DENVER — Sam Malinski was among the seven defensemen at practice Sunday at Ball Arena. But after the skate, head coach Jared Bednar said the 25-year-old rookie will report to the Colorado Eagles. He’ll join Ben Meyers, as well as Brad Hunt and Jach Ahcan — both of whom cleared waivers that same afternoon. Forward Riley Tufte — the final roster cut from the forward group — was placed on waivers and will report to the AHL if he clears on Monday.
Fredrik Olofsson won the battle for the fourth-line center job coming out of the preseason.
“I thought all of those guys did a nice job,” Bednar said, after admitting the team doesn’t have any more room “for now.”
The NHL deadline for cap-compliant opening-night rosters is Monday at 3 p.m. MT. With the aforementioned moves, the Avalanche are set to carry six defensemen heading into Wednesday’s opener in L.A. unless the team picks up another blueliner via waivers.
Among the forwards, veteran Andrew Cogliano was a full participant at practice, shedding the non-contact sweater for the first time. He was paired with his usual linemate Logan O’Connor and centered by Olofsson. The trio is expected to be Colorado’s fourth line if Cogliano is available for opening night.
“We went through stages with the recovery,” Cogliano said. “So now we’ll go through this and I’ll progress each day in terms of doing little more contact, and then figuring out how I feel each day.”
The only extra skater the Avs are currently carrying is defenseman-turned-forward Kurtis MacDermid, who enters the final year of his contract. Here’s what the Avalanche’s roster currently looks like:
Drouin — MacKinnon — Rantanen
Nichushkin — Johansen — Lehkonen
Wood — Colton — Tatar
Cogliano — Olofsson — O’Connor
MacDermid
Toews — Makar
Byram — Manson
Girard — Johnson
Georgiev
Annunen
