Avalanche Recall Kaut and Maltsev

The Colorado Avalanche have the Loveland-Denver revolving door spinning right now. Late last night, the Avalanche recalled forwards Martin Kaut and Mikhail Maltsev. I really did not think that Kaut was going to be back with the Avalanche, so this comes as a little bit of a surprise to me. Let’s take a look at why the Avalanche may have done this:

There is something that the coaching staff is seeing in Kaut that I guess I am not seeing. I wrote yesterday that I thought Kaut was giving up the puck too much and failing to skate to backcheck. His ice time had been dramatically cut from his first game to his second and third game. He started on the second line in the game against Seattle and ended up benched by the third period. I get it, they are trying to give him him a final shot, but at what cost to the team? The move down to the Colorado Eagles was obviously for cap purposes….this time.

Mikhail Maltsev played a total of eighteen games for the Avalanche last season. He did not have any points and finished a minus-5. With the Colorado Eagles this season, he has four points (all assists) in four games. He is a fast-skating centerman that likes to rush the crease and he can get fancy on his shots. Maltsev had two between-the-legs goals last season and I saw him practicing them at training camp. He has been looking impressive these few games for the Eagles. Maltsev has been centering the Eagles’ second line with Charles Hudon and Jean-Luc Foudy on his wings. Jayson Megna was the latest center to be called up and it was suspected that he was going to be called back up, but it seems as though the coaching staff did not see enough from him.

So Maltsev DOES practice the between the legs shot 🤔. #GoAvsGo #Avs #EaglesCountry pic.twitter.com/At49zUbZpP

— Brennan Vogt (@brennan_vogt) September 27, 2022

It will be interesting to see if Kaut will have some extra bounce in his step after getting the call again. I hope he has a little more push in his backcheck this time around. Every time I have watched Maltsev, he has impressed with his work ethich and never gives up on the puck. We can probably expect another round of transactions right after the New York Islanders game to save a bit of money right before Finland.