Next man up for the Avalanche

Well. This was going to be an analysis of Shane Bowers’ first NHL game. No longer the case.

After Bowers bowed out of his NHL debut due to an upper-body injury in the first period, the Colorado Avalanche played most of Thursday night’s win over the Nashville Predators with 11 forwards. Because of the injury, Bowers only played 1:46 in his debut and there’s no word on his status.

Bowers was called up to help with a lieu of injuries to the Avalanche forwards. Already without Gabriel Landeskog, Valeri Nichushkin, and Darren Helm as harped on time and time again, Bowers now joins that list.

With other forwards/defensemen like Jacob MacDonald and Kurtis MacDermid already filling in defense for the injured Sam Girard and Bowen Byram, options are severely limited. Bowers’ injury only makes things worse in this case for the Avs.

So: who’s next?

It’s going to be the same mentality moving forward. It has been for the Avs for a little while, but now more so than ever. Expect recent sent-down Mikhail Maltsev to make his way back to the Avs side should Bowers be unable to go Saturday night against the Carolina Hurricanes. Behind Maltsev, we’re getting into extreme AHL-level caliber player territory who could end up playing in the NHL should the circumstances arise.

Likely, it would be Jayson Megna who would get the first call since he has NHL experience with the Avs as recently as this season. Then, it might be anyone from Jean-Luc Foudy, to Oskar Olausson, to Anton Blidh, to Cal Burke, or others in the top six of the Eagles below.

Yeah, options are severely limited.

Ben Meyers would be a part of this list if he was not injured with the Eagles, so he won’t be considered here. Perhaps, they rush Alex Galchenyuk who is on a PTO with the Colorado Eagles after recovering from the injury he sustained on a PTO with the Avs during the preseason.

If Jared Bednar and the entire front office of the Avalanche and Eagles want to experiment, they could call up newly-signed Brad Hunt to play in defense for the Avs. Then, Bednar could move up one of MacDonald or MacDermid to play forward. There are plenty of combinations, none of which sound great or ideal with this thin of a squad remaining for the Avalanche.

It’s all hands on deck for the distant future. What will they do now? Let us know what you think in the comments below!