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Toninato assigned to AHL Eagles; Sakic on season goals |
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Rick Sadowski
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The Avalanche on Wednesday assigned forward Dominic Toninato to the Colorado Eagles of the AHL, reducing the roster to 21 players (see below).
Coach Jared Bednar said, because the AHL team is 50 miles away, the Avalanche roster can be fluid, that young players can be sent to Loveland rather than scratching them when they need to be playing.
“We don’t need 23 guys here so three guys are sitting around,” he said. “If we need someone for the weekend or to go on the road, then we’ll recall somebody.”
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General manager Joe Sakic had a brief news conference while the Avalanche began practice on the eve of the regular-season opener against Minnesota. Semyon Varlamov gets the start in goal.
The goal is to qualify for the playoffs for a second season in a row. They haven’t made the postseason in back-to-back seasons since 2002-03 and 2003-04.
“We’re looking to having a great start to the season,” Sakic said. “You want to be in the mix. Tough conference, our goal is to make the playoffs, but the most important thing is to see the growth of this group. It’s still a young team ... there’s room for growth and we’re excited to see who makes that next jump.
“It’s going to be a challenge, it’s always a tough (Central) division. The Pacific got tougher. At the end of the year you’re going to have two, three, maybe four really good teams miss the playoffs. That’s what makes it so exciting, so great, the Western Conference, our division. Every night’s a tough night."
On second-year forward Tyson Jost, Colorado’s first-round pick (No. 10) in the 2016 NHL draft. He will center a second line that includes Alexander Kerfoot and Colin Wilson:
“He looks a lot faster out there. He really spent a lot of time this summer, changed his workout program. He’s more explosive in his agility. He looks great out there, he looks faster. I know he’s looking forward to making a huge step this year."
On the contract status of right wing Mikko Rantanen, who is entering the final year of his entry-level deal while coming off a 29-goal, 84-point season:
“It’s not something we’re worried about. We’ve had conversations with his representatives. It seems today they want to play it out, see how this year goes. He’s gonna be here a long time.”
On defenseman Conor Timmins, who’s been skating and shooting as he recovers from post-concussion symptoms. He's listed as injured, non roster:
“He was doing well, had a setback (before development camp in June). He’s getting back to that, starting to skate more now. He’s a guy we’re going to be very careful with. When he gets to a hundred percent … he missed a whole summer of training, so once he’s really a hundred percent ready, now we have to get him training. We plan on taking our time with him. When he’s really, really ready to go, then he’s going to start playing.”
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The Avalanche roster
Forwards: Gabriel Bourque, Matt Calvert, J.T. Compher, Sheldon Dries, Tyson Jost, Alexander Kerfoot, Gabriel Landeskog, Nathan MacKinnon, Matt Nieto, Mikko Rantanen, Carl Soderberg, Colin Wilson
Defensemen: Mark Barberio, Tyson Barrie, Ian Cole, Samuel Girard, Erik Johnson, Patrik Nemeth, Nikita Zadorov
Goalies: Philipp Grubauer, Semyon Varlamov
Injured reserve: Sven Andrighetto, Anton Lindholm, Vladislav Kamenev
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