The Colorado Avalanche destroyed the Calgary Flames on Monday night by a final score of 9-2, but in the middle of it all, they saw their star defenseman Cale Makar go down with an upper-body injury. We don’t know the status of Makar as of Tuesday morning, but that event made me think about a change the NHL could make for the future.
The NHL allows 23 players on a roster at any given time, but only 20 players total on game days. That means that there automatically has to be some players scratched (inactive), whether that be a healthy scratch or a player scratched due to injury.
I would like to see the league allow an additional skater (or two) for the last month of the regular season. Whether it be a forward, defenseman, or goalie, would be completely up to each team. In the case of the Avalanche, it would be beneficial to have an extra forward and defenseman. Allowing Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar to have reduced ice time in the last month of the season would help them maintain good health.
The idea of adding an extra skater for the final month of the season would give NHL teams a chance to call up an player from the AHL if they choose. Maybe they find somebody who does extremely well on the NHL level. This doesn’t serve as a true advantage for the Avalanche alone. I think it would be fair all across the league.
Colorado Avalanche can afford less minutes from stars going forward
They are two of the best players in the whole league, with Makar being the best defenseman and MacKinnon the top forward. Now, I don’t think that they would want to have their ice time cut very much because they are true competitors, but for the sake of maintaining their health and reducing fatigue levels, having an extra skater or two on game days would serve them well.
The competitive edge for the Avalanche would be there.
The Avalanche are still trying to lock up the number one seed going into the playoffs, so they have plenty to play for right now. The emergence of the team’s depth helps move along the idea of adding more depth to game day rosters. I understand there is a disadvantage for some teams as they are not as deep as the top teams in the league, but for the Avalanche, it would be awesome.