Kyle Burroughs Set for NHL Debut

After making a good impression in training camp and through the first half of the season, Kyle Burroughs is getting his chance to make his NHL debut for the Colorado Avalanche.
"I was just walking to the dressing room and I saw my number up on the board there, so that was kind of exciting," he said. "I just sent a quick text to my dad and then my girlfriend and my brother as well. It's been exciting, but at the end of the day it's just hockey. Obviously, there are some nerves there and I think after warmups or the first shift they will go away, but yeah it's a lot of excitement right now."
The Avs acquired the 25-year-old from the New York Islanders on Oct. 30 and have liked what they have seen from the defenseman. He split time between the main group and the taxi squad during the pre-season practices in January and has continued to make an impression this year while the Avalanche's taxi squad and with the American Hockey League's Colorado Eagles.

"The decision comes just because we liked what he did in training camp for us," said head coach Jared Bednar. "We liked his play down [in the AHL]… We've seen Burroughs, we've like him. Joe's scouts have brought him in for a reason, they like what they are seeing out of him. He is a good skater, he is a physical, competitive guy, can move the puck pretty well, had a great training camp for us, and he was in that mix."
Before arriving in Colorado, Burroughs was the AHL's Bridgeport Sound Tigers captain in 2019-20 after serving as a co-captain on the team in 2018-19. In 321 career AHL outings, the 6-foot, 193-pound blueliner has 17 goals and 66 assists for 83 points.
"Move the puck, play a little bit of a rugged, defensive game as well," Burroughs said of his style of play. "Not the biggest guy, but I try not to shy away from anything. I try to not make mistakes out there, be physical and just play hard and make it hard on other guys."
So far this year, the Vancouver, British Columbia, native has skated in eight games with the Eagles and has one assist. Burroughs will be on the third pairing with Jacob MacDonald tonight against the Minnesota Wild and replaces Dan Renouf in Colorado's lineup.
Renouf has played in 16 games with the Avalanche this year and was averaging 10:14 of ice time per contest.
"If you look at the minutes that have been distributed on D, our top guys are playing a lot and they're playing real well, so there's not a lot of minutes, or we don't need a lot out of those (other) guys, we just need them to be steady," Bednar said of what is expected of Burroughs. "We feel it's a good opportunity to get him up here and get him playing and get Reno back and playing some more minutes with the Eagles.
"We will keep flipping guys around just like we have all year. We just sent (Kiefer) Sherwood, (Sheldon) Dries and (T.J.) Tynan down to get some games, we got (Jayson) Megna back up here. We've been doing that all year, trying to reward guys for their play down there and get them up and play some NHL games for us, so we have all the depth we need and they're not seeing the ice with us for the first time come playoff time."

MORE LINEUP NOTES & INJURY UPDATES

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Goaltender Philipp Grubauer is expected to start in net after winning three straight appearances and going 11-0-1 in his last 12 games.
He can take sole possession of the franchise record for the longest stretch with a point by a goalie, as he currently shares the mark with Patrick Roy (Oct. 23-Nov. 22, 1996) and Peter Budaj (Feb. 24-March 23, 2007), who also had runs of 12 consecutive contests without a regulation loss.
Rookie D-man Bowen Byram was back on the ice again today and is progressing as he continues to ramp up his practice time, but he will not return from his upper-body injury this evening.
Pavel Francouz (lower body) and Erik Johnson (upper body) are out long term while Logan O'Connor (lower body) will be out weeks with his ailment. Matt Calvert remains off the ice and is still week-to-week with his upper-body injury.
"I don't consider it long term, but he is still going through the process of rehab and he's had some ups and downs with it," head coach Jared Bednar said of Calvert. "Looked like he was getting close and he was going to be able to get back on the ice and get skating, and then he took a little bit of a step back I think and just taking his time with his rehab. There's been some slight steps backwards, but he is doing well, I don't know exactly what it's going to be. I have him as a week-to-week guy for us right now."
View: Avalanche vs. Wild Projected Lineup

NOTEWORTHY

The Avs are 4-1-1 against the Wild so far this campaign.
The Avalanche will finish the season playing 14 of its last 19 contests away from home.
Colorado has won four games in a row and has points in 14 straight outings (12-0-2), tied for the second-longest streak in franchise history (16 games, 12-0-3-1, Dec. 27, 2000-Jan. 30, 2001).
The Avs are out-scoring their opposition 62-24 (plus-38) during the streak and out-shooting them 555-344 (plus-211).
The Avalanche is a league-best 16-2-3 (.833) in its last 21 games. The team went 15-2-3 (.825) over a 20-game span from Feb. 26-April 2, the second-best 20-game stretch in franchise history (16-1-1-2, .875, Jan. 23-March 5, 2003).
Ten different Colorado skaters have at least 20 points (most in NHL) and six have 10 or more goals (tied for first).
The Avs have scored the first goal of the game 27 times, the most of any team. They are 22-3-2 when scoring first, the most wins in the NHL.
The line of Gabriel Landeskog, Nathan MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen has combined for 49 points (19 goals, 30 assists) and a plus-27 rating in the last 10 contests.

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