Colorado Avalanche announce rookie face-off roster for 2024

We have Colorado Avalanche hockey ramping up, ladies and gentlemen. The team has announced its rookie face-off roster for 2024. It includes some very familiar faces, as well as some players who are trying to make a name for themselves.

Some of the familiar names you will see on this roster are forwards Calum Ritchie, Ivan Ivan, Oskar Olausson, and Ondrej Pavel, as well as defensemen Sean Behrens and Saige Weinstein.

The roster also includes 2024 draft picks Max Curran and Nikita Prishchepov.

As you can tell based off of these familiar names, some of them are not rookies. Look at this as some sort of tryout to help get them further along in their hockey journeys. Unfortunately, there are only so many spots on an NHL roster, so only a small few spots are guaranteed.

Ritchie, the team’s first-round pick (23rd overall) in the 2023 NHL Draft, signed a three-year entry-level contract with the team earlier this offseason. The Avalanche will get to see Ritchie in a handful of games before they have to make a decision on whether or not to send him down or keep him on the active roster. If they decide not to keep him on the active roster, deeming him not ready to play at the higher level, he is required to join the Oshawa Generals due to an agreement between the NHL and CHL.

That agreement states that players who are under the age of 20 cannot join the team’s affiliate team—in this particular case, it is the Colorado Eagles.

The Calum Ritchie watch is perhaps the most intriguing thing to keep an eye on early on this season. However, that’s not to say that it’s the only thing. It will be fun to see where these players end up. The roster announcement can give you an idea of some players to follow as they progress in their hockey development, hoping to continue their career that they’ve dreamed about since they were a kid.