an Expansion Draft. An NTC is straightforward — giving the player protection from being traded without their approval. Lastly, a modified NMC or NTC sets an arbitrary number of teams and a time frame when a player can use this protection. In just over a week, an assortment of players will receive trade protection on their current contracts, and CapFriendly has broken it down.

 

No Movement Clauses
D Charlie McAvoy (Boston)
F Sebastian Aho (Carolina)
D Devon Toews (Colorado)
F Roope Hintz (Dallas)
D Gustav Forsling (Florida)
F Kirill Kaprizov (Minnesota)
F Joel Eriksson Ek (Minnesota)
F Jesper Bratt (New Jersey)
F Timo Meier (New Jersey)
G Ilya Sorokin (NY Islanders)
F Pierre-Luc Dubois (Washington)

No Trade Clauses
F Ross Colton (Colorado)
D Nick Seeler (Philadelphia)
D Vince Dunn (Seattle)
F Clayton Keller (Utah)
D Erik Cernak (Tampa Bay)
D Mikhail Sergachev (Tampa Bay)

Modified No Trade Clauses
F Jordan Greenway (Buffalo) – eight-team no-trade list
F Tage Thompson (Buffal0) – five-team no-trade list
D Rasmus Andersson (Calgary) – six-team no-trade list
D Samuel Girard (Colorado) – nine-team no-trade list
F Miles Wood (Colorado) – six-team no-trade list
F Alex DeBrincat (Detroit) – 16-team no-trade list
F Adrian Kempe (Los Angeles) – 10-team no-trade list
F Nico Hischier (New Jersey) – 10-team no-trade list
D John Marino (New Jersey) – eight-team no-trade list
D Jonas Siegenthaler (New Jersey) – 10-team no-trade list
F Mathew Barzal (NY Islanders) – 22-team no-trade list
D Thomas Chabot (Ottawa) – 10-team no-trade list
F Tanner Jeannot (Tampa Bay) – 16-team no-trade list
F Kyle Connor (Winnipeg) – 10-team no-trade list

Logan O’Connor To Undergo Hip Surgery, Out For Season

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Avalanche winger Logan O’Connor will undergo hip surgery this week and will not return this season, Ryan Boulding of NHL.com reports. O’Connor, who last played on March 4, has been dealing with the injury for most of the season, head coach Jared Bednar said.

Bednar issued multiple other injury updates Sunday, confirming that veteran winger Zach Parise is day-to-day with a lower-body injury and that Ross Colton, Jack Johnson and Artturi Lehkonen did not practice due to illness but will travel with the team on their upcoming four-game road trip. Depth center Chris Wagner, who sat out Friday’s game against the Wild with an upper-body injury, will be available on the trip if needed, Bednar said.

Before exiting the lineup last week, O’Connor missed a four-game stretch in February and a two-game stretch in November with a lower-body injury. Bednar’s comments imply that O’Connor sustained the initial injury as late as Nov. 20, the game immediately prior to his first absence of the season.

Despite the injury, O’Connor has managed the best season of his career and was a necessary stabilizing force with many Avalanche depth forwards either missing significant time or underperforming. He managed 13 goals, 12 assists and 25 points in 57 games, a career-best 0.44 points per game pace, although he’d failed to get on the scoresheet in his last seven games.

Aside from his point totals, O’Connor also recorded career-highs in ATOI (14:57) while putting up good even-strength possession stats (54.5 CF%, 54.3 xGF%) in shutdown usage. He was also a significant part of the Avs’ top-10 penalty kill, averaging 2:17 per game.

Luckily for Colorado, GM Chris MacFarland went big-game hunting at the trade deadline. Their acquisitions of Casey Mittelstadt and Sean Walker will draw the most attention, but a targeted move to snag Yakov Trenin from the Predators should help balance out O’Connor’s absence. The 27-year-old Trenin hasn’t scored at O’Connor’s rate this year, posting 14 points in 61 games, but he does have double-digit goal totals and is comfortable in defensive usage and penalty-kill scenarios. He’ll slot seamlessly into the third-line right wing O’Connor was projected to occupy behind Valeri Nichushkin and Mikko Rantanen down the stretch and in the postseason.

O’Connor is in the second season of a three-year, $3.15MM extension signed with the Avs in 2021 that began in the 2022-23 season. He costs $1.05MM against the cap, which the Avalanche could use to increase their financial flexibility down the stretch by placing him on LTIR, but are unlikely to do so with a $2.1MM cushion still remaining from Pavel Francouz’s and Gabriel Landeskog’s combined $9MM cap hits.

