Colorado Avalanche: 5 Late Rounders who Might have NHL Careers

Nikolai Kovalenko

Position: Right wing
Year drafted: 2018
Round picked: 6th round, 171st overall
Age: 18

The Colorado Avalanche used their sixth round draft pick this year to choose Nikolai Kovalenko. The young right wing has the finer skills you expect from Russian players — he moves the puck well and is a good skater.

Kovalenko has been playing with the Loko Yaroslavl of the KHL’s minor league, the MHL. He earned 31 points (10 goals, 21 assists) in 33 games last season. He did play two KHL games last year.

The young Kovalenko is a long shot. He made it to Colorado for the Prospect Development Camp at the end of June, but he’s not on the roster for the Rookie Faceoff. Indeed, he’s signed an extension with the KHL Lokomotiv Yaroslavl.

However, I’m pulling for Kovalenko because he once faced Slava Voynov in a fight:

Ok, he got beaten. But I support anyone who even is willing to give Voynov a

taste of his own medicine

.

Also, Nikolai is the son of Andrei Kovalenko, who spent three years with the Quebec Nordiques before playing 26 games for the Colorado Avalanche. He then made his biggest contribution to the team — he was part of the Patrick Roy trade.

There is no guarantee even one of the players on this list will get any NHL ice time outside of preseason — and so far, that’s only a possibility for Travis Barron. However, the first step to an NHL career is getting drafted by an NHL team — and the Colorado Avalanche took a chance on all these guys for a reason.