Colorado Avalanche Prospect Updates: San Antonio Players

Colorado Avalanche prospects playing in the AHL had average seasons. They provide the foundation of the prospect pool.

With the Colorado Avalanche’s prospect development camp just around the corner, we start thinking about the baby Avs. These are the up-and-comers of the team, the players who will eventually take the reins.

At least we hope they are. I’ve said it before, and I’m going to double down — draft picks and prospects are lottery tickets. They may look good to win, but they are sometimes, even often, flops. After all, teams draft around seven players a year, and most of them don’t even make the NHL team.

Even fewer go on to impact the team.

That said, it’s still good to keep tabs on the team’s prospects. Below are four players who’ve either been given qualifying offers or who are signed with the team.

Mason Geertsen

The 23-year-old Mason Geertsen was a fourth-rounder from the 2013 draft class. The defenseman just completed his three-year entry-level contract, bouncing between the AHL and the ECHL the first two years.

Last season Geertsen played all year with the San Antonio Rampage — 72 games. He’s scouted more as a shutdown defenseman, so he didn’t put up a ton of points — just nine (3 goals, 6 assists).

The Colorado Avalanche must want to keep him as a foundational piece in the AHL because they extended him a qualifying offer. As reported in a previous post, his qualifying offer had to be at least $750,000.

Spencer Martin

The 23-year-old Spencer Martin is another prospect from the 2013 draft class, having gone in the third round. The goalie also just completed his three-year entry-level contract. He spent the first year bouncing back and forth between the AHL and ECHL.

The second season he spent mainly with the Rampage, recording a 2.90 goals against average and .904 save percentage. He also played in his only NHL games, three of them, getting a little overwhelmed and going 4.35 goals against and .865 save percentage. To be fair, that was the Year of Misery, 2016-17.

Last year, Martin sat on the bench as backup a few times. However, he played 30 AHL games, recording a 3.10 goals against and .893 save percentage. I think the Avs are going to want those stats to go up a little.

That said, they made him a QO — it had to be at least $750,000.

Ryan Graves

More from Mile High Sticking

The 23-year-old Ryan Graves is yet another prospect from the 2013 draft class. However, he went in the fourth round to the New York Rangers. Colorado acquired him at the trade deadline for Chris Bigras. He also just completed his three-year entry level contract.

Graves spent all three years in the AHL. The defenseman has some scoring prowess. Last season he recorded 17 points (5 goals, 12 assists) between the Hartford Wolf Pack and San Antonio Rampage. The previous year was more impresive — 30 points (8 goals, 22 assists in 76 games).

Graves is another player the Avalanche extended a qualifying offer to. His QO had to be at least $650,000.

Josh Dickinson

Center Josh Dickinson was a super-secret signing. Ok, it wasn’t really a secret — it’s just that the Avs signed the undrafted forward in April, when we all had playoff fever.

The 20-year-old played last year in the NCAA for Clarkson University, recording 26 points (15 goals, 11 assists) in 40 games. He played five games with the Rampage, earning two assists.

Those five games were his amateur tryout, and they were successful. The Colorado Avalanche laid a nice contract on him — three years (starting 2018-19) with an AAV of $1.137 million. That said, his minor league salary is only $70,000, which is pretty standard.

Next: Prospect Update on Eagles Players

I don’t see any except Martin making the NHL club, and it’s clear Spencer is at best the third goalie behind Philipp Grubauer. However, it’s good to see the Colorado Avalanche prospect pool has some depth.

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