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The return of Avs hockey is here! Well, sorta.
The rookie tournament hosted by the Arizona Coyotes is this weekend and sees the Avs rookies facing off against all three of the California team’s rookies. The Avs will face the Kings at 4 p.m today, have a practice day tomorrow, face the Ducks Sunday night at 5 p.m, and play the Sharks Monday morning at 10 a.m.
Colorado Avalanche
The 28-man squad has traveled to Arizona with a wide range of experience. This includes names we are familiar with on the first team such as Bowen Byram, Alex Newhook, and Sampo Ranta.
Six players on this roster participated in the last rookie tournament hosted by the Ducks in 2019. These six are Byram, Alex Beaucage, Shane Bowers, Nick Henry, Sasha Mutala and Trent Miner. Justus Annunen didn’t participate in 2019, but was on the roster in 2018 hosted by Vegas with Henry as well.
While the line combinations and game lineups will more often than not switch consistently this weekend, here were the line combinations that were run at camp this past week (via coloradoavalanche.com):
15 Shane Bowers - 18 Alex Newhook - 27 Oskar Olausson
75 Sampo Ranta - 93 Jean-Luc Foudy - 74 Alex Beaucage
58 Matt Boucher - 51 Ryan Hofer - 86 Sasha Mutala
63 Andras Wingerli - 64 Benjamin Tardif - 57 Tarun Fizer
54 Matej Kaslik - 53 Jack O’Brien - 68 Callahan Burke
70 Nick Henry*
4 Bowen Byram - 72 Justin Barron
45 Charle-Edouard D’Astous - 84 Nate Clurman
62 Mitchell Smith - 47 Graham Sward
46 Miles Gendron - 55 Rhett Rhinehart
89 Nicolas Savoie
60 Justus Annunen
50 Trent Miner
42 Peyton Jones
Los Angeles Kings, Anaheim Ducks, San Jose Sharks
The California clubs, in their first team anyways, have struggled the last few seasons. While nothing like the NHL, the prospects of the Kings and Ducks especially are strong. With the crop of prospects the Avs have in their pipeline as well should make this weekend tournament a fun one.
These teams’ prospect pool will be looking to bring them to the next level. This is a good place to start for them before reaching up to next level either this year or in a few years time.
With names such as Quinten Byfield for the Kings, Trevor Zegras for the Ducks, and William Eklund for the Sharks, they will be looking to make some noise this weekend against a heck of a prospect pool brought by the Avs.
All games will be broadcasted on coloradoavalanche.com but only for those in-market of the teams participating. How will the Avs get on this weekend? Let us know in the comments!