New Coach Check - Now who makes the final cuts?

Lets start off with the goal and work our way out. After today the current camp roster stands at 27 forwards 13 defenscemen and 4 goalies.

In net the Avalanche have

Spencer Martin
Calvin Pickard
Jeremy Smith
Semyon Varlamov

The goaltending situation for the Avalanche is probably the most clear cut situation we have currently. Most would assume that Semyon Varlamov and Calvin Pickard will make the final cut for the NHL roster on opening night. Spencer Martin and Jeremy Smith would then be sent down to their respective minor league teams.

There is one really interesting story line here to watch for me personally though, that is how does Varlamov look? If he looks in camp and pre season how he has the last two seasons then I would not be surprised at all to see Coach Bednar go with Pickard as the starter on opening night.

That being said I have full faith and confidence in Varlamov to get his game back to where it was three seasons ago when he was a finalist in the Vezina (best goal tender in the league) voting.

The last couple years there have been many off ice issues that would if we are honest effect any one of us in a big way. This is the first off season in a couple years that Varlamov has had completely clear of any of the significant off ice distractions and I anticipate that he has used that time to re focus and to get himself back ready to take the ice for the Avalanche this year and show the league that he is back.

Now lets take a look at the Defenscemen on the camp roster still.

BARRIE, Tyson
BEAUCHEMIN, Francois
BIGRAS, Chris
BOIKOV, Sergei
CORBETT, Cody
GELINAS, Eric
JOHNSON, Erik
LINDHOLM, Anton
SIEMENS, Duncan
STANTON, Ryan
TYUTIN, Fedor
WIERCIOCH, Patrick
ZADOROV, Nikita

The Avalanche have a pretty solid group of players here and a good mix of vets and younger players. I believe the next wave of reassignments will include Ryan Stanton, Anton Lindholm, Cody Corbett and Sergei Boikov. I have been impressed with all of them at various points of camp and preseason but i feel that they are all players who would benefit from some more time with their minor/junior teams.

After these players are reassigned that would leave us with 9 players left on the defensive side of things. This is where it would get a bit trickier. We all know that former Coach Roy liked to keep 8 defenscemen on the active roster for practices and to keep competition in the team in practices.

We will have to wait and see what the tactic is that Coach Bednar uses but if we are going to keep with the 8 on the active roster there would have to be one more player reassigned. Many would look at the comments from Joe Sakic in the off season when he said that both Nikita Zadorov and Chris Bigra would be with the team full time in the coming season and take them off as any potential player to be reassigned.

The more obvious choice would probably be Duncan Siemens to be sent back down to the American Hockey League. Sense they drafted him Siemens has yet to even play in a preseason game until this year.

Joe also mentioned that when they moved Nick Holden that it was a move to give a chance for the younger guys including Duncan to get a shot at making the team. When all is said and done I think that Duncan will be the last reassignment and that would leave us with

BARRIE, Tyson
BEAUCHEMIN, Francois
BIGRAS, Chris
GELINAS, Eric
JOHNSON, Erik
TYUTIN, Fedor
WIERCIOCH, Patrick
ZADOROV, Nikita

as out starting night defencemen. I think that Siemens will be the first call up in case of injury and could quiet possibly end up on the starting night roster if  Gelinas fails to impress when playing with more of the regular team in the final preseason games.

The only real reason i edge out Gelinas over Siemens right now is because of the rocket of a slapper that Gelinas posses. Both Siemens and Gelinas are big strong players but Gelinas has a bit of an edge in the offensive side of things.

Gelinas has a history of back problems though and he may not even be healthy come October. (fingers crossed that he is healthy though best of luck Gelinas!)

Now to the trickiest part of the team to try and figure out who is in and who is on the bubble for the forwards. There are currently 27 listed on the camp roster and they need to cut that down to 13 if we keep the 8 defensemen on the roster. That number can be 14 if you only carry 7 defenscemen on the active roster as well.

