The Colorado Avalanche have a couple of rookie defensemen who are soaking in the knowledge at camp.
The Colorado Avalanche aren’t quite the youth-oriented team of a couple years ago when on any given night they might dress three or four rookies. However, they’re still bringing in fresh, new talent.
Two of those talented newcomers are both defensemen — Cale Makar and Bowen Byram. The Avs happened to have the fourth-overall selection twice, and they used both to select highly-rated blueliners.
Of the two, Makar is more seasoned. He was Colorado pick from two years ago, our consolation prize after the Dreadful 48-Point Season. And after having lost the Draft Lottery.
Well, after spending two years at UMass — taking the Minutemen to their first-ever NCAA championship and winning the Hobey Baker in the process — he turned pro and joined the Avalanche in the playoffs. And scored a goal in his first period, natch.
Believe it or not, though, this is our young stud’s first training camp. As a college athlete, he never even got to attend rookie camp, much less training camp.
So, unsurprisingly, young Makar saw camp as “the start of everything.” He added that the experience was “going to be a fun one,” and, of course, he’s excited.
He also elaborated on what the “start of everything” means:
"“Regardless of who makes the team, there are so many good guys at camp. Obviously it’s not up to the players, it’s up to the coaches. Lots of competition.”"
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So, I really don’t think there’s any question that Makar will make the team. He spent the first day of camp skating with his playoffs d-partner, Sam Girard. And, boy, they looked so good together.
Bowen Byram, whom Colorado selected this year with their fourth-overall, had a bit of a different perspective. The closest thing to an NHL camp the 18-year-old has attended was rookie camp. And he was surrounded with players who are his age — and generally not as good.
It’s a totally different situation with a full-fledged NHL training camp. Because of some injury situation, Byram was paired with Calle Rosen, whom Colorado acquired as part of the Tyson Barrie trade. I think he would have done better with a talented veteran, but that’s just not how the chips fell.
In any case, because of his youth and inexperience, it’s not surprising he saw his first day of camp as “a bit of a tougher day,” especially since he was feeling nerves.
Nonetheless, Byram acknowledges that he felt “pretty good” on the ice, finishing with “Glad to see the first day behind me, for sure.”
Makar really comes across as the veteran. He talked about how long camp and the preseason are. Cale then remarked that he had to learn something specific:
"“You’ve got to recover your body well. And I think that’s where you lean on all these veteran guys to see what their routines are.”"
This isn’t the first time players have talked about how important recover is. Makar himself mentioned it in his Altitude Radio interview.
He elaborated on his own journey:
"“I think that was my second year at UMass when I fully started to get into a routine of recovery and turned more professional. So, that’ll be a big factor.”"
Like I said, Makar is already sounding so poised.
The Colorado Avalanche are on the ice today for the second day of training camp. There are no big changes except that Group 2 is taking the ice first. Bo Byram is in that group.