Brennan Vogt
For your Colorado Avalanche, today was basically a full team practice with just a few skaters missing from the Family Sports Center ice. Josh Manson and Bo Byram made their first appearances. The only players who haven’t taken part yet are Gabe Landeskog and Valeri Nichushkin, who suffered a broken foot during the Stanley Cup Final. Both are expected to be skating any day now. Nichushkin started making his way to Denver from Russia according to his Instagram posts.
Players present
Rantanen Newhook Compher Megna Sedlak(22) 36 EJ MacKinnon Byram Rodrigues Girard MacDermid Toews Hudon Manson Hunt Cogliano Makar Francouz Georgiev LOC Lehkonen #Avs #GoAvsGo pic.twitter.com/NM6PZGfxUp— Brennan Vogt (@brennan_vogt) September 19, 2022
An X-ray of Nichushkin’s foot after the Stanley Cup Finals
Just four days after arriving in Denver, Evan Rodrigues has already practiced with his new team, the Colorado Avalanche twice. Honestly, it looked like he was already starting to sync up with some of the players.
Rodrigues with a heads up pass to MacKinnon and an absolute snipe to finish #Avs #GoAvsGo pic.twitter.com/k2lqnKzzEs
— Brennan Vogt (@brennan_vogt) September 19, 2022
The team, at least the ones there, all participated in a full scrimmage. Rodrigues was paired on the right wing with Nathan MacKinnon on the first line. Now, do keep in mind, that there are no coaches present so this may not be a true indication of lines. It almost certainly isn’t. Rodrigues did look good though, keeping up with MacKinnon a good majority of the time. He did not seem to be out of position very often (he didn’t get yelled at least). He was strong on the forecheck, causing Devon Toews some problems trying to exit the zone. I saw a lot of defensive potential for penalty kill just in a couple of shifts from Rodrigues. His pressure caused a couple of bad passes and turnovers, which he was ready for the puck and shot already.
Overall, just based off the informal practice on Monday, I was impressed by Rodrigues. I had never seen him skate before this (other than on tapes), so it was good to see him in person. He has a long stride to give himself some power and keep up with anyone in the top six. He was one of the last three skaters on the ice, so it looks like he is willing to put in the effort for the team already. I like Rodrigues, in fact I had been saying the Avalanche should have signed him all summer. Once you get a look at him, I think that you will definitely agree.
You can get your first look, Thursday at Family Sports Center for Day 1 of camp, starting at 8:45 a.m.