I will start by listing the players i think that are locks to make the opening night roster

COLBORNE, Joe
COMEAU, Blake
DUCHENE, Matt
GRIGORENKO, Mikhail
IGINLA, Jarome
LANDESKOG, Gabriel
MacKINNON, Nathan
MITCHELL, John
RANTANEN, Mikko
SODERBERG, Carl

This gives us 10 forwards on the active roster. I think that after that it gets a bit more of a group of players who are on the bubble to fill out the last 3-4 spots. Here are some of the players i think are on that bubble

McLEOD, Cody - while he is a fan favorite there is another player who brings the same physical strong nosed game but can skate very fast and has not taken the unnecessary penalty to this point in the preseason. I know most fans think this is impossible and that there is no way Mcleod isn't on the active roster for sure you have to remember that with Coach Bednar's style Mcleods game really sticks out like a sore thumb. He is not fast enough to keep up with the new style of play defensively or offensively. Granted i am predicting he will make the opening night roster but if he plays or not consistently will be seen. Do not be surprised to see him as a healthy scratch on most nights unless we are playing a particularly large physical team.

GREER, A.J - This is the kid I think will be taking over for Cody if not this year then in the near future. He has all the physical skills and can hit people and stick up for them physically. The biggest difference here though is that Greer can flat out fly too. He may not be Mackinnon fast, but he can get up and down the ice very quickly. Coach Bednar was very happy with his play after the first two preseason games. There is an interview with him on www.coloradoavalanche.com if you would like to hear his thoughts on the kid to this point.

COMPHER, J.T - this guy not be huge ( 6"0') but he can skate and he has high end offensive skills. He reads the game at a very fast pace and has the tools to react and play a that pace as well. These are reasons that I think he could potentially do well in a Coach Bednar system. He has not done enough to make him a clear cut roster player to this point in his career but if given a shot he maybe able to do just that.

GRIMALDI, Rocco - This kid is not huge, in fact he is down right small when it comes to the NHL at 5"6' 180 lbs. What makes this kid stand out though is he blazing speed and his elite offensive skill set. He is someone who many overlooked in the draft because of his size. Look at Johnny Hockey last year and watch some of his highlight reel plays. Well, Rocco is more skilled and talented then Johnny Hockey. Yeah, I said it. yes i believe it and you will too when he is given his shot to show what he can do. In a Coach Bednar system i think that it could be exactly what Rocco needs to really put his skills on display for the rest of the league.

MARTINSEN, Andreas - Martinsen is a big physical hard working player. Last year for the Avalanche i was very impressed with his high mottor and his high work rate that you saw most shifts last year for the Avalanche. If he is going to make the team this year he is going to have to show Coach Bednar that he is going to bring it 150 percent every second he is on the ice. He is someone that could be a very big asset to a playoff team but he is the kind of player that is going to have to work as hard as he can every shift night in and night out to stick in the line up. I believe in him and he even showed some flashes of offensive brilliance last year on a few 1 on 1 situations he got himself into from his hard work and hard skating.

The Avalanche also have 2 players on PTO contracts (professional try out contracts) When the pre season is over they will either be signed to a full NHL contract or they will be let go. Those players that are on the PTOs are BOURQUE, Rene and BOURQUE, Gabriel. Either of them could fill a solid role on the bottom six forwards for the Avalanche this year if they can impress in the preseason.

Last year we had a PTO player make the roster in Jack Skillie and he played a solid role for us all year. They are both on the bubble as well and have both had some nice moments in camp and in the preseason.

Whitney is also a guy who is smaller but has been really impressive in the first couple of pre season games. I am going to put him down as the dark horse that could surprise a lot of people and make it on the opening night roster.

Joe gets his man

August 25th 2016 is a date the Avalanche fans across the world will hope to look back on with fond memories saying that was the day it all changed.

Today Jared Bednar was announced as the franchises next Head Coach. Bednar signed a three year deal.

Photo Credit: www.inquisitr.com

Jared Bednar is 44 years old and coming off the Calder Title (American Hockey League) as the head coach of the Lake Erie Monsters. The final record for the Monsters last season under head coach Jared Bednar was an impressive 43-22-6-5 with the post season record standing at an even more impressive 15-2 mark. The final seris was a sweep for the Monsters. This is not Bednars first team that he coached to a championship though. He also lead the Stingrays to the ECHL title as well as the head coach.

When Bednar was playing hockey he won two championships as well in the ECHL playing for the Stingrays.

Here is a quote from Joe Sakic about the situation.

