At some point, the Colorado Avalanche will have a much healthier team during the 2024-25 regular season. While that is still a ways away, here’s something positive the Avalanche fans can take away from this whole ordeal.
Let me just say that, in this particular case, it is a good thing that the Avalanche have a ton more games to get right. They’ve certainly looked flat some nights. A lot of it seems to be the goaltending, but it goes deeper than that because there are five other players on the ice with that goaltender.
Some of it is defensive breakdowns. Some of it is turnovers. Let’s just be honest here. It usually takes multiple people to be at fault for a loss. That being said, the Colorado Avalanche have dug into their Colorado Eagles prospects several times, including today’s transaction:
We have recalled T.J. Tynan and Nikita Prishchepov from the Colorado Eagles. pic.twitter.com/yfLdkhA8e6
— Colorado Avalanche (@Avalanche) November 1, 2024
Prishchepov has played in six games with the Colorado Eagles in his first year with the team. He has recorded one goal and three assists in that time.
Prishchepov’s best statistical season came last year with the Victoriaville Tigres of the QMJHL, when he produced 22 goals and 45 points in 63 games.
Having a seventh-round pick enter an NHL game is an awesome thing to see. It typically takes most players years to be elevated to the NHL level, and a lot of the time, players don’t even make it with the team that originally drafted them.
I’ve come to realize that sometimes, teams draft players specifically to fill out their AHL roster.
Either Prishchepov has really impressed and has earned his way onto the Avalanche roster already, or the team is pretty desperate considering the status of a lot of their injured players. Either way, it does not hurt to call up a young guy to see what he’s got and what he can contribute to at the NHL level.
Prishchepov is a center, and it seems likely that he will start off somewhere like the fourth line, playing minimal minutes. That’s because the Avalanche have their two top center spots locked up with Nathan MacKinnon and Casey Mittelstadt.
The Avalanche have gotten very unlucky with injuries. At some point, we’ll get to see Valeri Nichushkin back (mid-November). The team also hopes that Gabriel Landeskog can make a return after two years away because of his tragic knee injury. Ross Colton is also lost for 6-8 weeks due to suffering a broken foot recently.
Maybe Prishchepov can defy the odds and make a bigger impact with the team than anyone initially expected him to. That’s unlikely, but like just about anything, it certainly is not impossible.
Obviously, we want the best players on the ice at all times, but that’s not always a luxury a team has. The silver lining of what the Avalanche are going through right now is that they get to see what their young players have and maybe they can make a huge impact sooner rather than later.