Opening Night Roster For Avalanche Appears Set…For Now

We now know what the opening night lineup will look like for the Colorado Avalanche.

On Monday afternoon, the team appeared to finalize their opening night roster. Expect it to look something like this…

Forwards: 

Jonathan Drouin – Nathan MacKinnon – Mikko Rantanen

Artturi Lehkonen –  Ryan Johansen – Valeri Nichushkin

Miles Wood – Ross Colton – Tomas Tatar

Andrew Cogliano – Fredrik Olofsson – Logan O’Connor

Kurtis MacDermid

Defense:

Devon Toews – Cale Makar

Bowen Byram – Josh Manson

Sam Girard – Jack Johnson

Goalies:

Alexandar Georgiev

Ivan Prosvetov

There could still be some changes, though.

The Avalanche had to send Riley Tufte and Justus Annunen to the Colorado Eagles to become cap compliant on Monday. Both had very strong preseasons, but lost out due to a numbers game. It’s an especially tough break for Annunen, but the organization would prefer he play games rather than sit on the bench. However, expect both of these players to play games in the NHL this season.

Of the players on the roster, the only actual question for opening night is whether or not Andrew Cogliano is healthy enough to play. He has said he’s “close,” but nothing has been finalized.

As expected, Gabriel Landeskog has been placed on long-term injury reserve. Pavel Francouz, on the other hand, has just been placed on the standard injured reserve. There has been no real update on the lower-body injuries he’s dealing with, and no timeline for his return.

According to CapFriendly, the Avalanche could still put Francouz on LTIR if they chose to, and would have to do so tomorrow. That would create some additional cap room for the team to work with in the interim.

Colorado #Avs have set their 2023-24 opening day roster.

Roster Size: 21 (12F-7D-2G)
IR/LTIR: 2
SOIR: 3
Contracts: 46/50

Projected Cap Hit: $90,091,757
Projected Cap Space: $0
ACSL: $83,091,757
LTI Salary Space: $0

** Avs can place Francouz on LTI tomorrow for an additional…

— CapFriendly (@CapFriendly) October 9, 2023

While there still may be some tinkering on the outskirts of the roster, the main roster is set. Outside of a few days when players missed practice, the top nine for the team has not changed since camp started. That likely won’t change when the team hits the ice Wednesday night in Los Angeles.

Speaking of Los Angeles, Colorado Hockey Now will be live on the scene in LA for opening night. Make sure to stay tuned to our Twitter (X?) account for all updates.