"After profiling the type of coach I wanted for our team and going through an interview process with several good candidates, I believe that Bednar is the best person to lead this team behind the bench. Jared's track record of success as a head coach in the American Hockey League speaks for itself and he is considered to be one of the top up-and-coming coaches in our business.

Even though we had to accelerate the process with training camp approaching, we feel we met some real strong candidates with a lot of potential to become head coaches in the NHL in the near future. I would like to thank the general managers who gave us permission to talk to key staff members at such a precarious time."

While Bednar never made it to the National Hockey League as a player he continued to work hard and in the end after a 9 year professional career as a player he had won 2 championships. That hard work never stopped for him as he continued on as a coach and now has another ECHL championship this time as a head coach and recently now another championship this time at the American Hockey League level.

Hard work and dedication are things that have been key to Bednar his entire life. here is what he has to say about it.

"I think the work that you put into the job helps you get to where you're going and where you would like to get to as a professional," Bednar said. "That goes with any line of work. I take this very seriously. I've been preparing for this my whole career, and I'm a competitor and that's what I put in on a daily basis. I worked extremely hard. I know our team will do the same thing."


I Think that this is a great decision that the Avalanche have made. Under the circumstances It would have been easy and completely understandable if Sakic were to have reached out to his own former coach who happens to currently be available. Joe knows him well as he coached Joe to a Stanley Cup Championship when he was playing and he has vast NHL coaching experience under his belt.

Most people put into this situation with weeks to go before camp would have probably just tried to get him to accept the job for this year knowing that he was a quality coach and then tried to work out the long term solution after this season when there were more options and more time to work through it all.

I commend Mr Sakic for doing an incredible job with such short notice. Not only did he manage to interview many candidates but he was able to spend quality time with many of them for extended hours and really make sure that he knew the person he was going to offer to job to was the right guy for this team.

Photo Credit: www.denverpost.com

Avalanche fans can look forward to some fun fast paced exciting hockey next year as Bednar likes to play a fast paced high pressure in all zones style game. He also knows how to teach young players how to play the same way on the defensive side of the puck as well. This is where players like Zadorov and Bigra are going to really have a chance to learn a lot this year.

We can look forward to much better team back checking and much quicker outlet passes to really let the players use their top assets to their fullest. If you thought that the Avalanche last year were fast and able to get in odd man rush situations you haven't seen anything yet. By mid season this year you are going to see this team play better and faster then you ever have.

Bednar has a great coaching resume, and a great resume as a man. He is a winner at every level he played and coached at so far and the NHL level will be no different. I recently wrote an article about this years X-Factor. Well I mean no disrespect to those I named in that article but this is the new X-Factor. Jared Bednar. He is taking this team to the next level. #IsItOctYet?

Will Matt Duchene Lead the NHL in Scoring This Season?

In the 2015-2016 Season Matt Duchene had an interesting time. From rumors of being involved in trade talks to turning into the hottest scoring player in the entire National Hockey League after December.

What are we going to see this season out of Duchene? Will he have the inconsistency issues that he was hit with to start last year or will we see the player that flat out dominated the rest of the league from December on?

My take is that Duchene met his first real concern that he might be traded with what can only be explained as taking the next step in his development as a man and a player.

Matt Duchene has all ways loved the Colorado Avalanche. When he was not drafted by the Tampa Bay Lightning his draft year you could see his excitement and when the Avalanche finally made the announcement you could hear we did it! The video shows a lot of his draft day experience telling the team and everyone he could how the Avalanche were his favorite team growing up. This is one of many reasons why Duchene is one of my favorite players on the team.



When he got hot right after those rumors were starting to swirl everyone in the fan base my self included was waiting to see when it would drop back off again. When would he come back to earth? The interesting thing about this all is that he did not do that. He may have gone through a bit of a funk down the stretch the last 10 or so games of the season as the entire team did, but he never stopped working hard and pushing to get himself and the team going.

When the potential trade rumors started to swirl in my mind Duchene had two choices. Give up and realize that he may end up being shipped away from his favorite team and have to live with that realization that he did not play well enough to stay there the rest of his life, or he could put his head down and start working harder and do whatever it took on the ice to get things turned around and that is what he did. That situation and how he handled it grew my respect for him as a man as well as a hockey player.

