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Colorado Avalanche Roster Set After Final Moves

By Janik Beichler

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The Colorado Avalanche had a busy offseason, bringing in a boatload of new players. Finally, two days ahead of the season opener against the Minnesota Wild, the roster is set.

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Today, the Avalanche announced the signing of Jack Skille, who was the last player left on a PTO. Furthermore, Jesse Winchester is on injured reserve and Dennis Everberg was sent down to San Antonio. Both Mikko Rantanen and Borna Rendulic made the opening night roster.

Generally, Rendulic over Everberg comes as a bit of a surprise. However, Everberg hasn’t looked quite ready after his injury yet, while Rendulic really earned his job. The roster may be set now, but it isn’t set without lineup questions.

In today’s practice, Patrick Roy sent out the following forward lines:

Comeau-Duchene-Iginla
Landeskog-MacKinnon-Tanguay
Rendulic-Soderberg-Rantanen
McLeod-Mitchell-Skille
Grigorenko

Quite a few things are surprising about those lines.

  1. Comeau is skating on the first line — is that how you produce offense? I doubt it.
  2. MacKinnon is centering the second line, with Soderberg on the third. Roy said he wants Soderberg on the second line, MacKinnon on the third.
  3. Soderberg and Rantanen looked good with Landeskog on the left wing. Now, they are practicing with Rendulic on the left side instead.
  4. Grigorenko is the extra forward, rotating in on the fourth line.

Obviously, those aren’t necessarily the opening night lines — at least I hope not. If those are the lines the Colorado Avalanche will use to try to beat the Wild… Good luck.

Personally, I would like to see the following lines.

Rantanen-Duchene-Iginla
Landeskog-MacKinnon-Tanguay
Grigorenko-Soderberg-Comeau
Rendulic/McLeod-Mitchell-Skille

Rantanen may need a few games to really get used to playing in the NHL and to playing the North American style in general. Once he gets there, he could be outstanding with Duchene and Iginla, though.

Last season, when Ryan O’Reilly was still there, the line with O’Reilly, Landeskog and MacKinnon looked great. When MacKinnon got injured, Tanguay filled that spot and the line didn’t slow down. O’Reilly is gone now, but Landeskog with MacKinnon and Tanguay should work just as well.

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The third line looks like the perfect combination of size and skill. Comeau is the only player on that line who is very responsible defensively, but it could turn out to be a great third scoring line. I hate to say it, but it could be something similar to the Wild’s Haula-Coyle-Niederreiter third line, which worked really well at the beginning of the 2014-15 season.

On the fourth line, I really think McLeod is no longer needed, but Roy likes him. So, whatever happens there, it should be a good bottom line.

Roy had to change something, and he went ahead and tried interesting line combos. Let’s see what happens when the Colorado Avalanche meets the Minnesota Wild Thursday night. Hoping for the best.

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