However, where exactly Donskoi and Rantanen will play in the Avs' alignment will have to wait until closer to game time.
"Starting today forward, I'm not going to give out our lineup or starter," said Bednar. "I don't see an advantage for me to do that going down the stretch here. These are must-win games for us, and I don't think I should give San Jose extra time to prepare or any opponent for that matter, for our team. I'm going to stop stating our lineup at pre-game skate. You're just going to have to wait until game time."
Forward Liam O'Brien was one of the last players off the ice for morning skate and will likely be scratched.
On Thursday, the Avalanche made several moves with the Colorado Eagles, its American Hockey League affiliate. The club recalled Nick Henry and Mike Vecchione to its taxi squad while reassigning Martin Kaut, Keaton Middleton, Dan Renouf, Miikka Salomaki and Adam Werner.
Below is the Avalanche's projected lineup for tonight's game. The forward combinations and defensive pairings are likely to change.
Forwards
92 Gabriel Landeskog - 29 Nathan MacKinnon - 96 Mikko Rantanen
17 Tyson Jost - 91 Nazem Kadri - 95 Andre Burakovsky
34 Carl Soderberg - 37 J.T. Compher - 13 Valeri Nichushkin
44 Kiefer Sherwood - 41 Pierre-Edouard Bellemare - 72 Joonas Donskoi
Defensemen
49 Samuel Girard - 7 Devon Toews
27 Ryan Graves - 8 Cale Makar
24 Patrik Nemeth - 22 Conor Timmins
Goaltenders
31 Philipp Grubauer
35 Jonas Johansson OR 40 Devan Dubnyk
Scratch: Liam O'Brien
Taxi Squad: Kyle Burroughs, Nick Henry, Peyton Jones, Mike Vecchione
Injury Report: Bowen Byram (upper body & COVID protocol-related absence), Matt Calvert (upper body), Pavel Francouz (lower body), Erik Johnson (upper body), Jacob MacDonald (lower body), Logan O'Connor (lower body), Brandon Saad (lower body)
