"Val is having surgery on his ankle," Bednar said. "He's going to miss approximately a month, give or take. Bo Byram is week-to-week with a lower-body injury. Girard [has a lower-body injury also] and will be day-to-day."
Nichushkin has missed the last four-straight games with his ailment, which Bednar noted is a new injury and unrelated to the ankle surgery that the winger underwent in the offseason following Colorado's Stanley Cup championship. Nichushkin, who inked an eight-year extension with the Avalanche over the summer, was off to a rapid start as he produced 12 points on seven goals - including five on the power play - and five assists through seven games.
Byram took warmup with the team on Nov. 5 in their second game of their two-game Global Series against the Columbus Blue Jackets in Tampere, Finland over the weekend, but did not play the game.
The 21-year-old blueliner had totaled five points (2G, 3A) through 10 games and was a fixture on one of Colorado's league-best power plays and also took a few shifts on the team's penalty kill.
After suffering a broken sternum in the Second Round of last year's Stanley Cup Playoffs, Girard entered the 2022-23 healthy and having fully recovered from the injury. The 24-year-old defenseman dressed in the Avalanche's 5-1 win over Columbus on Nov. 5 and played 23:19 minutes over 30 shifts, took one penalty and fired one shot in that game, but will be day-to-day with his lower-body ailment.
Through 11 games this season, Girard had recorded four points (1G, 3A) and occupied a spot on one of Colorado's lethal power play units.
The absences of Nichushkin, Byram and Girard are unfortunate given that the Avalanche were already without captain Gabriel Landeskog - who underwent arthroscopic knee surgery on Oct. 18 and doesn't have a clear timeline on a return - and Darren Helm - who has begun skating in a non-contact jersey as he rehabs from offseason surgery, but is still week-to-week.
And while the circumstances are far from ideal, Colorado is approaching the losses to the lineup with a positive, next-man-up mindset and focusing on utilizing the personnel available to obtain the best results possible until they're able to reintegrate some of those injured players back.
"You start adding other key impactful players [to the injury list]," Bednar said. "The strength of our team has been our backend. Now, we lose to guys out of it for who knows how long. It'll give an opportunity for some guys. We'll see our d-core change a little bit. There will be an opportunity for some forwards to come up. We've just got to grind through it. Injuries are going to come up at certain times. You hope they don't pile up - like how they are for us right now - but the good news is we're coming home. We'll get the rhythm of our game going again. Our schedule has been crazy, we've just got to chip away for now."
