In a bit of a surprise move, the Avalanche on Thursday assigned defenseman Chris Bigras to the San Antonio Rampage of the AHL.
They also sent forward J.T. Compher and defenseman Anton Lindholm to the Rampage.
Bigras had a goal and two assists in 31 games with the Avalanche last season after being recalled Jan. 13.
The Avalanche are down to 27 players on the camp roster. They have eight defensemen, including former first-round pick Duncan Siemens. The others: Tyson Barrie, Francois Beauchemin, Eric Gelinas, Erik Johnson, Fedor Tyutin, Patrick Wiercioch and Nikita Zadorov.
The guess here is Siemens will get sent down and the Avalanche will keep two extra forwards.
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Look who's 5-0 in the preseason.
The Avalanche, who will take that record into Las Vegas on Saturday to close out exhibition play against Los Angeles at T-Mobile Arena (8 p.m. MT, NHL Network).
Does it mean a whole lot once regular-season play begins Oct. 15 against Dallas at the Pepsi Center? Maybe not, but heading into the real season with some positive momentum can't be a bad thing, not after the previous two poor exhibition seasons were followed by awful regular-season starts.
"It's great to be 5-0, but whatever your preseason record is, everybody forgets about that the first game of the regular season," general manager Joe Sakic told the Denver Post. "It does show the guys are working and we like what we’re seeing. As a whole, I’m really happy with camp.…
The Avalanche have outscored teams 14-4 and are coming off back-to-back shutouts of Minnesota and Dallas. Calvin Pickard made 28 saves and Andreas Martinsen scored Wednesday in a 1-0 win against the Stars at the American Airlines Center.
Semyon Varlamov, who has stopped 63 of 64 shots in two games, will play Saturday against the Kings. He had 30 saves Tuesday in a 2-0 win against the Wild.
Ben Smith, who's making a strong bid to make the team, set up Martinsen with a cross-ice pass for a first-period goal against Stars goalie Kari Lehtonen.
Pickard turned aside a combined 50 of 52 shots in his two preseason games.
"We played great start to finish," Pickard told the Avalanche web site. "Back-to-back, coming on the road, travel the day of, that was a pretty exciting performance. We played great defense all night, got a great goal and drew a lot of penalties. So we ate up a lot of the clock."
Matt Duchene had two shots on goal while playing 19:41 in his preseason debut. He skated at right wing on a line with left wing Gabriel Landeskog and center Nathan MacKinnon.
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While the power play is a concern -- 0-for-8 Wednesday, 1-for-18 in the past four games, 2-for-22 overall -- Bednar has been using units that include guys who aren't likely to make the opening night roster. That should change Saturday.
The goaltending and penalty killing have been outstanding. The Avalanche have yet to give up a power-play goal in 21 shorthanded situations.
"It's still a work in progress," Bednar said of the penalty killing. "You get some of the other teams' top players in and we're seeing some things that could hurt us, but we're working on it every day and hopefully we're getting better."
Opening-night rosters have to be set by Tuesday.
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The Post reported that Bednar's wife and daughter were evacuated from the family home in Charleston, S.C., because of Hurricane Matthew. Bednar and his son are living in the Denver area. His wife and daughter will move to Colorado following the first semester of the school year.
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The Avalanche raised $90,000 for charity at their annual golf tournament Thursday and will practice Friday.