Colorado Avalanche: Can Tyson Jost Make the Opening Night Roster?

Colorado Avalanche center Tyson Jost looks ready so far to claim an opening night roster spot. However, the rest of his preseason will be telling.

The Colorado Avalanche have a lot of roster decisions to make going into preseason. The defensive corps yields the biggest questions — Colorado still has only three NHL defensemen signed to contracts. However, there are still some forward line questions that need answering.

The Avalanche have at least one forward roster spot to fill and as many as three or four. There are no shortage of forward prospects who are going to try and make the opening night roster.

Perhaps the favorite to make the roster is center Tyson Jost, last year’s 10th-overall draft pick. He spent one year playing hockey for the University of North Dakota before turning pro. He played six NHL games at the end of last season and even scored his first NHL goal.

But that was then, the end of the season when the Avalanche were already clearly going to finish last. Now the team is facing a fresh start, and they may have different ideas of how they want the forward lines to look.

Jost seemed to have a good offseason. He spent a couple months after the season training here in Colorado. He also attended the prospect development camp, his second. He returned to his native Alberta to complete his training.

As I observed in a previous post, Jost looks like one of the most polished prospects on the ice. It’s clearly not his first rodeo. Some Avs fans agree:

BSN Avalanche (notwithstanding AJ Haefele’s personal comment) was a little more even keel in their estimation of his play, at least when it came to the Rookie Showcase game against the Arizona Coyotes. Evan Rawal gave Jost a B+ as a player grade and made the following observation:

“There’s no question he’s a step above everyone else, talent wise, and he made some tremendous plays that weren’t finished… He makes smart decisions with the puck, but did get caught trying to do too much and was the cause for a 2 on 1 in the first period.”

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That’s not exactly damning, but it was a prospect tournament, not even a preseason NHL game.

Tyson Jost spoke with the Avs website during the Prospect Showcase. Ron Knabenbauer asked him how the showcase compares to the NHL games. He remarked that there’s more scrambling with the prospects games, but that both are “fast-paced.” He added that the NHL game was “a lot more controlled.”

Personally, I think Jost has one of the best chances to make the roster out of camp. He’s right in the Colorado Avalanche mold of being small and speedy with good hands.

I’m not saying Jost is going to be in the top six… well, that depends a little on what happens in the Matt Duchene situation. If he’s a holdout, Jost could find himself on a line with, perhaps, Nathan MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen.

Next: What Avs Fans Should Expect from Jost

We’re going to learn a lot about how Jost can slot into the lineup as we move into training camp and the preseason games.