With the Colorado Avalanche‘s offseason roster surgery all but complete at this point, the team’s NHL lineup for the 2023-24 season is slowly coming into view.
Though new additions in Ryan Johansen, Ross Colton, Jonathan Drouin, and Miles Wood are penciled into the top-nine forward group at this point, the Avalanche should have several players battling for the remaining spots in the bottom-six. Ben Meyers (39 NHL games) and Fredrik Olofsson (28) have the inside track given that they hold more professional experience, and one of a few other hopefuls could surpass them with a strong camp.
Related: Colorado Avalanche Prospect Pyramid 2023-24
Since veteran defenseman Erik Johnson is the only departure on the blue line, the Avalanche are set to enter next season with nearly the exact same group on the backend. Kurtis MacDermid and Jack Johnson haven’t excelled in their roles as sixth- and seventh-defensemen in the past so the final spot is very much up for grabs.
Alexander Georgiev and Pavel Francouz are unlikely to be dislodged from their starting and backup roles respectively, though injuries or worrying dips in form could force a third netminder into the mix.
With that overview, let’s dive into the three Avalanche prospects – and three additional honourable mentions – who could see extended time in the NHL during the 2023-24 campaign.
Jean-Luc Foudy, Forward
2022-23 Statistics (Colorado Eagles, American Hockey League/AHL): 46 Games Played (GP) – 11 Goals (G) – 25 Assists (A) – 36 Points (PTS)
There is a debate to be had about whether utility forward Jean-Luc Foudy is the prospect with the highest ceiling in the slim Avalanche system, but there should be little doubt over whether he is ready to contribute at the NHL level. Impressively, he’s logged nearly 150 games in the AHL over the course of three seasons despite only just turning 21 years old and has little to prove at that level after being named to the AHL All-Star Game for the first time last season.
Foudy finished second on the Eagles in assists and fourth in points last season despite playing only 46 games in the minors partially due to an injury-riddled end to the season. He also earned a nine-game stint with the Avalanche during the worst of the team’s wave of injuries, though he failed to record a point even as he showed some intriguing play-making ability in limited usage.
According to AHL Tracker, Foudy ranked 11th among all under-22 skaters in the AHL in primary assists per game and 17th in primary points per game in all situations. He would be well-served by becoming more assertive in shooting the puck (he ranked 78th among qualified skaters in shots per game), but that may come with experience and physical maturity.
Foudy’s speed and skating are clear strengths and should see him fit seamlessly into the Avalanche gameplan even if his production isn’t immediately at the same level. His exuberance can make up for his defensive warts to start especially on the fourth line, but working on his two-way game would go a long way towards cementing his place in the NHL lineup.
Oskar Olausson, Forward
2022-23 Statistics (Colorado Eagles, AHL): 63 GP – 11 G – 9 A – 20 PTS
Like Foudy, Oskar Olausson is set to do battle with several more seasoned veterans for the Avalanche’s final NHL forward spots. Unlike his diminutive teammate, Olausson has yet to exert himself at the AHL level after just playing through his first full professional campaign, so it’s likely that he sees extended time with the Eagles to start the year before adding onto his single game of NHL experience.
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The Swedish forward started the season strong, but petered out while only accruing two points (one goal) over his final 21 regular-season games, though he tallied three points in six playoff games for the Eagles.
Working in Olausson’s favour however is the fact that he’s yet to turn 21 (he’ll do so in November), and should be handed a greater role in the minors this season to mold his game to something resembling a more complete package. His shot is one of the best in the Avalanche’s system, and he’s shown no qualms about carrying the puck throughout the neutral zone and trying to create scoring chances and opportunities.
Olausson has the size (6-foot-1, 180 pounds) and offensive skill to succeed as a scoring winger in the NHL, it’s just a matter of putting it all together consistently over an extended period of time. Barring injuries at the NHL level, he will likely spend most of the season in the AHL but could be a candidate to provide an injection of scoring for the Avalanche come playoff time.
After a lack of depth cost them against the Seattle Kraken in Round 1 last postseason, it’d be difficult to block such a player from seriously auditioning for a spot up front.
Sam Malinski, Defenseman
2022-23 Statistics (Cornell University, National Collegiate Athletics Association/NCAA): 34 GP – 8 G – 18 A – 26 PTS
At age 25, it’s difficult to classify Sam Malinski as a prospect in the true sense of the word. Given that he’s only got 14 professional games under his belt after signing with the Avalanche following the college season, I’m counting him as one. His signing continues a recent trend of the Avalanche looking to the NCAA to bolster their diminished prospect pipeline.
As Cornell’s captain in his senior year, the mobile rearguard led his team’s defensive group in scoring and orchestrated the action at even strength and on the power play. He’s able to drive play in transition with the puck with regularity, and he is unafraid of jumping into the play as a fourth forward to create numerical mismatches off the rush. Malinski’s skating gives him the freedom to be more active in the attack as he’s able to recover his defensive positioning quickly and stymie opposing transition efforts at his own blue line.
In his brief stint with the Eagles, Malinski showed a glimpse of what he offers the Avalanche in a bottom-pair role as soon as next season, accumulating three goals and 10 points across 14 regular-season and playoff games. He assumed a role on the top powerplay unit by the postseason and finished second on the Eagles in playoff scoring with five assists in seven games.
The Avalanche are built on speed and purposefulness with the puck, and it was frustrating to see the play often die on the sticks of Johnson and MacDermid last season. Malinski’s presence could conceivably give the Avalanche five defensemen capable of moving the puck effectively, or six depending on your opinion of Josh Manson’s results in that department.
Like any player just beginning to acclimatize to the professional game, Malinksi will have to sharpen his on-ice awareness and defensive posture to avoid being dominated by bigger, stronger opposition in the NHL. It’s easy to imagine him taking on minutes as the sixth- or seventh-defender with deployment on the secondary powerplay unit, but that may not be immediately available.
If he maintains his scoring pace from his end-of-year audition with the Eagles, it might only be a matter of time before Malinski is turning heads with the Avalanche as their latest dynamo on the blue line.
2023-24 Avalanche Prospects: Honourable Mentions
Though the aforementioned prospects have the upper hand in upcoming NHL roster battles, the following prospects could also enjoy stints with the Avalanche in 2023-24. Their primary teams and regular-season statistics from the 2022-23 campaign are included:
- Nikolai Kovalenko, Forward – Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod, Kontinental Hockey League/KHL (56 GP – 21 G – 33 A – 54 PTS)
- Sean Behrens, Defenseman – University of Denver, NCAA (31 GP – 3 G – 18 A – 21 PTS)
- Justus Annunen, Goaltender – Colorado Eagles, AHL (41 GP – 2.55 goals-against average – .916 save percentage)
Data courtesy of AHL Tracker, College Hockey News, and Elite Prospects.