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Injuries Continue to Pile Up for Avalanche

The Colorado Avalanche are dealing with a long list of injuries early in the 2024-25 season.

Nick Horwat

Oct 26, 2023; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA; Colorado Avalanche left wing Miles Wood (28) and center Ross Colton (20) stretch on the ice before the game against the Pittsburgh Penguins at PPG Paints Arena. Mandatory Credit: Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images
Oct 26, 2023; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA; Colorado Avalanche left wing Miles Wood (28) and center Ross Colton (20) stretch on the ice before the game against the Pittsburgh Penguins at PPG Paints Arena. Mandatory Credit: Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images / Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images
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The Colorado Avalanche haven’t had too much fun to start the 2024-25 season, and their list of injuries isn’t getting any shorter. Year after year, the Avalanche are usual Stanley Cup contenders, now down numerous key players, they’ll be lucky to fight for a playoff spot.

Head coach Jared Bednar gave updates on multiple Avalanche players who are dealing with injuries.

The Avalanche’s leading goal scorer Ross Colton will be out six to eight weeks with a broken foot. Miles Wood will miss a little over a week with an upper-body injury. Wood was initially playing through the ailment but can’t any longer.

Forward Artturi Lehkonen underwent shoulder surgery during the offseason and is yet to play in the 2024-25 season. Bednar said that Lehkonen has met with doctors, and some more intense practices are still needed before he can suit up for game action.

The injuries are piling up for Colorado in a bad way, and they entered the year knowing they would be short-handed for quite a while.

Captain Gabriel Landeskog has been out since the Avalanche won the Stanley Cup in 2022. A brutal knee injury has forced Landeskog to miss two whole seasons but he is hopeful to return at some point this year.

The Avalanche also entered the year without Valeri Nichushkin who remains in the NHLPA’s Player Assistance Program. Nichushkin has arrived in Denver and is beginning to skate on his own, but he is not eligible to return until November.

When the Avalanche are fully healthy, they have a chance to be one of the strongest teams in the NHL. The only issue is that a full bill of health doesn’t appear to be happening in 2024-25.

Five key forwards are already out of the lineup to varying degrees and they’re still trying to bounce back from a horrid 0-4-0 start. They’ve improved to 5-5-0, but there is still a lot of work to do in order to get back into the Stanley Cup conversation.

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Nick Horwat
NICK HORWAT

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