Colorado Avalanche Depth Affected By Injuries

Bottom Lines

Colorado Avalanche centre Jesse Winchester was meant for a two-way role on the bottom six. Mandatory Credit: Candice Ward-USA TODAY Sports

In the summer, the Colorado Avalanche acquired center Jesse Winchester specifically for depth in the bottom six. The Avs seemed to prize him for his hard work and his good defensive instincts.

Winchester suffered a concussion in the preseason and never played a regular season game with the Avs. The Avalanche were forced to make adaptations, such as stuffing the bottom-six with extra young ‘uns and placing proposed 13th forward Marc-Andre Cliche on the third line.

Speaking of the youngsters, forward Dennis Everberg missed almost three weeks with a shoulder injury. From training camp Everberg was Roy’s choice for the bottom-six rookie because of his offensive spark.

A similarly skilled player, Borna Rendulic, was even showing good chemistry with Everberg. However, he suffered a broken leg that ended his season.

Joey Hishon even missed a few games with elbow and neck injuries, thus depriving the Avs of his offensive spark.

Energy player Patrick Bordeleau played seven minutes of one game, first recovering from back surgery and then healing after a knee injury incurred in that seven minutes. Bordeleau is big and intimidating, a decent fourth line forward.

That’s not all the third and fourth line forwards who have been out this season, but those were some of the key players.