How heavily are the Colorado Avalanche relying on their rookies?

We’re halfway through a rebound season for the Colorado Avalanche, who are relying on more rookies in the lineup than most other teams. It can be hard to track players’ ice-time over multiple games, especially in comparison to their peers, so I’ve compiled a chart of each rookie’s ice time in each game they’ve played so far. To make things easier to read, I’ve separated forwards and defensemen. Let’s see who’s been most and least trusted by the coaching staff in their first season:

Might as well state the obvious - there are lots of major swings here. There’s been a lot of different line combinations used throughout the year, which may partially explain why other than Jost’s early December, there’s been very little stability for any of the rookie forwards.

Compher sees the highest TOI of the bunch on a consistent basis, but Kerfoot has occasionally overtaken him. Jost seems to have jumped back up from his major decrease at the end of 2017. Greer is playing like a legitimate power-forward in the AHL but has only received non-fourth-line minutes once so far.

On to the defensemen:

Lots of hills and valleys in this chart as well, must be an Avalanche theme. We all know the back end hasn’t exactly performed consistently over the course of the season, but players seem to be improving on an individual basis regardless of their TOI roller-coasters.

Girard was handed a hefty workload when he arrived but has landed in a more typical rookie d-man range of late. Huge game-to-game swings indicate that coaches are probably trying to maximize his usage, but only when they feel comfortable, which will happen more at home.

Mironov’s numbers are barely 3rd pairing worthy, it’s hard to expect someone to develop in such a limited role. Lindholm seems to have settled into a reasonably consistent 10-15 min/game slot, which is probably where most of us predict he stays.

Hopefully seeing comparative TOI data was as interesting to you as it was for me; I look forward to seeing how these trends evolve as the team grows a little more and continue to push for a wildcard playoff position.