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Colorado Avalanche Rookies and Prospects Heading to Vegas

By Nadia Archuleta

CENTENNIAL, CO - September 16: J.C. Beaudin shoots against goalie Spencer Martin during the Colorado Avalanche rookie camp at the Family Sports Center September 15, 2016. (Photo by Andy Cross/The Denver Post via Getty Images)
CENTENNIAL, CO - September 16: J.C. Beaudin shoots against goalie Spencer Martin during the Colorado Avalanche rookie camp at the Family Sports Center September 15, 2016. (Photo by Andy Cross/The Denver Post via Getty Images) /
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The Colorado Avalanche rookies and prospects will be taking part in the third annual prospect showcase, called the Rookie Faceoff this year.

Colorado Avalanche rookies and prospects will be heading to Vegas. The Vegas Golden Knights are hosting this year’s prospect showcase — the one the Avs are participating in anyway.

The 2018 Vegas Rookie Faceoff takes place in City National Arena in Las Vegas from September 8 to 11. This is the third such tournament the Avalanche have participated in.

In the inaugural Rookie Showcase, in 2016, the Colorado Avalanche hosted the San Jose Sharks and Anaheim Ducks. The games were at the Ice Centre at the Promenade up in Westminster. Colorado won this tournament.

The Avalanche traveled to San Jose the following year. The Sharks hosted the Avs, Ducks and Arizona Coyotes at the Solar4America Ice in San Jose. Unfortunately, the Avs didn’t win any of their games in the Prospect Showcase.

As you can see, the inaugural tournament consisted of three teams. Year #2 consisted of four teams. This year’s tournament will consist of six teams:

  • Colorado Avalanche
  • Vegas Golden Knights
  • San Jose Sharks
  • Anaheim Ducks
  • Arizona Coyotes
  • Los Angeles Kings

Teams will play nine games — and have one practice day — within the four-day span. However, Avalanche prospects will only play in three games, one each against the Golden Knights, Ducks and Sharks.

I have no idea why five teams have to travel to Vegas to play only two other teams. And Vegas doesn’t even play the Ducks or Coyotes — why not let one of those cities host their own three-team tourney? Vegas is so greedy.

Anyway, here’s the schedule for the three Colorado Avalanche games:

  • Sept. 8: Avalanche vs Golden Knights, 8 pm MT
  • Sept. 9: Avalanche vs. Ducks, 6 pm MT
  • Sept. 11: Avalanche vs. Sharks, 12:30 pm MT

September 10 is their practice day.

Last year the games were not televised, but you could find streams online.

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The Colorado Avalanche won’t announce their Rookie Faceoff roster until a later date. However, I’m sure we’ll see some of the players who attended the prospect development camp. If I had to hazard a guess, I’d expect to see the following players:

  • Pavel Francouz (Though 28, he’s technically a rookie)
  • Conor Timmins
  • Josh Anderson
  • Martin Kaut
  • Logan O’Connor
  • Ty Lewis
  • Josh Dickinson
  • Travis Barron
  • Igor Shvyrev

Players such as Cale Makar, Sampo Ranta, Cam Morrison and Tyler Weiss will be unable to attend because of their NCAA commitments.

Some other prospects I might expect to see are others who are already in the system but who didn’t attend the prospect development camp:

  • Vladislav Kamenev
  • Nicolas Meloche
  • J.C. Beaudin
  • A.J. Greer
  • Julien Nantel

I wonder about Sergei Boikov. He suffered a concussion in the preseason last year and remained on injured reserve the entire season.

Next. Prospect Update of AHL Players. dark

In any case, these tournaments are a good way for the Colorado Avalanche to evaluate their prospects in real-game situations against other teams’ prospects. The format for these games will be the same as for any game.

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