It's possible the Avalanche could be getting center John Mitchell back for Thursday's game against Vancouver at the Pepsi Center.
Mitchell, who has missed three games with a back injury, skated Monday but didn't travel for Tuesday's game in Nashville, a 5-4 Avalanche win in a shootout. He did some skating Wednesday during an optional practice and the Avalanche will have a better idea about his status after the morning skate Thursday.
"I spoke to him before going on the ice and he still feels a little bit of pain in his back," coach Patrick Roy said. "Hopefully he'll play (Thursday). If not, I'm pretty confident he might play against San Jose on Saturday."
Mitchell was injured when he slid backwards and crashed into the boards in a March 18 game in Montreal. He was taken to the hospital for precautionary X-rays and accompanied the team to Winnipeg for a game the next night.
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Roy said goalie Semyon Varlamov will start against the Canucks on Thursday and against San Jose on Saturday when the Avalanche completes a two-game homestand. The Avalanche has 10 games remaining before the playoffs to try and pass Chicago for second place in the Central Division.
"We want more and we're certainly not going to be satisfied (with making the postseason)," Roy said. " We don't want to go back to where we were in the past. The culture has been changing and we're not going to be a satisfied team. We're going to try to work even harder every day we're going to be on the ice.
"The only thing we have earned is to play Vancouver. We haven't earned anything else than that. That's what we have to look at as a team. We still believe that we can catch Chicago. It's still possible. We still believe that we could have home-ice advantage. We want to look up; we don't want to look behind us."
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Defenseman Chris Bigras, who turned 19 in February, had an impressive training camp in September after being selected in the second round (32nd overall) in the 2013 NHL draft, but Roy thinks Bigras will be better off if he remains with his junior team next season.
"I would be very surprised if Bigras plays for us next year," Roy said. "We'll see in training camp. It's early and everybody could change their mind, but at the same time I think it would be great for him to finish his junior (eligibility) and take advantage of it, especially for a defenseman. I think it's a little bit tougher for a defenseman to play at the NHL level at such a young age. Chris is a two-way defenseman. Also, we have pretty much the same 'D' coming back next year."
Bigras had four goals, 22 assists, 46 penalty minutes and a minus-11 plus/minus rating in 55 games this season with the Owen Sound Attack in the Ontario Hockey League. He was voted the best defensive defenseman in the Western Conference by league coaches.
Owen Sound trails the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds two games to one in the best-of-seven Western Conference quarterfinals. Game 4 was to be played Wednesday night.
Bigras had two assists in the first three games with two penalty minutes and a minus-5 rating.
Owen Sound finished fourth in the five-team Midwest Division during the regular season. Sault Ste. Marie was first in the West Division.