The Colorado Avalanche: News from around the NHL - September 9th, 2013

Pavel Bure's 

The Canucks will retire Pavel Bure’s No. 10 on Nov. 2 when Vancouver hosts the Toronto Maple Leafs at Rogers Arena, the team announced Friday.

It will be the fourth retired number in franchise history. The others are Stan Smyl’s No. 12, Trevor Linden’s No. 16 and Markus Naslund’s No. 19.

NHL.com has an article up about Nathan MacKinnon and Jonathan Drouin.

"We don't really know what to expect. It's going to be different, for sure, seeing him in a different colored jersey," MacKinnon said. "We've been linemates for a couple of years now. It's going to be weird splitting up."

Assuming both stick with their NHL teams and stay healthy, the pair will go head to head for the first time on Jan. 25, when MacKinnon's Avalanche visit Drouin's Lightning in Tampa Bay. By then, both players will have learned some of the nuances of the NHL game. They already know each other inside and out.

"Nate's a winner in pretty much everything. He doesn't like to lose," Drouin said. "Even if it's video games or basketball with friends at school, he doesn't like to lose."

So he probably wasn't too pleased about, say, losing 3-1 in NHL 14?

"Oh, he was mad," Drouin said.

Barkov is not taking part in Florida's rookie camp.

For hockey fans hoping to get a sneak preview of three of the top four picks in the 2013 NHL Draft at this weekend's four-team prospects tournament at Saveolog.com Iceplex, they'll have to settle for two. Panthers teenage center Aleksander Barkov will not participate for precautionary reasons.

Barkov, who underwent shoulder surgery in April, has been cleared to play, but Panthers General Manager Dale Tallonwants to make sure he's ready for the start of next week's training camp and then, more significantly, the season opener on Oct. 3 against the Dallas Stars.

"We're looking at this long term; this is more of a need for us,'' Tallon said Wednesday after Panthers prospects and some veterans underwent medical testing and physicals at BB&T Center. "They're all good players. We're very happy with [Barkov]. He's a big, strong, left-handed-shot centerman, which we desperately needed in our system.