As hockey fans struggle to battle through the doldrums of September, the ever-elusive beginning to hockey season a mere month away. It is time to check in on the prospects in the Colorado Avalanche system. At The-Rink Colorado, we value your time, so rather than showcasing future accounts we are going to instead dive deeper on the cream of the crop. So for this article, we are going to provide you with a group of prospects who realistically project as NHL players for the Avalanche.
The Avalanche have a rather bare cupboard with prospects, ranking as the 26th best pool of talent in The NHL, but we break them down into three tiers:
“2024 Call-ups”- these are players who are first in line to see NHL action this season, be that because of injury or to earning a place in the middle-six from a strong training camp.
“Starting Eagles”- these players can expect to gain seasoning and pro-experience in Loveland at the AHL level this season, but could become an option if the injury bug bites in Denver, or a trade makes room for depth.
“Long shots” are the players who will only step on the Ball Arena ice if the roster is decimated or the prospects in tiers above them experience setbacks.
This article will detail the highest tier of Avalanche prospects who you should see alongside Cale Makar in Denver this season.
Without further ado, let’s dig into the players I expect to see lacing up in the pros this year.
2024 Call-ups
Calum Ritchie (FWD), Drafted in 2023, 1st round, 27th overall
All the major buzz around up-and-coming Avalanche skaters starts with the unreal production of late first-round pick Calum Ritchie. Last year for the Oshawa Generals, Ritchie produced 80 points in just 50 games, including 28 goals, and added 30 additional points in 21 playoff games. Many NHL scouts mentioned Ritchie might have been an early pick if not for the injury that robbed him of his draft window, and those scouts look very smart right about now.
Ritchie has been working in Denver all summer, and his elite-hands and separation ability on the offensive project favorably into becoming a top-six forward for the Avalanche. Will it be this year? General Manager Chris MacFarland and head coach Jared Bednar have a long track-record of being very conservative with young talent. The organization prefers veteran players with lower ceilings to potential stars with lower floors. The specifics of Ritchie’s eligibility complicate things further, particularly because the CHL-NHL transfer agreement prevents him from being assigned to the Colorado Eagles at this stage. It’s NHL or back to juniors in Oshawa for Ritchie.
The @Oshawa_Generals FINALLY solve Sam Hillebrandt 👀@Avalanche prospect Calum Ritchie finds the back of the net in Barrie, deflecting Luca D'Amato's shot to open the scoring in Game 6 📽️#OHLPlayoffs | #OSHvsBAR | #GoAvsGo pic.twitter.com/RxesKiyGCd
— Ontario Hockey League (@OHLHockey) April 7, 2024
Ritchie has made it clear he intends to battle for a roster spot in this year’s camp. If he looks as good in pre-season as he has lately, then I expect a team missing Gabriel Landeskog will have no choice but to give the kid a shot.
Nikolai Kovalenko (RW/LW) Drafted in 2018, 6th round, 171st overall
Nikolai Kovalenko is on this list as a formality.
Kovalenko got limited opportunity in two playoff games after not playing in the regular season for Colorado once. The expectation is that Kovalenko will be a regular presence in the lineup out of training camp and could be as high as the second line, depending on his production. Despite only being 5’10” Kovalenko has a bulldog reputation for throwing big checks and battling for loose pucks. The organization hopes that he has the upside of a younger Artturi Lehkonen this year with the potential to be a Logan O’Connor replacement should he price himself out of the Avalanche cap situation when his contract expires at season’s end.
Kovalenko’s first with the Eagles. pic.twitter.com/5gKs3MkBJN
— Evan Rawal (@evanrawal) April 21, 2024
Jean-Luc Foudy (C/RW) Drafted in 2020, 3rd round, 75th overall
This is the make or break year for Jean-Luc Foudy as an NHL starter. We have seen limited samples of Foudy in the past two seasons because of injury and the upside is plain to see. His skating is nothing less than elite, and he has an impressive work-ethic that should slot him in perfectly into a locker-room tone set by Nathan MacKinnon. The problem for Foudy, and why we haven’t seen him yet, is twofold.
First, and most importantly, Foudy just hasn’t stayed healthy. Foudy only played 26 games with the Eagles (four with the Avalanche) in the last season following his second major injury in a young career. Being able to keep his body healthy for an 82 game season isn’t entirely in his control, but be it is a matter of luck or conditioning. Health has been a major factor in his slower development.
The second is his hands. Hand-eye coordination is among the most desirable skills in hockey, particularly if we are talking about a top-six offensive skater. Foudy has no trouble carrying the puck because of his skating ability, but the shot and playmaking from the center hasn’t always been there consistently. Fourteen points in 26 games, just four goals, is decent production as part of a rehab stint in the AHL. But that isn’t the developmental production that gets you a call-up on a team as deep as the Avalanche.
Foudy has two real pathways this year that could be successful. He either has a strong camp and earns his way onto the starting roster, then starts strong to keep his spot as Landeskog, Lehkonen, and others return from injury. Or, he continues to show promising but not quite ready production and is among the obvious pieces the Avalanche look to move for a veteran impact player at the trade deadline while they chase another cup.
Jean-Luc Foudy scores his first NHL goal, pushing Colorado's lead to 5!#GoAvsGo pic.twitter.com/IzOHAQeXKJ
— Hockey Daily 365 l NHL Highlights & News (@HockeyDaily365) March 7, 2024
The third option, of course, is that he continues to be a good for the Eagles, but is never a great Avalanche. I hope it’s one of the first two.
Honorable mention: Justus Annunen (G) Drafted 2018 3rd round 64th overall
Some still consider Justus Annunen a prospect, but given that during the off-season he signed a one-way contract extension and is cut out as the back-up if not 1B tandem starter for the Avalanche this year. Annunen is a NHLer, and judging by last year the best goalie on the Avalanche NHL roster.
That is it for the top tier! Next week, we will have the “Starting Eagles” tier headlined by Oskar Olausson, Sam Malinski, and Ivan Ivan.