Avalanche center Paul Stastny, the team’s lone all-star selection last season, left Saturday’s first day of training camp early with a shoulder injury. After initial worries about its severity, the Avs said Stastny suffered just a contusion.
“He should be fine,” Avs coach Tony Granato said. “It’s not a good way to start camp, talking about injuries. Paul’s a tough kid, and he just got bumped a little bit.”
Stastny hurt the shoulder in a scrimmage after an incidental collision, and immediately left the ice favoring the shoulder. The way he leaned over immediately brought worries of a separation or dislocation, injuries that usually sideline a player for weeks or months. The Avs did not know if Stastny would participate in today’s drills, but don’t expect him to be out long.
Bulkier Cumiskey.
Avalanche defenseman Kyle Cumiskey looks like he swallowed a weight room over the summer.
Cumiskey, listed at 185 pounds last season, estimates he added 10 pounds in the offseason, and one look at him made it clear it was all muscle. He is noticeably bigger in the upper body area especially.
“One of the things last year was my strength wasn’t there as much as I would have liked,” said Cumiskey, 21, who played in 38 games for the Avs last season.
Backup?
Granato, when asked if there could be a genuine training camp battle for the backup goalie job to Peter Budaj, said only something out of the ordinary would change his mind that the job already belongs to newcomer Andrew Raycroft.
“Those are going to be our guys,” Granato said. “It’s going to be a nice tandem. If you look at what (Raycroft) did two years ago, he was very successful, and he’s still in the prime of his career. Last year, he was a backup and didn’t play a lot.”
Raycroft, 28, had a 2-9-5 record with Toronto last season, with a saves percentage of .876 and goals-against average of 3.92. His contract was bought out by the Maple Leafs, making him an unrestricted free agent before signing a one-year, $800,000 contract with the Avs.
Adrian Dater, The Denver Post
