Rookie Watch: Colorado Avalanche

~
Each Day until September 15th TPS will take a look at one team from the Eastern Conference and one team from the West and spotlight a few rookies to watch for this season. Today in the West it’s the Colorado Avalanche.

Avalanche Prospect Snap Shot

~
1995 was the year that the Quebec Nordiques relocated their franchise to the Rocky Mountains returning NHL hockey to Denver Colorado. While it was a kick in the junk to fans in Quebec City, getting the league back in a strong U.S. hockey market was obviously a positive for the league. The fact that the Aves were a contending team and actually won the Stanley Cup the next year likely made things worse for Nords fans but it probably helped cement the team in its new home market for years to come.

I personally like the fact that the Avalanche haven't forgotten where they came from with small gestures like having the old Quebec jersey present at Joe Sakic's retirement; that shows a level of class we haven't always seen with other clubs.

Colorado has captured the Stanley Cup twice in it's tenure, in 1996 and then again in 2001. While the Colorado Rockies were somewhat of a laughing stock, the Avalanche have been a power in the league almost every year since the move from Quebec. Where once they were able to rely on free agency to build their winning teams, now they've proven they can have success through the draft which is the goal of every team in the salary cap era. Matt Duchene, Ryan O'Reilly, T.J. Galiardi and Brandon Yip have all played significant roles with the team this year as rookies.

Here is a look at some of the up and coming talent in the pipeline of the Colorado Avalanche...

Wednesday Re-Set

Last night on The Pipeline Show we continued our preview coverage of the 2009 World Junior Championship (click here).

First Dean and I, wearing our brand spanking new Hamilton "Youngblood" Mustangs sweaters (courtesy Madbrothers.com), debated the cuts and choices made by Hockey Canada on Monday.
In our second segment we spoke with Canadian sniper Jordan Eberle. The 2008 1st round pick talked about his excitement over making the team, who he expects to play with and what he's most looking forward to about the tournament.

Next we chatted with Cornell's Riley Nash. Another 1st round pick but this time one who didn't make the final grade for Canada. Riley was candid about his experience at the short camp and why he felt he didn't make the team.

Next up was Jordan Schroeder of the Minnesota Golden Gophers. Schroeder (pronounced Shray-der) is expected to be a top 10 pick at the 2009 NHL Entry Draft and is a returning ember of Team USA for the WJC this year. He'll be a key player lining up next to James VanRiemsdyk and Colin Wilson and we touched on that as well as why USA this year won't failt to live up to their potential.

We closed out the show by playing an interview I had with Saskatoon Blades defenceman Stefan Elliot. He was was a recent winner of the 2009 Draft Prospect Performer of the Week Award that we're apart of and we talked about his draft year, the suprising success of the Blades this year and also a bit about the 2010 WJC that will be held in Regina/Saskatoon.

You can hear all of these interview by checking out the Media Archive section of our website.

It's time to start making podium predictions for the 2009 event. Dean is on record going with Sweden-Canada-USA while I have Canada-Sweden-USA. Peter Loubardias from Rogers Sportsnet, and a good friend of TPS, selected Canada-USA-Sweden but did say if Oscar Moller was playing (as he now is) that he'd strongly consider the Swedes as the gold medal favourites.

What are YOUR predictions for who will take home Gold, Silver and Bronze?