The Colorado Avalanche on Tuesday made its final roster moves for Thursday’s season opener and rookie forward Sheldon Dries is on the team — for now.
Dries, a four-year player at Western Michigan, helped lead the Texas Stars of the American Hockey League to the Calder Cup Final last year. He signed with the Avs as a free agent and made the team over Logan O’Connor, who was originally scheduled to play his senior season at the University of Denver before signing with the Avs in July.
Dries, 24, might join O’Connor with the AHL’s Colorado Eagles in Loveland when Sven Andrighetto returns from a lower-body injury. Andrighetto, who is on a one-way NHL contract, was placed on injured reserve Tuesday, along with rookie center Vladislav Kamenev (leg) and defenseman Anton Lindholm (upper-body).
Defenseman David Warsofsky also was reassigned to the Eagles and rookie defenseman Conor Timmins was designated as an injured non-roster player. Warsofsky and fellow blue-liner Mark Alt were waived Monday but not picked up by any of the 30 other NHL teams. Alt will remain with the Avs as the eighth defenseman.
For now, Colorado is choosing make up its 23-man roster with 13 forwards, eight defensemen and two goalies. Because of the Avs’ new AHL partner 55 miles up Interstate 25, however, coach Jared Bednar said he might carry just 20-22 players during homestands if the Eagles also are playing at home — a decision that stems from making sure young players are playing maximum minutes.
Note: Centers Nathan MacKinnon and J.T. Compher and defenseman Nikita Zadorov practiced Tuesday after skipping practice Saturday and not playing in Sunday’s preseason finale at Dallas. The each presumably had minor ailments.
Per who is handling practice today: 92-29-96, 17-13-22, 83-34-57, 11-37-47/15. So Jost and Kerfoot switch LW/C and Toninato and Dries competing for fourth-line RW.
— Mike Chambers (@MikeChambers)
Here is a look at the full roster (* denotes injured reserve, # denotes injured non-roster):
|
|
||||
| FORWARDS | ||||
|
|
||||
| No. | Player | Age | Ht. | Wt. |
| 10 | Sven Andrighetto* | 25 | 5-10 | 188 |
| 57 | Gabriel Bourque | 28 | 5-10 | 206 |
| 11 | Matt Calvert | 28 | 5-11 | 186 |
| 37 | J.T. Compher | 23 | 6-0 | 193 |
| 15 | Sheldon Dries | 24 | 5-9 | 185 |
| 17 | Tyson Jost | 20 | 5-11 | 191 |
| 91 | Vladislav Kamenev* | 22 | 6-2 | 194 |
| 13 | Alexander Kerfoot | 24 | 5-10 | 175 |
| 92 | Gabe Landeskog | 25 | 6-1 | 215 |
| 29 | Nathan MacKinnon | 23 | 6-0 | 205 |
| 83 | Matt Nieto | 25 | 5-11 | 190 |
| 96 | Mikko Rantanen | 21 | 6-4 | 215 |
| 34 | Carl Soderberg | 32 | 6-3 | 210 |
| 47 | Dominic Toninato | 24 | 6-2 | 200 |
| 22 | Colin Wilson | 28 | 6-1 | 221 |
|
|
||||
| DEFENSEMEN | ||||
|
|
||||
| 7 | Mark Alt | 26 | 6-4 | 201 |
| 44 | Mark Barberio | 28 | 6-1 | 200 |
| 4 | Tyson Barrie | 27 | 5-10 | 190 |
| 28 | Ian Cole | 29 | 6-1 | 219 |
| 49 | Samuel Girard | 20 | 5-10 | 162 |
| 6 | Erik Johnson | 30 | 6-4 | 225 |
| 54 | Anton Lindholm* | 23 | 5-11 | 191 |
| 12 | Patrik Nemeth | 26 | 6-3 | 219 |
| 18 | Conor Timmins# | 20 | 6-2 | 184 |
| 16 | Nikita Zadorov | 23 | 6-5 | 230 |
|
|
||||
| GOALTENDERS | ||||
|
|
||||
| 31 | Philipp Grubauer | 26 | 6-1 | 191 |
| 1 | Semyon Varlamov | 30 | 6-2 | 205 |
|
|
||||
D per : Girard-Johnson, Zadorov-Barrie, Cole-Nemeth … Barberio and Alt seventh and eighth. Solid core. Barberio is big league.
— Mike Chambers (@MikeChambers)
