Colorado has also placed Ian Cole on the injured non-roster list, as the defenseman continues to recover from offseason surgery on both of his hips. Cole has made progress in his rehab and has recently been practicing with the team in a non-contact jersey.
Rookie Conor Timmins made the squad out of training camp and could make his NHL debut against the Flames after missing the entire 2018-19 season while recovering from a head injury. Fellow first-year defenseman Cale Makar is expected to play in his first regular-season outing after playing in 10 Stanley Cup Playoff games with the Avs in the spring. Makar made his NHL debut in Game 3 against Calgary in the first round after wrapping up his college career at the University of Massachusetts.
Colorado's roster for the season opener includes five players that the team acquired in the offseason. The Avalanche signed forwards Pierre-Edouard Bellemare, Joonas Donskoi and Valeri Nichushkin as free agents and traded for Andre Burakovsky and Nazem Kadri.
Philipp Grubauer and Pavel Francouz enter the year as Colorado's goaltenders. Grubauer is in his second campaign with the Avs and finished the 2018-19 season with a 7-0-2 record, 1.63 goals-against average and .953 save percentage in his final nine starts. Francouz appeared in two games in relief for Colorado last year.
Gabriel Landeskog enters his eighth season as the Avalanche captain, while Erik Johnson and Nathan MacKinnon return as alternate captains. Landeskog, who was named the fourth captain in Avs history on Sept. 4, 2012, is tied for the seventh-longest active serving captain in the NHL.
Below is the Avalanche's roster heading into the 2019-20 season.
