Colorado Avalanche announce training camp roster

With such a condensed time frame for the NHL to play out their 2021 season, the Colorado Avalanche open training camp Sunday morning - only ten days before their home opener against the St. Louis Blues. Today, they announced their 40-man training camp roster, consisting of 22 forwards, 14 defensemen, and four goalies.

Brandon Saad (F) and Devon Toews (D) will make their official Avalanche debuts at this camp, along with depth signings Miikka Salomaki (F), Kiefer Sherwood (F), Mike Vecchione (F), Kyle Burroughs (D), and Dennis Gilbert (D).

There are not many surprises but two unexpected players — defensemen Peter Tischke and Keaton Middleton — have been signed to PTOs. Tischke was with the Colorado Eagles and Utah Grizzlies last season, while Middleton comes over from the San Jose Barracuda. Both are on AHL contracts with the AHL Eagles for the 2021 season.

Forwards

• Miikka Salomaki #10
• Matt Calvert #11
• Jayson Megna #12
• Valeri Nichushkin #13
• Shane Bowers #14
• Sheldon Dries #15
• Tyson Jost #17
• Mike Vecchione #18
• Brandon Saad #20
• Logan O’Connor #25
• Nathan MacKinnon #29
• T.J. Tynan #36
• J.T. Compher #37
• Pierre-Edouard Bellemare #41
• Kiefer Sherwood #44
• Martin Kaut #61
• Nick Henry #70
• Joonas Donskoi #72
• Nazem Kadri #91
• Gabriel Landeskog #92
• Andre Burakovsky #95
• Mikko Rantanen #96

Defense

• Bowen Byram #4
• Dan Renouf #5
• Erik Johnson #6
• Devon Toews #7
• Cale Makar #8
• Dennis Gilbert #9
• Conor Timmins #22
• Ryan Graves #27
• Ian Cole #28
• Jacob MacDonald #34
• Samuel Girard #49
• Peter Tischke #58
• Keaton Middleton #67
• Kyle Burroughs #88

Goalies

• Philipp Grubauer
• Pavel Francouz
• Hunter Miska
• Adam Werner

Notable Absences

There are a few players on NHL contracts who did not make the 36-skater roster. The first is Bowen Byram, who will be away from the team for most of camp as he finishes competing at the World Juniors. Then, once he arrives in Denver, he will be subject to the NHL’s seven day quarantine policy before he can skate with the team.

Goaltender Justus Annunen is staying in Europe for the season, where he can hopefully bounce back from a tough start to the season in the Liiga.

Travis Barron, Josh Dickinson, Ty Lewis, and Josh Anderson all spent their seasons last year mostly with the ECHL Utah Grizzlies. The Avs affiliate started the season on January 1st, but none of those four players are listed on their roster. Currently, it seems like they’re in limbo at the moment. All three have one year left on their ELC contracts.