Avalanche get more bad news on a key forward, not close to return
Oct 17, 2024, 1:57 PM | Updated: Oct 18, 2024, 12:01 pm
Jonathan Drouin has missed the last three games for the Colorado Avalanche after suffering an upper-body injury in the team’s Opening Night loss.
Still winless, the Avs will be without Drouin for the foreseeable future as head coach Jared Bednar didn’t share a timeline for his return at Thursday’s practice.
Miles Wood injury is not believed to be serious. Sounds like there’s a possibility he plays tomorrow.
Toews and Drouin will not. No timeline on Drouin yet.
— Evan Rawal (@evanrawal) October 17, 2024
Drouin has already missed more games this season than he did last when he had a career year. He played in 79 games, setting career marks in assists (37) and points (56.) The 29-year-old found success in rejoining junior hockey teammate Nathan MacKinnon, the two’s run in Halifax got each drafted in the top three in 2013. Things haven’t worked out as well in the NHL for Drouin as they have the reigning MVP but the Quebec finally seemed to figure things out in his third city last season while playing in Denver.
Drouin returned to Colorado this summer on a one-year, $2.5 million deal. While the money wasn’t huge the role was given to three of Colorado’s top four wingers in Gabriel Landeskog, Artturi Lehkonen and Valeri Nichushkin were known to be unavailable to start the season.
With Drouin hurt, Ross Colton has had to slide up a line and so too did Miles Wood. The latter also suffered an injury in Wednesday’s game that looked bad but he’ll be okay per Bednar. The Avs have also been without key defender Devon Toews. And it’s the injuries that are taking away from the team’s firepower combined with some horrible goaltending that has the Avs as one of the two teams in the NHL without a point in the standings.
Drouin will likely be the first forward back on the ice from the group of those bigger-name players missing. Landeskog’s experimental knee surgery is still an unknown, Lehkonen could be back sometime next month and so too could Nichushkin, who has been suspended until mid-November while being in stage 3 of the NHL/NHLPA Player Assistance Program. Yet Drouin is still slated to miss some more time per Bendar.
