The Colorado Avalanche’s young prospects will be participating in exhibition games in Anaheim at the beginning of September.
The Colorado Avalanche are once again participating in a showcase of prospects before training camp even begins. The Rookie Faceoff takes place between September 7 to 10 at Great Park Ice in Anaheim — the Ducks are hosting the event.
This year marks the fourth that the Avalanche are participating in such an event. They hosted the original tournament in 2016 at the Ice Centre at the Promenade in Westminster. The following year the youngsters played in San Jose’s showcase. Last year the Rookie Faceoff was in Vegas, and it also marked the first time we saw more than three teams in one tournament.
Rookies and prospects from the following teams will be participating:
- Colorado Avalanche
- Anaheim Ducks
- Arizona Coyotes
- Los Angeles Kings
- Vegas Golden Knights
- San Jose Sharks
The games, of course, are exhibition matches similar to the World Junior Summer Showcase. The difference, of course, is the rookies and prospects will be representing their prospective NHL teams, not their countries.
Here is the complete schedule (all times MT):
Saturday Sept. 7:
Avalanche vs. Golden Knights 2 p.m.
Coyotes vs. Sharks 4 p.m.
Kings vs. Ducks 6 p.m.
Sunday Sept. 8:
Kings vs. Avalanche 4 p.m.
Golden Knights vs. Coyotes 6 p.m.
Sharks vs. Ducks 8 p.m.
Monday Sept. 9: Practice day
Tue Sept. 10
Coyotes vs. Avalanche 12 p.m.
Kings vs. Sharks 2 p.m.
Golden Knights vs. Ducks 4 p.m.
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So, as you can see, the baby Avs will face baby Knights, baby Kings, and baby Coyotes. No baby Sharks 🎵doo doo doo🎵.
Anyway, any of the players who are heading to college are ineligible for the tournament games. They won’t be attending rookie or training camp, much less the preseason. So, we won’t be seeing Alex Newhook or Drew Helleson from this year’s draft or Sampo Ranta from last year’s.
Nonetheless, we’ll see a good crop or players. Conor Timmins was slated to participate last year but was unable to because of his concussion issues. I imagine he’ll play this year. Brandon Saigeon and Matin Kaut will also likely play. From this year’s draft, all eyes will be on Bo Byram.
So, we can start to get a clearer picture of what September will look like for hockey. If the Rookie Faceoff is September 7, then rookie camp is either Thursday or Friday before. And training camp will be somewhere between September 11 and 16 since the Avs play their first preseason game September 17.
Well, there you go, Avs Nation. As I keep saying, the hockey offseason is so short. We’ve got Summer Showcase through August 3, and rookie camp one month later. Plus, Colorado Avalanche players will likely start showing up for informal practices around the end of August.
Hockey really is the best sport, n’est-ce pas?