Avalanche Recall Forward Ben Meyers

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The Colorado Avalanche have announced that they’ve recalled forward Ben Meyers from their AHL affiliate less than a week after sending him down. Meyers was reassigned to the Colorado Eagles on December 22nd and has been shuttled back and forth on several occasions in December.

The 25-year-old has a goal in five games thus far this season with the Avalanche at the NHL level and has averaged just a shade over nine minutes of ice time a game. While he hasn’t been much of an offensive contributor, he has been difficult to play against with seven hits in those five games. At the AHL level with the Eagles, Meyers has been much more noticeable on the offensive side of things with six goals and seven assists in 19 games.

Last year the Avalanche gave Meyers a long audition to lock down an NHL spot, but he could not do so with just four goals in 39 games. While he didn’t necessarily hurt the Avalanche’s bottom six, he didn’t offer a lot as he doesn’t provide much scoring and doesn’t kill penalties making it tough for him to claim a full-time spot in the NHL.

The Avalanche recalled Meyers presumably due to Ross Colton’s availability being in question after he left last night’s game against the Arizona Coyotes. Colton was treated after he blocked a shot and while the Avalanche are hoping he can play Friday night against the St. Louis Blues, nothing has been reported yet.

Central Notes: Girard, Lucchini, Avalanche

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One of the most notable inclusions in practice this morning for the Colorado Avalanche was defenseman Samuel Girard, who is working his way back from being in the NHLPA Player Assistance Program for nearly a month (X Link). Returning to the ice is positive in its own right, but Girard is not expected to be back in the lineup this evening.

Upon his entrance to the Player Assistance Program, Girard was very public with his reasoning, saying through his agency, “I have made a proactive decision to take care of my mental health, and will be entering treatment for severe anxiety and depression that has gone untreated for too long and led to alcohol abuse” (X Link).

With his return to the team imminent, Girard will look to build upon his season after a month off, scoring one goal and four points in his first 15 games for the Avalanche this year. Aside from Girard’s play on the ice, the fact that he is nearing close to a return shows he has gained an adequate degree of success fighting his personal ailments via the program.

Other notes:

  • After placing forward Mats Zuccarello on injured reserve only yesterday, the Minnesota Wild have recalled forward Jake Lucchini to fill the missing spot in the lineup. With over 250 games played at the AHL level since the 2018-19 season, Lucchini is only a veteran of 11 games in the NHL, all of which were played last season for the Ottawa Senators. In his first season in the Wild organization, Lucchini has scored nine goals and 20 points in 24 games for their AHL affiliate.
  • Back to the Avalanche, having missed the last handful of games with a lower-body injury, defenseman Cale Makar is once again questionable for tonight’s matchup against the Senators (X Link). Furthermore, although forwards Nathan MacKinnon and Ross Colton were absent from practice due to maintenance days, they are both expected to be in the lineup this evening.

Afternoon Notes: Martin, Colton, Sharks

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After an injury to Daniil Tarasov put the Columbus Blue Jackets short one goaltender, the team claimed veteran Spencer Martin off of waivers from the Vancouver Canucks. It was a somewhat risky bet, as Martin struggled immensely in 2022-23. But so far Martin has put forth improved performance, as his .903 save percentage this year is quite a bit better than the .871 mark he had last year.

Unfortunately for Martin, his time in Columbus could very well be nearing an end. As Tarasov gets closer to a return from his injury, The Athletic’s Aaron Portzline reports that Martin is “likely to go back on waivers.” (subscription link)  Although Martin could clear waivers and end up with the AHL’s Cleveland Monsters, the dire state of goaltending for some teams across the NHL means its far from a guarantee that the Blue Jackets will be able to retain Martin.

Some more notes from the rest of the NHL:

  • Colorado Avalanche forward Ross Colton was fined $5,000, the maximum allowable under the CBA, for a “dangerous tripping” on Anaheim Ducks rookie Leo Carlsson. Colton was assessed a penalty on the play and now is deducted $5,000 as well. An offseason trade addition for the Avalanche, Colton has scored seven goals and 12 points in 23 games this year.
  • The San Jose Sharks have activated defenseman Jan Rutta and forward Alexander Barabanov off of injured reserve in advance of their game this evening against the New York Rangers in Manhattan. It had been widely reported that both players were nearing a return, and now the team has made it official. Barabanov is the more notable name of the duo, as he scored 15 goals and 47 points in 68 games last season.

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