You could argue that Duchene met that adversity and uncertainty when he started to hear the rumors with showing what true leadership is. He took his energy and effort to a whole new level and he never looked back. He was rewarded for his hard work and elite play by the NHL by being named to the All Star Game.  Duchene finished the 2015-2016 season with his first 30 goal season.

Photo Credit: www.iihfworlds2016.com

When the Avalanche were eliminated from post season contention he continued to play his game on the national stage for Team Canada in the World Championship earning a gold medal in the process.

I fully expect and am excited to see Matt continue that dominant play and hard work that he showed last year in the World Cup that begins in September. He can use it to keep the momentum going and start the season off with a bang!

Will Duchene lead the league in scoring this year? Maybe not, but I am going to predict a 85 + point season out of him this year if he stays healthy and plays in all 82 games.

I also would not be shocked to see him take his game up another level and get into the thick of the scoring race by mid season. This is the year that we are going to see him pull everything together and really put the team on his back offensively.

Here is a quote from Duchene from January of last year. (Credit to the Denver Post for the quote)

“To this point it’s been good, but the key for me is staying hungry — which I don’t think is a very hard thing to do — and not getting complacent,” Duchene said Monday after practice. “I want to put the same work in every day and focus on the same goals. It’s tough to score a lot of goals in this league for a reason. It takes a lot of consistency, and not just physically, but mentally too. It’s a lot of hard work at and away from the rink, and I have to continue to do it because (scoring goals) is my role on this team.


Duchene has all ways had the skill, speed and talent to do incredible jaw dropping things.. Here is one of those plays from 2011 season..



This is the year that he pulls it all together mentally and physically to have the best season of his entire NHL career. Lets remember he is only 25 years old. While Duchene is just entering the prime of his career I am getting the popcorn ready. This is going to be a fun time to be an Avalanche fan again.

This team has done so much to improve with its free agent signings and young player development It still baffles me how Roy could walk away before this season started. He may not see what I am seeing but this is a young, talented, fast, physical, hungry team that is ready to show the rest of the league they have arrived.

Avalanche will begin interviewing..

The Colorado Avalanche via the Denver post have announced that they will start the initial interview process with Jared Bednar, Lane Lambert, Scott Arniel and Travis Green.

lets take a look at each of their records and resumes

Jared Bednar -

Jared Bednar is current the coach of the Lake Earie Monsters American Hockey League team.

Photo Credit: www.masslive.com

Bednar is 44 years old and won the Calder Cup Championship last year. This was his fourth year with the Columbus Blue Jackets franchise and his second year as head coach of the Monsters.  Bednar was the assistant coach for the Stingrays from 2002 until 2007 when he was promoted to head coach for the 2007 2008 season.  In his first year as head coach of the Stingrays they won 47 games in the regular season and were able to get to the conference finals in the post season. They had another successful season in the 2008 2009 campaign where they won the Kelly Cup. That would be Bednars first championship as a coach in his second season as head coach.  Bednar was hired as an assistant coach for their American Hockey League team the Springfield Falcons in 2012 2013 season. After 2 seasons as assistant coach he was promoted to head coach of the team. in the 2015 2016 season Bednar followed the team when they changed to the Lake Erie Monsters located in Cleveland.  Lake Erie went 15-2 int he 2016 Calder Cup Playoffs to get the franchises first championship.

Mr Bednar has a very impressive coaching resume and I hope that if he is the man that Joe decides is right for the job that he can continue to find that success at the National Hockey League level.

Lane Lambert -

Photo Credit: capitals.nhl.com

Lane Lambert is 49 years old. In 2002 Lambert got his first coaching job as the assistant coach for the WHL Moose Jaw Warriors. In 2003 he was hired as the head coach for the Prince George Cougars. He was the head coach there for 2 seasons compiling at record of 52 wins 66 losses and 10 ties in 130 games as the head coach. he failed to make the post season in both years. In 2005 to 2006 he was the assistant coach of the Bridgeport Sound Tigers. In 2006 he was hired as the assistant coach of the Milwaukee Admirals. He was promoted to head coach of the team in 2007 where he coached until the 2011 season. He compiled a record of 178 wins 103 losses and they made the playoffs in each of those years. He got as far as the second round in the post season in 2008-2009 season and again in 2010-2011 season. He was hired on as the assistant coach to the Nashville Predators of the National Hockey League in 2011 where he coached until 2014. He was hired as the assistant coach of the Washington Capitals in the National Hockey League in 2014 where he coached until today 2016.

