Evan’s NHL Daily: Why Outlet Sees Avalanche Finals Bound, Injured Prospects

Some NHL teams are still trudging through the final days of their preseason, which means outlets are starting to put out their predications for the season. One outlet in particular thinks the Avalanche are a lock to make the Stanley Cup Final.

With the Colorado Avalanche, we took a look back at their preseason finale and went through a mailbag. Not only is the NHL squad dealing with a few injured players, but some of their prospects are hurting as well. I’ll go through an update on a few of them from what I’ve heard.

All that and more in this Saturday edition of Evan’s Daily.

Colorado Hockey Now

A look back at the preseason finale for the Avalanche, where Nathan MacKinnon looked ready to go, but chemistry was an issue with some of the new skaters.

It was time for a mailbag, including my level of concern over the injury Cale Makar is dealing with.

One more time, I’ll plug my exclusive 1-on-1 interview with Ross Colton, where he talked about how he wants to do a little bit of everything for the Avalanche. (+)

Use the code “evan10” to get $10 off a year subscription to CHN+, and this code will be going away soon. A subscription to CHN now works on all National Hockey Now sites, thanks to our Universal subscription, and I’ve linked to some other + content around the network down below.

Avalanche Finals Bound?

Both NHL analysts at CBS Sports think the Avalanche are going to make it all the way to the Stanley Cup Final, but only one of them thinks they’re going to win. One even has Jared Bednar winning the Jack Adams Trophy…

Prospect Injury Update

The other day I mentioned that from what I’ve heard, Maros Jedlicka will be out for “months” due to the injury he suffered in the preseason. The Avalanche still have not confirmed this, but I’ve heard this and Slovak media has also heard it. I’ll update more once I hear from the team.

Another prospect who has been dealing with an injury is Nikolai Kovalenko. He missed a game last week, and then returned for two games before leaving the second one early. Torpedo has held him out of a few games since then, and placed him on IR. The good news is that it doesn’t appear to be serious, as he’s been working out with the team. It looks like it’s a wrist injury, so could be worse, but I’ll keep an eye on his return. Kovalenko, of course, will be coming to the NHL once his KHL season is over.

National Hockey Now

Sidney Crosby in a fight? In the preseason? I’m not sure why this is the hit that angered him so much, but it was.

The Florida Panthers waived a handful of interesting players on Friday, including one Russian prospect that Nikolai Kovalenko’s father has pointed to several times in the past as a reason why he shouldn’t come to the AHL.

Former top 10 pick William Eklund may have made the San Jose Sharks with his performance this week. (+)

Andrei Svechnkov is close to returning for the Carolina Hurricanes.

The New Jersey Devils went undefeated in the preseason…just like the Avalanche did in 2016/17. Hopefully it goes a little better for them this year than it did for that team.