"[Jost] has had another good couple practices for us, so excited to get him back in," Colorado head coach Jared Bednar said after morning skate at Bell MTS Place. "(Matt) Nieto is banged up a little bit, so he will be out and (A.J.) Greer will be the other scratch after calling him up the other night. (Mark) Barberio [will be the scratch] on the backend."
Bednar also noted that the Avalanche will have different defensive pairings for the contest at Winnipeg than the club used in its last game on Wednesday against the Nashville Predators.
"Flipped some of them back here again," said Bednar. "We liked the way that some of those guys played, but we want to really try and get [Erik Johnson] back into that 20-plus minute range. He is going to play with (Samuel) Girard again, we liked that pair early.
"Same thing with (Tyson) Barrie. We want to try and get him some more minutes here, and (Ian) Cole has been playing real well--they were pretty good for a stint there early in the year--so we are going to bump those guys back together. If we have to give them a few more minutes as a top four then we will do that."
Semyon Varlamov will start between the pipes for the Avs. He has played in 10 games this season and owns a 4-4-2 record.
Below is the Avalanche's projected lineup. The forward combinations and defensive pairings are subject to change.