Scott Arniel -

Photo Credit: thehockeywriters.com

Scott Arniel started coaching in 1995 as an assistant coach for the Houston Aeros of the IHL. He was a player and coach at this time. In 1999 he retired as a player and was hired by the Manitoba Moose as an assistant coach. He was their assistant coach until 2002 when he was hired by the Buffalo Sabers assistant coach. He coached there for 4 more years then he was hired back with the Manitoba Moose as their head coach. Arniel lead the team to their best single season record in the 2008-2009 season and an appearance in the Calder Cup finals earning him the Louise A. R. Pieri Memorial Award. That is awarded to the coach of the year in the league. in 2010 He was hired by the Columbus Blue Jackets as their head coach. He was fired after one and a half seasons as head coach in 2012. In 2012 Arniel was hired to coach the Chicago Wolves of the American Hockey League. In 2013 Arniel signed as an assistant coach with the New York Rangers.

Travis Green -

Photo Credit: www.metronews.ca

Travis Green was hired as an assistant coach by the Portland Winterhwaks and Assistant General Manager in 2008. half way through the 2012-2013 season Green took over as interim head coach when the then head coach was suspended due to violating a league rule. His team finished with a record of 37-8-0-2 in the final 47 games he coached them in. The team then went on to win the Ed Chynoweth Cup as WHL Champions and in doing so secured a chance to play in the Memorial Cup Tournament. Portland made it all the way to the final before losing to the Halifax Moosheads. In the 2013 off season Green was hired by the American Hockey Leagues Utica Comets as their head coach where he is still coaching to this day.


Personally I would feel pretty confident if any of these coaches are selected with an exception of Scott Arniel. I just personally do not understand his merit when compared to the others that are being interviewed. I think that any of the other 3 candidates could do a great job with the current Avalanche team.

Some other names to keep an eye out for are Bob Hartly and Dale Hunter.

Who would you like to see hired as the next coach of the Colorado Avalanche? Is there someone I left off my list that you think could be a good fit? Let me know!

Until next time

#GoAvalanche!

Roy Follows Typical Pattern..

First of all let me preface this by apologizing for the delay in getting this story out. I went through many emotions personally as I attempted to sort my thoughts about the situation into an understandable structure. That being said lets dive into it.

On Friday August 12th Patrick Roy of the Colorado Avalanche has decided with roughly three weeks left until camps start up that he will not continue coaching the team. Here is a quote from former Coach Roy to the media

Photo Credit: www.newser.com

""I have thought long and hard over the course of the summer about how I might improve this team to give it the depth it needs and bring it to a higher level. To achieve this, the vision of the coach and VP-Hockey Operations needs to be perfectly aligned with that of the organization. He must also have a say in the decisions that impact the team's performance. These conditions are not currently met.""

 When The first announced the signing of Coach Roy anyone who has been a fan for the past couple of decades would know exactly how this was going to one day end. The unfortunate part is that I expected enough respect of the organization to be shown that it would happen right after a season ended not right before one started.

Roy has all ways been a fiery competitor. At one point we should really thank him for his personally that lead to the eruption that fateful evening with the Montreal Canadians when Roy stated loudly that would be the last game he would ever play for that team. That eruption lead to the Avalanche swinging the deal of a lifetime to land him and bring the organization two Stanly Cup Championships over the next few years.

This time around we start to have a bit of a taste of what the Canadians fans may have felt like on the other side of things.

While the "official" story is pretty short and concise (Link here via Hockeywriters.com) What really is or has been going on still leaves many to speculate.

Fans of the team are all over the map on how they feel about it and why they feel it happened. You are seeing everything from Roy thought that he needed to make a major trade to improve the team to he didn't like Tyson Barrie as a player and when they resigned him to a long term extension that was the last straw.

While all we can do is speculate it maybe some time before we actually learn the real reasons that lead to this unhappiness and decision to be made.

What do the players think about it?

