Projected Lineup: Avalanche vs. Wild (Exhibition)

Before the Colorado Avalanche begins round-robin play in the Stanley Cup Qualifiers, the club will have a tune-up this afternoon as it faces the Minnesota Wild in an exhibition game at Rogers Place in Edmonton, Alberta (12:30 p.m. MT, TV: Altitude, Radio: Altitude Sports FM 92.5/AM 950).

The Avalanche traveled to the Western Conference hub city with 31 players, but head coach Jared Bednar did not give exact details of his lineup for the contest against the Wild during a video conference call with the media on Tuesday. However, he did say that he didn't make any changes to his line combinations from what was used during the Phase 3 Training Camp and that he plans to ice a roster that will likely be very similar to the one he will use once the qualifying round stars.

During exhibition play, each team is allowed to dress two extra players, a 13th forward and seventh defenseman, but Bednar did not say who those skaters would be.

The Avs will use both goaltenders Pavel Francouz and Philipp Grubauer in the outing versus Minnesota, and Bednar said both keepers will also see playing time during round-robin play to help determine who will be the starter for Game 1 of the first round of the playoffs.

Samuel Girard did not practice with the team on Tuesday, but Bednar said the defenseman should be available for the Avs' lone exhibition contest before beginning games that matter on Sunday against the St. Louis Blues.

Below is the Avalanche's projected lineup based on the team's recent practices. All forward combinations and defensive pairings are subject to change.

Forwards
95 Andre Burakovsky - 29 Nathan MacKinnon - 96 Mikko Rantanen
92 Gabriel Landeskog - 91 Nazem Kadri - 13 Valeri Nichushkin
90 Vladislav Namestnikov - 37 J.T. Compher - 72 Joonas Donskoi
83 Matt Nieto AND/OR 41 Pierre-Edouard Bellemare AND/OR11 Matt Calvert AND/OR 17 Tyson Jost

Defensemen
27 Ryan Graves - 8 Cale Makar
49 Samuel Girard - 6 Erik Johnson
16 Nikita Zadorov - 28 Ian Cole

Goaltenders
39 Pavel Francouz and 31 Philipp Grubauer