Taking into account offseason moves, the return to health of several players and the prospects ready to take a crack at making the roster, this could be the Avalanche's most competitive training camp under Patrick Roy, who is beginning his third season as coach.
"I like to think so," Roy said Thursday at the Pepsi Center after the veterans underwent medical and physical tests. "I like our depth. I think we're going to have more depth than we had in the first two years."
Roy said he's going to "do things a little differently" this camp, focusing more on team systems with fewer scrimmages starting Friday with the first official on-ice sessions at the Family Sports Center in Centennial, CO.
"I think that will help us for the start of the season," he said. "We're not going to change tons of things, just some small details."
Aside from bringing in Blake Comeau, Mikhail Gregorenko and Carl Soderberg up front, along with first-round pick Mikko Rantanen, Roy said he expects Jesse Winchester to take part in camp after missing all of last season to recover from concussion issues. Patrick Bordeleau is healthy after missing all but one game because of back and knee injuries.
"I didn't hear that Winchester is cleared, but I talked to him last week and it seems like he's going to be ready for the start of training camp," Roy said.
Yes, the Avalanche will miss Ryan O'Reilly and Jamie McGinn, who were traded to Buffalo for Grigorenko, defenseman Nikita Zadorov, college prospect J.T. Compher and a draft pick. It will be interesting to see how Soderberg fares while centering a projected line with Gabriel Landeskog and Nathan MacKinnon.
MacKinnon has recovered after missing the final 18 games to recover from a broken foot and said he's up to 210 pounds, having gained 10-15 pounds while working out this summer. He also said he grew a quarter-inch in height.
"Just turned 20, getting old," MacKinnon said. "I recovered pretty well from my foot. Went to the (World Championships) and played there. I haven't played in a while at the Pepsi Center, since March, so I'm looking forward to Oct. 8 (against Minnesota in the season opener)."
MacKinnon also is sporting a different look with a new haircut -- closely cropped along the sides -- and a beard.
"Trying something new," he said. "See how I play with this new haircut."
Defensively, the Avalanche added Francois Beauchemin and the 6-foot-5, 220-pound Zadorov after letting Jan Hejda and Ryan Wilson go as free agents. The plan is to pair Beauchemin with Erik Johnson, who missed the final 35 games because of a knee injury after he made the NHL All-Star Game for the first time but wasn't able to play.
"I feel awesome," said Johnson, whose agent has been working on a contract extension. "Been a lot of hard work and hours making sure I'm back to where I needed to be. I feel really good, really confident, ready to lead the team back to the playoffs."
Five other defensemen return: Tyson Barrie, Nate Guenin, Nick Holden, Zach Redmond and Brad Stuart. Roy said he's eager to see how Zadorov and Brandon Gormley perform in camp, and Chris Bigras is a highly-touted prospect with an outside chance to make the team. Gormley, a former first-round pick, was acquired from Arizona a week ago for Stefan Elliott.
Defense prospect Kyle Wood, 19, has a wrist injury that prevented him from taking part in rookie camp. Roy said he would be out until late October or early November, after which he'll be returned to his junior team.
Semyon Varlamov is entrenched as the No. 1 goalie, but Roy said Calvin Pickard will compete with Reto Berra for the backup position.
"Reto's going to have to have a good training camp," Roy said. "Calvin is right there, he had a great year for us. I'm sure we're going to use the training camp as a way to evaluate both of them and we'll see after the camp which one we're going to keep. It's open.
"We're very excited about this year, like the changes we made. We all learned from last year and I honestly believe this makes us a better hockey team because of it. I think we have more depth this year than we had last year. We certainly want to have a good year and a good start."