Well, isn't this interesting? Late yesterday, Craig Stancher posted not one, not two, not three but FOUR articles at ColoradoAvalanche.com detailing a SLEW of number changes for the upcoming season. If you've been reading along at MHH, you know that numbers are kind of important to me and I'm absolutely thrilled that the team went into so much detail on all the upcoming changes.
Not to long ago, I speculated on what some of the new Avs would be wearing. Let's see how far off I was. I had Matt Duchene wearing #9. Not there was much doubt there, but it's now official: Doogie is going with 9. Don Balls can now breathe a little easier. Kyle Quincey is sticking with #27, but those are the only two I got right. With his normal #31 taken, I thought Craig Anderson might go with #30, but he's going with #41. David Koci is going with #28 (can he grow some cool facial hair?) and Tom Preissing is indeed going to wear a number other than #42 for the first time in the NHL; Preissing takes #20 as Chris Stewart is sticking with #42.
While Stewart (and David Jones and Cody McLeod) are sticking with their 40+ numbers, several other players are making a change this year. Kyle Cumiskey is switching from #48 to #10 (you think he called Wyatt Smith to ask permission?). And T.J. Hensick will be attempting to tap into his old Michigan success, switching from #37 to the #7 he wore as a college stud. Finally, in a move I'm not sure I complete understand, T.J. Galiardi is giving up #43 to wear Tyler Arnason's old #39. Ruh roh. Their old numbers won't be idle for long, as new draftee Stefan Elliot is taking Cumiskey's #48, Radar O'Reilly will don Hensick's #37 and newly signed Justin Mercier will wear Galiardi's #43.
Rounding out the new assignments, Brett Skinner will wear #3, Darren Haydar will have Brad Richardson's old #12, Wes O'Neill is escaping from the ugly #62 to the more glamorous #2, Derek Peltier is switching from #50 to #6 (he wore #5 in Minnesota, but, alas, Brett Clark has that sewn up), Ryan Stoa will wear #29, Brandon Yip will wear the number #59 vacated by Phillipe Dupuis as Dupuis is changing to #11 and Matt Hendricks will wear Andrew Brunette's old #15.
The new numbers aren't reflected on the team's roster list yet, but I believe the camp rosters are supposed to be released soon.