Avalanche Cut 7 Forwards: Reduce Roster to 30

The Colorado Avalanche announced another round of cuts this morning, this time sending 7 forwards to Lake Erie.

#18 LW Andrew Agozzino - Lake Erie (AHL)

#48 C Mitchell Heard - Lake Erie (AHL)

#20 LW Bryan Lerg - Lake Erie (AHL)

#36 C Garret Meurs - Lake Erie (AHL)

#10 C Mark Olver - Lake Erie (AHL)

#37 C Colin Smith - Lake Erie (AHL)

#12 RW JT Wyman - Lake Erie (AHL)

Bryan Lerg, Mark Olver and JT Wyman will all have to pass through waivers before reporting to Lake Erie.  The big story here of course, is Mark Olver heading to Lake Erie, while his job was certainly in danger from the beginning of camp, it is somewhat surprising to see him cut before Desbiens, Carey, and Malone.  It could be that Roy and company have seen enough from Olver or that they are trying to squeak him through waivers at a time when they dont think he will be picked up.  It will be interesting to see who the Avs first callup is in the event of an injury, because it looks like Mark Olver has fallen a ways in the pecking order.

With these most recent cuts, the Avalanche are at 30 roster players, meaning only 7 more cuts before we have our opening night roster.  Here's a look at who's left, and who's likely headed to Cleveland in the next 9 days.

Goaltenders:
30 Sami Aittokallio
35 J.S. Giguere
1 Semyon Varlamov

Barring an injury, Sami Aittokallio is sure to head back to Lake Erie before opening night, leaving 6 more cuts.

Defense:
4 Tyson Barrie
61 Andre Benoit
57 Chris Bigras
46 Stefan Elliott
5 Nate Guenin
8 Jan Hejda
2 Nick Holden
22 Matt Hunwick
6 Erik Johnson
16 Cory Sarich
44 Ryan Wilson

Barrie, Benoit, Hejda, Johnson, Sarich and Wilson are all but guaranteed spots on the roster, leaving one opening, maybe two considering Wilson's injury.  Guenin, Holden and Hunwick seem like the most likely cuts, with either Stefan Elliott or Chris Bigras making the team. Thats 4 cuts, leaving the Avs with just 2 players to trim out from the forwards.

Forwards:

58 Patrick Bordeleau
28 Paul Carey
24 Marc-Andre Cliche
27 Guillaume Desbiens
17 Steve Downie
9 Matt Duchene
92 Gabriel Landeskog
29 Nathan MacKinnon
42 Brad Malone
11 Jamie McGinn
55 Cody McLeod
7 John Mitchell
15 P.A. Parenteau
90 Ryan O`Reilly
26 Paul Stastny
40 Alex Tanguay

From the forwards Paul Carey and Guillaume Desbeins are the most candidates for the final two cuts, with Brad Malone and Marc Andre Cliche battling for a spot on the team.