During the first month of the NHL season, the Colorado Avalanche has consistently guided players through the transfer of transactions between the NHL, the taxi squad and the AHL. The movements didn’t really matter. From an ice point of view, most were irrelevant, but the team created them in order to manipulate the salary cap, as well as occasionally having boys fill in NHL training. Now that the Eagles are due to begin their season this weekend, this type of paper transaction will become much less frequent.
With that in mind, Avalanche made a series of transactions today to define the NHL and AHL lineups for the coming weeks. Veteran striker Jayson Megna was called up and added to the NHL squad, while strikers Miika Salomaki, TJ Tynan and defenders Dennis Gilbert, Kyle Burroughs and Dan Renouf were added to the taxi team. They, together with goalkeeper Adam Werner, will form the Avalanche reserve group going forward.
Along with those names, Greg Pateryn is believed to be back on the Avalanche list after being sent to the Eagles on Thursday. Unlike the other moves, Pateryn is not listed among the AHL transactions, but neither is it listed on the official season opening list for the Eagles. The move to send him down and back was probably a matter of manipulating the salary cap.
Friday’s moves mean that top contenders Shane Bowers and Martin Kaut will be with the Eagles in the near future in order to get in on the game.
A very young team from the Colorado Eagles begins their short AHL season this weekend with a trip to California to face the San Diego Gulls. The team will spend the entire week in California, playing three games against the Gulls and two against the Ontario Reign.
We were able to see some movement from the players when the Eagles returned home to Colorado for the game against the Tucson Road Runners on February 24. For now, everyone will remain where they are.
Prospects Trent Minor (G), Cal Burke (F), Jean-Luc Foudy (F), Sasha Mutala (F) and Luka Burzan (F) are expected to make their professional debut this week.
UPDATE: Greg Pateryn has been added to the Eagles list.