Forward Andreas Wingerli has been playing professional hockey for years in the Swedish Hockey League. He's a speedy, skillful center who has seen success and sustained improvement playing in that league and is ready to take his game to North America.

His pro experience in Sweden speaks for itself. The center represented Sweden at the 2021 IIHF World Championship in Latvia, and he recorded three points (one goal, two assists) in seven games at the tournament. In the SHL, he has played six full seasons with Skelleftea, recording 104 points (48 goals, 56 assists) in 288 contests. The Lycksele, Sweden, native also served as an alternate captain in two seasons.

Now, Wingerli is taking a leap of faith to further improve his craft. He signed a one-year deal with the Colorado Avalanche on June 3, moving his life to North America, and lending his talents to the NHL.

The Colorado Avalanche finished the 2021 Arizona Rookie Faceoff with a 7-4 win against the San Jose Sharks on Monday morning at Ice Den Scottsdale.

Alex Beaucage, who was picked by Colorado in the third round at No. 78 overall at the 2019 NHL Draft, recorded the first goal for the Avs at 10:13 of the opening period and forward Andreas Wingerli extended the lead 3:38 into the middle frame.

San Jose then scored four unanswered goals with two tallies from Ozzy Wiesblatt and one each from forwards Kyle Topping and Timur Ibragimov. Defenseman Charle-Edouard D'Astous cut the Avalanche's deficit to 4-3 before the second intermission.

The Colorado Avalanche begins on-ice practices at its 2021 training camp on Thursday, Sept. 23, the team announced on Monday.

Colorado's camp will be held from Sept. 23-27 at the team's practice facility, Family Sports Center in Centennial, Colorado. The squad will be split into two groups, with each taking the ice for approximately an hour and a half each day.

The Colorado Avalanche takes on the San Jose Sharks in the club's third and final game at the 2021 Arizona Rookie Faceoff at Ice Den Scottsdale on Monday. Puck drop is at 10 a.m. MT.

Shane Bowers scored twice, and Bowen Byram tallied in overtime to help the Colorado Avalanche earn a 5-4 win against the Anaheim Ducks in the 2021 Arizona Rookie Faceoff on Sunday.

Anaheim's Sean Tschigerl recorded the only goal of the first period, but Colorado took the lead in the middle stanza after Matthew Boucher and Bowers each found the back of the net on odd-man rushes while the Avs were shorthanded.

Amateur tryout and Denver native Jack O'Brien gave the Avalanche a 3-1 advantage in the final minute of the frame right after a Colorado power-play chance expired.

Nate Clurman debuted his pro career with the American Hockey League's Colorado Eagles earlier to end the 2020-21 campaign and is eager to get the upcoming season rolling with his teammates. 

To get the 2021-22 season started, Clurman spent a week in Centennial alongside other rookies at the Avalanche's development camp before facing some competition in exhibition games at the rookie tournament hosted by the Arizona Coyotes in Scottsdale.

"It's been a great past week, I feel like I'm more comfortable down here being at a couple development camps prior to this," Clurman said after practice on Thursday. "It's been up-tempo, it's been keeping us in shape and getting everyone together nice and close."

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz.-- After a loss to the Los Angeles Kings on Friday, the Colorado Avalanche rookies hit the ice for a full-team practice between tournament games. It was only the third practice with all players, and the team was willing to get to work to improve upon its game. The squad took the opportunity during the Saturday skate to work on several different on-ice scenarios, concluding the session with special-teams work. Special teams was a key component after Friday evening's contest as penalty minutes between both teams totaled 26 minutes of gameplay.

Another component of the on-ice session at the Ice Den in Scottsdale, Arizona was battles in front of the net. The matchup against the King's showed a discrepancy of almost half between Los Angeles' 47 shots on goal and Colorado's 23. After the outing on Friday, Newhook noted the Kings' strengths in his postgame presser

Justus Annunen has spent the past two seasons playing with Karpat in Finland's top professional league (Liiga) and he is now transitioning to the North American game and preparing for his first year with the Colorado Avalanche organization.

After wrapping up the Avs' 2021 development camp, Annunen played in the first game of the 2021 Arizona Rookie Faceoff against the Los Angeles Kings on Friday. The matchup between Colorado and Los Angeles resulted in a loss, though Annunen stopped 43-of-47 shots.

"I think he is a great goalie. He's been around, I got to meet him last year and see him in the 'A' a bit last year," forward Alex Newhook said of Annunen. "I think he is a great goalie. I think we hung him out to dry a little bit tonight, but he's got great potential, I think he is a great guy to have in our system and he's going to be great down the road."

The Colorado Avalanche dropped its first game of the 2021 Arizona Rookie Faceoff on Friday, losing 4-0 to the Los Angeles Kings at Ice Den Scottsdale.

Los Angeles found the back of the net twice in the first period, scoring early and late in the frame. Martin Chromiak found the back of the net 1:07 into game and Samuel Fagemo buried a rebound with 1.5 second left on the clock to double the Kings' lead.

"I think they did a good job getting to the net. I think at times we struggled kind of tying them up in front and I think they got a lot of chances in and around our net, which is something we can clean up for next game," said forward Alex Newhook. "First game as group, so there's definitely a few things we can clean up. I think we had a few good chances too which we could have buried, myself included. Maybe next game they'll go in and get a win next one."

As millions of people felt and continue to feel the impacts of COVID-19 worldwide, Jean-Luc Foudy has been given a rare opportunity through it.

The center was drafted by the Avalanche 75th overall in 2020 and was slated to continue play in the Ontario Hockey League for the Windsor Spitfires. With season cancellations stacking up across various leagues due to the pandemic, Foudy had the chance to instead test his skills in the American Hockey League with the Colorado Eagles as a teenager, something that isn't exactly common.

In his draft year in 2019-20, Foudy tallied 43 points (15 goals and 28 assists) in 59 games with the Spitfires. After a stint on loan in Sweden to begin the following season, the Scarborough, Ontario, native was cleared to play with the Eagles, a huge opportunity for his experience and development.