Matt Duchene is an NHL All-Star, new acquisition Andrew Bodnarchuk at least initially is being penciled in as a top-pairing defenseman, and World Junior Hockey Championships gold medalist Mikko Rantanen will remain a member of the San Antonio Rampage.
That was some of the news out of the Avalanche camp Wednesday morning, heading into the 8 p.m. meeting with the St. Louis Blues at the Pepsi Center.
The NHL announced that Duchene, 24, was named to the for the Jan. 31 All-Star Game in Nashville, and pending possible injuries and replacements, he is the only Colorado representative. The format is new again, with four division teams playing in a 3-on-3 tournament.
Heading into the game against the Blues, Duchene has 18 goals and 33 points, and he previously played in the 2011 All-Star Game at Raleigh.
“We had a lot of guys on this team who easily could have been named as well,” Duchene said after the morning skate. “It’s an honor to represent my teammates and this organization.”
Duchene said of the format: “I think I’m excited for it. I think it makes it more like a game than 5-on-5 would have been. I think it’s going to be a good time. … I obviously enjoyed it when I found out, but I’m going to put it on the back burner until it comes around because we have some big hockey to play here.”
Duchene said he is “probably equally as excited” as when he was selected in 2011, “but I’m able to put it in a little different place. I’m able to handle it a little better, I think. That time, you’re in your second year and you’re still really new to the league and everything’s so new … I think my game was still OK after that, but I think I’ll be able to put it in a better place and remain a little more even-keel.”
Not far from Duchene in the locker room, Bodnarchuk was getting used to the setting and the reality that he had done from heading back down to the American Hockey League in the Columbus Blue Jackets organization, to being claimed on waivers by Colorado, and to being penciled in to play in the top pairing — which can involve semantics depending on how the pairing is deployed — for the Avalanche with Francois Beauchemin, at least at the outset against the Blues. He will be stepping in for the injured Erik Johnson, expected to be out for two to six games.
“We’ll try that tonight and see how that goes,” said Patrick Roy, who added that the other two pairings — Tyson Barrie and Nick Holden, and Nate Guenin and Zach Redmond — had been playing well, the latter tandem of late. “Playing with Beauch is going to help him a lot too,” Roy said of Bondarchuk.
Bodnarchuk has played 21 NHL games in a career that mostly has been in the AHL, and he has been with the Boston, Los Angeles and Columbus organizations. All but five of those games were with the Blue Jackets this season, and Columbus lost him on waivers when trying to get him back down to Lake Erie.
“I’m excited,” Bodnarchuk said. “With the amount of bodies they had at Columbus, and one-way contracts and stuff of that nature, I was really happy to be up in the NHL. So it was a little disappointing, I knew I was being sent back to the AHL to get some games under my belt there. At the end of the day, I want to play in the NHL and I was fortunate and I’m really excited to be here in Denver.”
Rantanen, 19, was the captain of the in overtime Tuesday to win the gold medal of the WJC in Helsinki. The first-round pick of Colorado in 2015, he is playing with the AHL Rampage, but the Avalanche allowed him to represent his homeland in the tournament. He had a late third-period goal in the championship game.
“There’s not a lot of words (for) how to describe the feeling,” Rantanen told reporters in Helsinki. “Very happy. Happy for the team, for the whole of Finland. We had an absolutely unbelievable crowd there and everyone was watching at home on TV.”
Rantanen has 10 goals and 26 points in 22 games for the Rampage.
Roy said the Avalanche isn’t considering recalling the the young Finn.
“I’m very happy the way he played,” Roy said. “I was very happy that he went and played in the World Juniors, he was the captain of the team, and I thought it would be a great experience for him. I think it’s going to make him an even better leader, a better hockey player. But no, I believe he needs a year in the minors to learn our style of play, smaller ice, and I think he’ll benefit a lot from it.
“I’m not saying there’s no chance he will be called up here and there, but I’d be very surprised if he came in and played regularly for us. Right now, we have our guys and I’m comfortable with our lineup.”
Terry Frei: tfrei@denverpost.com or @TFrei
