Prospects Shifting Focus From Development Camp to Rookie Faceoff

CENTENNIAL, Colo.--After three full days of on-ice work at the Colorado Avalanche's development camp, the prospects will now get an opportunity to play against rookies from other organizations.
The 28 prospects, rookies, amateur tryouts and players on American Hockey League contracts took the ice for an hour and 15 minute practice at Family Sports Center on Thursday before making the trip west to compete in the 2021 Arizona Rookie Faceoff. The on-ice session was led by Colorado Eagles head coach Greg Cronin and the rest of the AHL coaching staff.
The Avalanche prospects have spent most of the past week in small groups, working on skill and development drills on the ice while participating in various activities off the ice as well.
While the exercises through camp so far will help the young players to grow their skill sets, playing in higher-paced games against real competition at the prospect showcase is something that the players have been looking forward to.

"It's been a great past week, I feel a little more comfortable around here [having been here for] a couple development camps prior to this," said defenseman Nate Clurman. "The schedule has been great. It's been up-tempo, it's been keeping us in shape and getting everyone together nice and close. Practice has been great--guys get on the ice and they are snapping pucks, and the scrimmage was great to have some fans out the other night.
"Everyone looks good, and people are excited to get down to Arizona and play some games. It's been a while since everyone has played some games. Some guys got their seasons cancelled last year some guys just had shortened seasons so any games we are grateful for, and we are looking forward to getting down there."
The Avalanche rookies will play three exhibition games over the course of four days, Sept. 17-20, at Ice Den Scottsdale. The Anaheim Ducks, Arizona Coyotes, Los Angeles Kings, San Jose Sharks and Vegas Golden Knights are all sending top prospects to the annual showcase.
Colorado opens the Rookie Faceoff versus the Kings on Friday, Sept. 17 at 4 p.m. MT and then plays the Ducks on Sunday, Sept. 19 at 5 p.m. MT. The Avs close the tournament on Monday, Sept. 20 with a 10 a.m. MT game against the Sharks. All three contests will be streamed live for free at ColoradoAvalanche.com (blackouts apply to out of market).
"I am just excited to get back into game mode. We have had good practices here, we had the scrimmage the other night but it's hard to find a good scrimmage in the summer something that equals game like, you can't really find it unless you are in season," said Clurman. "So, everyone is looking forward just to getting back in the swing of things. Especially for me, I am just looking to define my game and get better and play against good competition and just have fun out there."

PRACTICE LINE COMBINATIONS

15 Shane Bowers - 18 Alex Newhook - 27 Oskar Olausson
75 Sampo Ranta - 93 Jean-Luc Foudy - 74 Alex Beaucage
58 Matt Boucher - 51 Ryan Hofer - 86 Sasha Mutala
63 Andras Wingerli - 64 Benjamin Tardif - 57 Tarun Fizer
54 Matej Kaslik - 53 Jack O'Brien - 68 Callahan Burke
70 Nick Henry\
4 Bowen Byram - 72 Justin Barron
45 Charle-Edouard D'Astous - 84 Nate Clurman
62 Mitchell Smith - 47 Graham Sward
46 Miles Gendron - 55 Rhett Rhinehart
89 Nicolas Savoie
60 Justus Annunen
50 Trent Miner
42 Peyton Jones
\-Denotes non-contact participant

QUOTABLES

Defenseman Nate Clurman on ending the 2020-21 season with the Colorado Eagles: "It was great to go down there for the last nine games, unfortunately I broke my foot at the end there, but it was a good taste of what it's like to play in the American League. Coming out of college with a rough covid year, it was impressive to see the organization and the NHL going forward and I am glad I got to be a part of it. I think coming into this year it is just nice to have a good understanding how the play is and what it takes to be a pro. Learning more and more every day. It's a good staff here and I enjoyed going down there last year."

Goaltender Justus Annunen on being in North America: "I like to be here a lot. I think it helped me a lot to be here before the summer, I was here like five or six weeks kind of living on my own. So, I think it helps me a lot to get used to this life here. It is obviously a little different than in back home, but I like it a lot and I feel pretty comfortable with it."