Long Weekend Brunch: Nathan MacKinnon ranked top Avalanche player by NHL

The Avs

TSN’s Darren Dreger reports that Matt Duchene trade talks have heated up again. Duchene, apparently, does not like how long this whole situation has taken to solve itself. “Matt Duchene is a veteran player. He doesn’t want to leave the Colorado Avalanche with crashing waves and all kinds of bad blood. He wanted this situation remedied a long time ago and he’s still hoping that that’s the case in the days leading up to the Colorado Avalanche training camp.” [Mile High Hockey]

Colorado Avalanche star Nathan MacKinnon was ranked the 101st best fantasy player in the NHL by NHL.com. MacKinnon sits between newly signed Columbus Blue Jacket forward, Alexander Wennberg, and former Avalanche center, Ryan O’Reilly. The NHL website also projects MacKinnon to score 57 points this upcoming season. [NHL dot com]

11-year-old blogger, Carter LaCorte (aka. CarterHud), gives us his 2017-18 season preview for the Colorado Avalanche. Carter breaks down the forward lines, defensive pairs, who his breakout players are, as well as his prediction for where the Avs finish in the standings. “Zadorov is trying to breakout, and playing with a good defenseman in Barrie helps. The second pairing is simple. [Cal] Makar, the 4th overall pick, can make the team, in my opinion.” [CarterHud]

The Prospects

Colorado Avalanche prospect Conor Timmins had 1 assist and 3 shots in his first OHL preseason game this season for Sault Ste. Marie in their 4-3 loss to the Saginaw Spirit. [OHL]

The Game

Ben Shumate profiles University of Denver’s newest freshman, Ryan Barrow. “[Barrow] showed similar progress during his Junior B years while playing for Banff Hockey Academy in his native Alberta. All in all, Barrow has shown his ability as a natural scorer at all levels of junior hockey.” [Mile High Hockey]

Hockey has it’s own European Champions League tournament, the Champions Hockey League (CHL). Yesterday, the Nottingham Panthers, who are a middling team in the EIHL, upset Swiss league champion SC Bern in their Group Stage game by a score of 4-2. [CHL]

(All games can be streamed live on Youtube via the league website)