As the Colorado Avalanche trim their roster down before the deadline, it has been announced that T.J. Hughes has made the team. This comes after a strong training camp and preseason for the 24-year-old whom the team signed out of Michigan last season.
Hughes had a hat trick in the team’s last preseason game, against the Winnipeg Jets.
Additionally, if it wasn’t already evident that Hughes would make the team ahead of the official announcement, it had been previously reported that he was on the team’s top power play unit. He will start the season there, too. In case there are new fans here, the Avalanche’s power play was abysmal last season, as the team finished 27th in the league by converting on just 17.1% of all power plays in the regular season.
Hughes’ placement on the top power play unit is notable because head coach Jared Bednar knows the unit was terrible last year, so he is making a big decision to switch things up. It’s great to see Bednar putting in that much trust in a young player who has not been with the team very long, compared to the veterans such as Brock Nelson and Nathan MacKinnon.
At Michigan last season, Hughes had five power play goals, including two in one game—in a 6-4 win against Ohio State.
It would be very cool if Hughes was the answer to the Avalanche’s power play woes. While one player isn’t likely to make that big of a difference, perhaps his hockey knowledge will play a big factor in the team’s power play success. If that happens, the Avalanche could be almost unstoppable. It was their biggest fault in all of last year.
Colorado is dealing with a couple of injuries right now, including Logan O’Connor, who is the team’s fourth-line right wing. I could see Hughes lining up there in O’Connor’s place as LOC gets healthy, but maybe we could see Hughes take on a bigger role at some point.
We got to see Hughes participate on a line with Brock Nelson and Jaden Schwartz during the preseason, so while that’s not necessarily an indication of where he’ll play long-term, it’s a good indicator for Bednar’s confidence level in the young player. The Avalanche are known for their depth and Hughes could be yet another piece to the puzzle the Avs are putting together to try and become Stanley Cup champions yet again.
The Avalanche are finished with their preseason, and their season opener will be on Wednesday against the Los Angeles Kings, who they defeated in the Stanley Cup playoffs last year. With Anze Kopitar no longer in the picture in L.A., this is a golden opportunity for the Avalanche to get off to a good start to the first season that will see each team play an additional two games. Hughes is waiver exempt as I mentioned the other day, and that is good news for the Avalanche, as he would not have to be exposed to waivers if the team decided to go that route for salary cap purposes.
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