Aarif Deen
When Colorado Avalanche President of Hockey Operations Joe Sakic and KSE Vice Chairman Josh Kroenke met with media last Thursday at the team’s practice facility, they shared only vague information on injuries that the team was dealing with in the postseason. However, there was also some pretty positive news about the upcoming season.
None of the injuries will linger into the start of the 2026-27 season. What those injuries were and what kind of rehabs they’ll require, however, was not shared.
“Yeah, I mean, obviously you know the big injuries that we did have,” Sakic said, likely referring to Cale Makar’s shoulder and Nathan MacKinnon’s knee. “But everybody’s going to be at training camp, everybody’s going to be 100%. So that’s a positive going into the summer. There’s nobody who’s going to miss any time to start the season.”
Makar missed the first two games of the Western Conference Final with a shoulder injury. He played most of the Minnesota Wild series and the last two games of the WCF hurt. Meanwhile, MacKinnon blocked a shot with his knee in the second period of Game 3 and was noticeably not the same after that.
The team also lost Artturi Lehkonen, Sam Malinski, and Josh Manson for a stretch during the playoffs. Valeri Nichushkin missed the season finale against the Golden Knights.
Sakic is likely to speak again soon at the draft, and it’ll be a priority to get more information about each of these players. Specifically, will Makar or MacKinnon require surgery? Are they going to be able to have a normal summer of training?
As for the others, how many of them will need time to heal before returning to a more normalized offseason plan? And, what exactly were their injuries?
This information is hopefully coming soon. But it’s good to hear that nobody will be hurt to start the 2026-27 season. That was something, at least for Makar, that felt like an inevitability.