As the 2024-25 NHL season nears, one of the most-anticipated young prospects on the Colorado Avalanche has been getting a ton of coverage. Rightfully so. Calum Ritchie was one of the team’s first-round draft picks last year, and people have been wondering when he would get a chance to show off his skills in a regular season NHL game.
That day comes this week, as the Avalanche take on the Vegas Golden Knights on Wednesday evening.
Ritchie scored a couple of goals during this year’s preseason, including this beauty. Don’t get me wrong: a single goal cannot determine how poor or great a player is. The hope is that the Avalanche can see some improvements from Ritchie at the NHL level before they have to make the decision of whether or not to keep him elevated or send him back to Oshawa.
Ideally, Ritchie can develop into a player that can take on multiple roles, but that isn’t something that anyone should expect of the 19-year-old immediately. It is called development, after all. Even if Ritchie doesn’t light the lamp a ton during his nine-game elevation, that’s not necessarily a reason to panic.
Where should Calum Ritchie fit in with the Colorado Avalanche?
Calum Ritchie was drafted as a center in last year’s NHL Draft. However, the team is set at that position on the first and second lines with Nathan MacKinnon and Casey Mittelstadt. He could possibly be put on the third line, but that would mean breaking up The Roaring 20’s line, with Miles Wood, Ross Colton, and Logan O’Connor (when O’Connor returns from injury). The Avalanche really llike O’Connor’s game, as evidenced by the contract extension they gave him recently.
One possibility is Ritchie being placed at the second-line right wing spot. That’s currently where he’s projected to start the season. It makes a lot of sense putting him in a top-six role given his projected contributions and where he was drafted. The expectations for him might be higher up if placed on the second line, but hopefully he’d be up to the task.
Another possibility is putting him on the third line at the center position, where Colton currently is. The idea here would be that Colton would move over to right wing on that line, where O’Connor is currently projected to be once he returns from his injury, which is still a ways from happening, unfortunately.
The Colorado Avalanche are no strangers to taking some time to figure out the best lineup possible. Figuring that out early on is not going to damage their postseason chances, as there are 82 games in a regular season. They’ve got plenty of time to get things figured out, and I’m sure they will.