Photo Credit: nhl.nbcsports.com

here is a link to an interesting and insightful interview by Erik Johnson.

https://soundcloud.com/altitudesports950/avs-defenseman-erik-johnson-joins-vic-and-kyle


Personally the more I digest what is going on the more it feels like to me that he decided he was done. He didn't get his way, he didn't get to make a big splashy sexy name trade. He lost control of the room at the end of last season where they needed 2 points out of the last 9 games to get into the playoffs and they failed to do so.

While this may not be and hopefully is not the whole reason this went down how it did it is how it appears on the outside looking in.

I would like to wish Patrick the best of luck in his future endeavors. I wish that he was still here as the coach of this team and I fully believe that this team is going to shock some people this season.

Who could be the next head coach of the Colorado Avalanche? We will take a look at some options in the next post!

#LetsGoAvs

New Look Avalanche Outlook

Photo Credit: www.reddit.com

Now that the dust has settled a bit on the 2016 off season we can start to get an idea of what the 2016-2017 Colorado Avalanche team will look like.

If you put much stock into the actual website for the Avalanche (www.coloradoavalanche.com) it lists 12 forwards 8 Defenscemen and 2 goalies on their NHL roster.

I am not sure if those players listed will be who actually ends up making the final roster for opening day on October 15th 2016 but lets use
them as a starting point to try and piece together
what some potential line combinations could be.

#	NAME	POS	HEIGHT	WEIGHT	DATE OF BIRTH	AGE	BIRTH PLACE
	JOE COLBORNE	C	6' 5"	221	JAN 30, 1990	26	CALGARY, AB, CAN
14	BLAKE COMEAU	L	6' 1"	202	FEB 18, 1986	30	MEADOW LAKE, SK, CAN
9	MATT DUCHENE	C	5' 11"	200	JAN 16, 1991	25	HALIBURTON, ON, CAN
25	MIKHAIL GRIGORENKO	C	6' 3"	209	MAY 16, 1994	22	KHABAROVSK, RUS
	ROCCO GRIMALDI	C	5' 6"	180	FEB 8, 1993	23	ANAHEIM, CA, USA
12	JAROME IGINLA "A"	R	6' 1"	210	JUL 1, 1977	39	EDMONTON, AB, CAN
92	GABRIEL LANDESKOG "C"	L	6' 1"	210	NOV 23, 1992	23	STOCKHOLM, SWE
29	NATHAN MACKINNON	C	6' 0"	195	SEP 1, 1995	20	HALIFAX, NS, CAN
27	ANDREAS MARTINSEN	L	6' 3"	220	JUN 13, 1990	26	BÆRUM, NOR
55	CODY MCLEOD "A"	L	6' 2"	210	JUN 26, 1984	32	BINSCARTH, MB, CAN
7	JOHN MITCHELL	C	6' 1"	204	JAN 22, 1985	31	OAKVILLE, ON, CAN
34	CARL SODERBERG	C	6' 3"	216	OCT 12, 1985	30	MALMÖ, SWE

here is the forward chart copied directly from:

http://avalanche.nhl.com/club/roster.htm?location=/roster

Note - Joe Sakic said that Mikko Rantanen would be a full time NHL player this coming season as well as Calvin Pikard, Nikita Zadorov, Chris Bigra.

Note - There are also some reports that the avalanche could be buying out John Mithchel, or he could be on the trade block.

If I were going to be piecing together some line combinations to try for this coming year with these players they would probably look something like this...


Lets take a look first at what some line combinations might look like with just who is listed on the website. After that I will make some predictions about who will make the team for opening night.

LW. Gabriel Landeskog    C. Matt Duchene           RW. Rocco Grimaldi
LW. Joe Colborne              C. Nathan Mackinnon  RW. Mikhail Grigorenko
LW. Blake Comue              C. Carl Soderberg        RW.  Jerome Iginla
LW. Andreas Martinsen    C. John Mitchell           RW. Cody Mcloed

Not sure about you guys, but those forward lines look pretty dang legitimate to me. I will predict that Joe will stick to his word though and Mikko will be starting up with the Avalanche to start the year.

While not many people I speak with have much faith in Grimaldi I personally feel like he has elite level skill and ability. He obviously is smaller but we are seeing more and more of the small players find success at the NHL level.

I remember another small guy by the name of Martin st Louis who went un-drafted because of his size. No scout would deny his skill level, but no scout would risk their job by drafting him either.

