Making Sense Of Avs' "Opening-Night Roster" List

Kovalenko will be back. Ivan too?

First off: I got an F in high-school geometry as a junior in high school, and only got a passing D as a senior because I was the starting center on the basketball team that made the state playoffs for the first time in school history, and the teacher was a big booster of the team (thank you Mr. Stevens, it felt good to be a star school athlete who got special favors, even if for only a little while).

Cue the Bruce Springsteen classic, “Glory Days” (Yeah, they’ll pass you by)

Anyway, the point is, I suck at math and all things related to math. But I have a decent history of sizing up Colorado Avalanche roster moves. Today, the team issued a graphic-added release showing the “opening night roster” (Wed. night in Vegas, baby).

The roster, as announced by the Avs today, did NOT have Nikolai Kovalenko and Ivan Ivan on it. They were listed as guys who were sent to the Colorado Eagles of the AHL. Guys such as Chris Wagner, Sam Malinski, Oliver Kylington and Parker Kelly are on the opening-night roster. And, I think they’ll still be there Wednesday night in Vegas, baby.

Under NHL bylaws, the Avs can’t officially put Gabe Landeskog, Valeri Nichushkin, Artturi Lehkonen on LTIR until after midnight tomorrow night (if my reading of the NHL cap bylaws is correct, which it very well might not).

If the Avs had a full, 23-man roster (it’s currently at 21), there would be some cap implications. At least, as far as I understand it (which might very well be wrong). But I’ll defer to our friends at PuckPedia on this