Avalanche Continues Practice Ahead of Final Preseason Game

CENTENNIAL, Colo.--The Colorado Avalanche returned to the ice for practice at Family Sports Center on Friday ahead of its final preseason game on Saturday against the Dallas Stars.
Cale Makar was no longer wearing the red, non-contact jersey that he's sported since the beginning of training camp and was a full participant in the practice. Additionally, Devon Toews was on the ice with the rest of the squad, wearing a red, non-contact jersey.

Colorado released five transaction moves on Friday. The team reassigned Shane Bowers and Martin Kaut, placed Dennis Gilbert and Jayson Megna on waivers, and released Artem Anisimov from his professional tryout.
With the reduced size of the roster, the team skated as one group at Friday's practice. The squad started with five-on-five work and then moved on to special-teams drills. The first power play unit comprised of J.T Compher, Cale Makar, Mikko Rantanen, Nathan MacKinnon and Gabriel Landeskog. The second unit had Valeri Nichushkin, Nazem Kadri, Andre Burakovsky, Sampo Ranta and Samuel Girard.

"Sampo, he's really impressed me, I mean you could see it right off the bat, first practice in training camp he looked really good. I thought that home game we had against Minnesota he was probably one of our best players on the ice. I thought he was everywhere, making plays, physical and strong and fast" Landeskog said. "He is going to be good and obviously you can tell he is hungry to make this lineup and he is hungry to play, and he is a guy you can kind of slot in anywhere on the lineup. It is going to be fun to watch these guys. We knew we were going to get younger this year and we knew we were going to be younger at certain positions and especially forward, so it is a good opportunity for these guys to come in and take a job and grab a spot. Sampo has definitely impressed."

MacKinnon on this year and training camp:"It is great, it's busy. It's been a long camp. It is nice to have our group actually together, you know, our team. Obviously, it is great to have young guys around, but it is nice to have the team together and we are happy with that."
GROUP 1
92 Gabriel Landeskog - 29 Nathan MacKinnon - 96 Mikko Rantanen
13 Valeri Nichushkin - 91 Nazem Kadri - 95 Andre Burakovsky
17 Tyson Jost - 18 Alex Newhook - 75 Sampo Ranta
43 Darren Helm - 37 J.T. Compher - 25 Logan O'Connor - 11 Mikhail Maltsev
49 Samuel Girard - 6 Erik Johnson
4 Bowen Byram - 28 Ryan Murray
3 Jack Johnson - 26 Jacob MacDonald
72 Justin Barron - 8 Cale Makar
7 Devon Toews* - 56 Kurtis MacDermid
35 Darcy Kuemper
31 Jonas Johansson
*- Denotes Non-Contact
Looking ahead to Saturday's game, it's the final contest for the Avs to get their game-setting reps before they open the season on Wednesday against the Chicago Blackhawks.