He ended up having quiet the career when it was all said and done. The 6 time all star went on to win the Art Ross Trophy twice. (given to the leagues highest scorer) The Lady Byng Memorial Trophy 3 times, (given to the most gentlemanly player) and finally was a Stanley Cup Champion in the 2004. Even playing through the clutch and grab era of the NHL he was able to accomplish all of that and more.

These days smaller players are being able to really show their skill. A player for the Calgary Flames has been putting on a show sense he was drafted by the name of Johnny Gaudreau. With the self given nick name of "Johnny Hockey" Gaudreau has shown that his game is much larger then his 5' 9" frame might suggest. Gaudreau is all ready a 2 time NHL all star despite only playing in the league for 2 years so far.

There are many more examples out there of smaller players who are finding success at the NHL level, but i am digressing from my point so lets get back to Avalanche hockey...

Photo Credit: Getty Images

One Scout I spoke with recently had this to say about Game.

" in that era, I was seeing live Seguin, Hall, Landeskog, Gaudreau, Grimaldi, Yakupov, Galchenyuk, etc on a weekly basis. From a pure skill standpoint, Grimaldi was by far the best. Look into him, he's the kind of guy you'd want your daughter to marry... He was considerably better than Gaudreau. They played on the same team together, so I saw them live a lot against the same competition... His stickhandling is great, passing, shooting, defense, and he's a great penalty killer. Even with that short stick... I had Landeskog #1 and Grimaldi #2 their draft year. Nugent-Hopkins was #4."

Personally I hope that the Avalanche saw what he did as well, and are willing to give him a legitimate shot at showing what he can do at the NHL level.

Next lets take a look at the defensemen that are listed on the website...

Defensemen

#	NAME	HEIGHT	WEIGHT	DATE OF BIRTH	AGE	BIRTH PLACE
4	TYSON BARRIE	5' 10"	190	JUL 26, 1991	24	VICTORIA, BC, CAN
32	FRANCOIS BEAUCHEMIN	6' 1"	208	JUN 4, 1980	36	SOREL, QC, CAN
3	CHRIS BIGRAS	6' 1"	190	FEB 22, 1995	21	ORILLIA, ON, CAN
44	ERIC GELINAS	6' 4"	215	MAY 8, 1991	25	VANIER, ON, CAN
6	ERIK JOHNSON	6' 4"	232	MAR 21, 1988	28	BLOOMINGTON, MN, USA
	FEDOR TYUTIN	6' 2"	221	JUL 19, 1983	32	IZHEVSK, RUS
	PATRICK WIERCIOCH	6' 5"	202	SEP 12, 1990	25	BURNABY, BC, CAN
16	NIKITA ZADOROV	6' 5"	220	APR 16, 1995	21	MOSCOW, RUS

here is one pairing that we could potentially see this coming year. With the core of players they have on the back end I think that a lot of it is going to come down to who shows chemistry and the most growth in their game in camp and pre-season.

Photo Credit: www.denverpost.com

Erik Johnson       Francois Beauchemin
Tyson Barrie       Patrick Wiercioch
Chris Bigra         Nikita Zadorov

rotational players


Fedor Tyutin
Eric Gelinas


Joe Sakic has also recently mentioned that when they traded former player Nick Holden it was to open up more ice time for Nikita Zadorov, Chris Bigra and Duncan Siemens. I think that shows that we may see the Avalanche giving him a really close look as well this season.

I could also see Tyutin beating Bigra or Wiercioch out for a spot on a regular basis also depending on how things shake down in camp.

The nice thing about having such depth on the blue line for the first time in many years is that the Avalanche will be able to play certain match ups based on who they are facing that night as well.

In goal the Avalanche have Semyon Varlamov who is currently slated as the starter on their depth charts with youngster Calvin Pikard right on his heels. It should be fun to watch the tandem this year as both have shown flashes over the past couple seasons that they could have what it takes to take over a game at any given moment.

Of course a lot can change over the course of training camp and the pre-season, but these are some of the combinations I would like to see this year. They look to have a solid position battle at virtually every position this year so camp will be vital for anyone who is hoping to make the team.

Who are you hoping to see make the team out of camp this year? Is there a specific rookie or AHL player that you think is ready to make the jump? Leave your comments and thoughts here I would love to hear your thoughts and ideas!