NHL Status Report: Makar likely to miss 1st day of camp for Avalanche

Welcome to the NHL Status Report. Training camp is underway and NHL.com has you covered with all the latest news.

Colorado Avalanche

Cale Makar may not be ready for training camp when the Avalanche have their first on-ice session on Thursday. The defenseman is dealing with a lower-body injury. Makar was a finalist for the Norris Trophy, awarded to the best defenseman in the NHL last season. He had 79 points (20 goals, 59 assists) in 75 regular-season games and averaged 24:51 of ice time.

Makar, who signed an eight-year, $163.2 million contract on Aug. 28 which begins next season,missed two games in the Stanley Cup Playoffs last season because of an upper-body injury.

"He's been on the ice. He's just on a little bit of a lighter program than probably most of our guys coming into main camp," Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said Wednesday. "So we'll see how that sort of sorts out. Whether he's ready to go Day 1 of training camp is probably unlikely. Just kind of playing it safe with him and our organization, but at some point in camp, he'll be full go. I don't think it's anything to be worried about at this point. It's not related to the injury he had last year in the playoffs. It's just something new that popped up here with training."

Montreal Canadiens

Kaiden Guhle will be out 4-5 weeks for the Canadiens after having a minor surgery to his adductor muscle in the offseason. The defenseman had 11 points (two goals, nine assists) in 39 regular-season games with Montreal last season and averaged 19:28 of ice time. He had eight assists in 19 playoff games.

"We're going to evaluate throughout camp and we'll make decisions based on what we think, what we see," Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis said about replacing Guhle. "But we have really good problems to have right now. I know 'Guhls' is out, not a great thing, but you know we have a lot of depth and guys that are knocking on the door. So we're going to evaluate and make the best decisions."

Tampa Bay Lightning

Yanni Gourde is expected to be out until December for the Lightning after having hip surgery this offseason. The forward had 28 points (nine goals, 19 assists) in 82 games with Tampa Bay last season and one assist in seven playoff games. Forward Dominic James broke his hand during offseason training and will be out several weeks of the season. He had 15 points (seven goals, eight assists) in 43 games last season and three points (two goals, one assist) in seven playoff games.