Samuel Girard spent all of training camp in a race to be ready for opening night, but he’s back on the injured list again.
Girard won’t play Saturday night against the Dallas Stars and is considered week-to-week with an upper-body injury, the club announced. He missed most of camp because of a lower-body injury. Girard played nearly 19 minutes against the Utah Mammoth in the home opener Thursday night at Ball Arena, and took regular shifts in the third period.
“He’s going to miss some time,” Avs coach Jared Bednar told reporters Saturday morning.
Ilya Solovyov, whom the Avalanche claimed off waivers on Oct. 3 and practiced with the club for the first time Friday, will take Girard’s place in the lineup. Solovyov, 25, has played 15 NHL games over the previous two seasons with the Calgary Flames.
Solovyov was a seventh-round pick in the 2020 NHL draft and is listed at 6-foot-3 and 208 pounds.
“I don’t know him well as a player,” Bednar said of Solovyov. “I know his reputation. I know what our scouts have given me, what our analytics department has given me. He’s been skating for the last week, but not with us (because of immigration issues). He’s been brushed up on our systems. It will be a work in progress.”
