Byram, Johnson Join Avs at Practice

There were two new, but familiar, faces at the Colorado Avalanche's practice on Sunday as veteran Erik Johnson and prospect Bowen Byram were finally able to join team activities at Family Sports Center.
It was the first time that both defensemen were on the ice with the squad this season and the second day in a row that they skated together after running individual drills during a team off-day on Saturday.
Byram spent the previous week in a mandatory quarantine after he made his way to Denver after competing at the 2021 IIHF World Junior Championship bubble in Edmonton, Alberta.

The young blueliner was a co-captain for Team Canada at the tournament and won a silver medal with his country. He finished with five points (one goal, four assists) in seven games and was named one of the three best players for his team while also earning a place on the all-tournament team.

"Once you kind of step back and realize what a good job the team really did during the tournament, I thought we played really well. I mean you got to kind of take the good with the bad," said Byram. "It didn't end how you wanted it to, but I think it was a good experience for all the guys. There hasn't been a lot of hockey played this year, so we were definitely grateful just to be able to get into games and play good hockey and obviously represent Canada, which is always a huge honor. I think now that I've had some time to reflect on it all, obviously I am not happy with the result but definitely happy for the opportunity."
It was the 19-year-old's second experience in a bubble in Edmonton, as he was also with the Avalanche in Alberta's capital for the 2020 Stanley Cup Playoffs. He didn't play in any of the postseason contests, but he practiced with the team and got to become more familiar with the organization during the team's six-week stay there.
"I think the biggest thing for me was just getting comfortable with everybody whether it be coaches, players, the rest of the staff," Byram said of his experience with the Avs in Edmonton in the late summer. "It was just really nice to get to know everybody on a bit of a personal level and get more comfortable around everyone and I feel like that has helped me a lot feeling more comfortable on the ice. It was definitely a good experience to be a part of the bubble in Edmonton."
Now able to take part in team practices, Byram could make his NHL debut during Colorado's four-game road trip to Southern California. Head coach Jared Bednar has a timeline for when he wants the young rear guard to enter the lineup but would not say what that is.
"I'm not going to reveal it. I don't think there is any need to give out any information to help other teams prepare. But we are going to bring him up to speed, sit down with him today and do some video, we will be doing video for the next two or three days," said Bednar. "Get him up to speed on everything that we've been doing as a team through training camp so he understands the system and the structure, and he'll get some practices. He'll be able to ask some questions, and we'll get him some reps. Once he's on the ice for four or five days, hopefully he will be an option for us. He's had a significant amount of time off with the week but based on what he's been doing prior to that it's not going to take him long to get back up to speed and feeling good on the ice and he's definitely an option for us."
Byram and Johnson were the eighth and ninth defensemen and were involved in the entire in 45-minute practice on Sunday, and both will be given some time to get back in game shape.
Johnson had been in a quarantine of his own and missed all of training camp per protocol after testing positive for COVID-19.
"It was difficult, you train all offseason to get ready and then just before camp to have a positive was discouraging, but I just try to look at the bright side," said Johnson. "It's a global pandemic, its' killing people, and I am grateful that I am healthy now and able to play hockey. Health is of the upmost importance first and foremost and had to make sure everything was OK. The team health officials did a great job getting me squared away, and it was good to get back on the ice yesterday and today."
Bednar will allow Johnson to get his conditioning back up and have a few practices with the team before inserting him into the lineup since the defenseman wasn't able to skate or workout at all for the past two weeks.
"I mean the situation is that when you go into the protocol like that you can't do anything. If you have an upper-body injury, you're missing games (but) you are still on the bike, you're still skating, you're still getting a lot of conditioning, you are actually doing extra in order to make sure when you come back that you are up to speed," said the Colorado coach. "When you enter COVID protocol you are not supposed to be doing anything as far I know depending on the situation. So, some of those guys are 10 days, some of them are two weeks, and you got a lot of work to do to try to catch up to guys that have been grinding for two weeks."

SATURDAY TRANSACTIONS

The Avalanche made a few roster moves on Saturday, assigning defensemen Bowen Byram and Conor Timmins to its taxi squad and reassigning forwards Shane Bowers and Logan O'Connor to the American Hockey League's Colorado Eagles.
Though Timmins was moved to the taxi squad, he is still an option to play when Colorado visits the Los Angeles Kings on Tuesday. The 22-year-old defenseman has played in both of the Avalanche's games this season and remained on a pairing with Ian Cole for Sunday's practice session.
"He's absolutely still in our top six for L.A. You're going to see that all year, guys going on the taxi squad getting called up game day to play, they are part of our roster," head coach Jared Bednar said. "They are skating with the group, so I don't think you can read into who's going to the taxi squad because they are all still available and still may be playing on game day."
Sunday Practice Lines
92 Gabriel Landeskog - 29 Nathan MacKinnon - 96 Mikko Rantanen
20 Brandon Saad - 91 Nazem Kadri - 95 Andre Burakovsky
13 Valeri Nichushkin - 37 J.T. Compher - 72 Joonas Donskoi
17 Tyson Jost - 41 Pierre-Edouard Bellemare - 11 Matt Calvert
61 Martin Kaut - 44 Kiefer Sherwood
7 Devon Toews - 8 Cale Makar
27 Ryan Graves - 49 Samuel Girard
28 Ian Cole - 22 Conor Timmins
9 Dennis Gilbert - 4 Bowen Byram
6 Erik Johnson
31 Philipp Grubauer
39 Pavel Francouz
32 Hunter Miska
The Eagles also announced that they signed Avalanche prospect forwards Luka Burzan, Jean-Luc Foudy and Sasha Mutala and goaltender Trent Miner to amateur tryout agreements for the team's upcoming camp, which kicks off on Monday, Jan. 25. 
AHL Colorado begins its 2020-21 season on Friday, Feb. 5. A complete schedule and additional season details will be released in the near future.

ONE TIMERS

Bowen Byram on what he did during quarantine:
"Try to do some body weight workouts of some sort to keep your body moving, and I play a lot of video games, watch a lot of TV. The last couple days I was lucky enough to watch some NHL games so watched a lot of hockey, other than that not much. I mean, eat? That's about it."
Byram on his growth since the 2019 NHL Draft:
"I think I am a lot more defensively assertive, confident on the defensive side of the puck, make sure I take care of my own zone, things like that. I think the defensive game takes sometimes a little longer to evolve, so that's what I've focused on the last couple years since the draft. I think the biggest thing I feel like I've matured a lot as a person, as a young man. Just here now it's been really fun getting on the ice the last couple days. It's been awesome and I'm just trying to work hard and trying to get a spot in the lineup."
Head coach Jared Bednar on the upcoming road trip:
"It's going to be different because essentially I think it is just a bubble moving around. We haven't been out yet, so it also kind of depends on where we are going and the local rules as to what we are allowed to do to some extent. It's different than being at home because at home you have things that you can do in your down time and when you go on the road, I am assuming our guys are planning on bringing things to keep busy, whatever that is for certain guys."