Colorado Avalanche place eight on waivers; NHL season derailed, already

After a day off, the Colorado Avalanche are back on the ice Friday morning. Before camp resumed, the team began to take care of some administrative work as they began the process of shrinking the roster down before opening night.

The team has placed forwards Sheldon Dries, Jayson Megna, Miikka Salomaki, Mike Vecchione and T.J. Tynan as well as defensemen Kyle Burroughs, Jacob MacDonald and Dan Renouf on waivers. No real surprises here, other than the fact that former Anaheim Ducks forward Keifer Sherwood wasn’t among the first group waived. This must mean that he has been impressing the coaching staff thus far in camp.

The move shrinks Colorado’s training camp roster to 28.

Some good news came Friday as starting goalie Philipp Grubabuer, captain Gabriel Landeskog and new Av Brandon Saad were on the ice with his teammates for the first time this week.

With the “unfit to compete” crew back on the ice, the Avs can begin to focus on the season opening against St. Louis next Wednesday.

Also, check out those pants:

While the Avalanche hope to kick off the 2021 season next week, that is far from a certainty. The NHL announced Friday morning that they will need to amend their schedule as the Dallas Stars - who will not be in the same division as the Avalanche this seasons - have been forced to shut down their facilities due to positive COVID tests. In their statement, the NHL announced that the Stars will not be able to begin their season until January 19th at the earliest.

At the same time, the Columbus Blue Jackets have announced that they have held half of their roster off the ice today out of “an abundance of caution”.

These incidents are stark reminders that things can go downhill for the season very quickly.