Avalanche make MULTIPLE moves...

We have multiple Avalanche updates from Morning Skate. We have a player returning, a player being sent down, and an update on an injury that we have not heard about in a while. Welcome to Avalanche Digest. I'm Copeland Jones. And as always, before we get started, don't forget to subscribe. 80% of you are currently still not subscribed. It's completely free. And you get daily updates on the Colorado Avalanche. Alrighty, let's get right into things. So, first things first, Logan O'Connor is returning for LTIR on Friday against the Tampa Bay Lightning. We'll be getting our third-slash-fourth-line penalty-killer winger, forechecker, enforcer guy, however you want to say it, back on the team. With Gavin Brinley being sent back down to the Eagles, it looks like Logan O'Connor is slated to officially make his regular season debut tomorrow, which would be against Tampa Bay. So, O'Connor is chasing Forsberg for 22nd all-time. on the hits leaderboard for the Avs which would be pretty exciting to see him get in his first game back so Logan O'Connor's at 408 tied with Forsberg right now trying to catch up to Ryan O'Byrne but Logan O'Connor's coming back and being part of the fight with the guys this is what it's all about quote from O'Connor about getting back into the game so what O'Connor brings back to the team a familiar forechecking option another physical presence in the bottom six and watch his workload after the layoff logan o'connor has definitely been one of our best penalty killers on this team like ever i mean the amount i think there was like a three game streak he had where he had a shorthanded goal in all three games and it was something crazy like that maybe gotten four i don't remember how insane that streak was but he is one of our most lethal penalty killers and he's also our most dangerous dangerous offensively on the penalty kill him and parker Kelly paired up together has done great things with his team in the past and I really look forward to what it's going to look like yet again Logan O'Connor is probably going to sit on the fourth line with Parker Kelly as of right now but we'll probably see him switch in and out of that third line as well I don't necessarily like I don't necessarily love what this also means for TJ Hughes once LaRue comes back because now that the LTIR pool LTIR pool is used up that means that once LaRue comes back, we may not have space for T.J. Hughes. T.J. Hughes, who is waiver-exempt, it's safer to send him down than somebody else. Noah Julson will probably get sent down. I don't know if he's waiver-exempt or not. I don't remember. I didn't look at the contract for that one, but I would really like to get this team back to a 12-6 look because mixing up the lines on the bottom section seems to be throwing a few guys in for a loop. A few guys are not playing to their highest capability so Gavin Brindley was sent to the Eagles he did a good job for the couple of games he was with the Ows but unfortunately that is just what's going to have to happen is he's going to have to get sent back i think he's also waiver-exempt which is why he was the person that was brought up instead of players like Taylor McCarr Tristan Nielsen or other players like that so Gavin Brindley has been sent to the Eagles as Logan O'Connor returns from LTIR so this is from Jared Bednar Jared Bednar said the reason he is up is because he had a great training camp and a great exhibition there's a reason why Gavin Brindley was borderline a roster player to start the season as well it was honestly between him and TJ Hughes it's just TJ Hughes looked like he could fit in a little better on the higher lines on the team and he has shown that that's a true that's true he's got two goals and he's got an assist on the season and both of those goals have been assisted by Nathan MacKinnon surprisingly enough but already on to next thing if it'll pull up for me okay so here was what Gavin Brindley contributed while he was here he only got the one assist but he was plus one over four games averaging about eight minutes of ice time two penalty minutes there i feel like him actually putting in any point production in that short amount of time is pretty positive for him especially only playing eight minutes a game he was on that fourth line him and Parker Kelly sharing both minimal minutes I'd also like to see Parker Kelly get a few more minutes on the ice it's kind of he was a 20 goal scorer last season I'd like to see him play like 13 to 15 minutes again but him playing in the single digit minutes is not going to be doing well for the bottom of our lineup anytime soon and especially once we get back to 12 forwards that third and fourth line will be getting a lot more rest and so will the top two lines with the third and fourth line cycling through we'll get those guys more reps and build that chemistry a little more instead of mixing in some first and second line guys on a third line with a couple fourth liners it's been a bit of a mess for the Avs so far but Brindley on his ice time an average of eight minutes and eight seconds in that setup there so what we'd like to see from him on the Eagles we'll see what his role becomes when he heads over there what his opportunities to play more minutes will look like for him and how he responds to the reassignment all righty so our next update is Nicholas Law did practice today he skated in a no contact jersey but he was there at practice so we may be getting even more of our forward depth back Nick Law practicing a non-contact jersey and we'll be watching future practices for updates on that so here's Nick Law on his uh strengths and weaknesses the weaknesses you can completely ignore that because he doesn't play on the power play so we can completely ignore that but his strengths are early scoring shows why getting him back and matters for the bottom six which he has been great on points production so far this season and his early draw results in giving Colorado another useful option at center he has been our best faceoff guy so far this season and i mean he's been pretty good over there it's like 60 something percent it's pretty impressive so the next checkpoint for him would be to participate in a regular jersey and uh we would need confirmation from the team on his availability in the future but getting to our 12 and 6 would be very essential to get Nick Wall back once we get Nick Wall back that'd probably send TJ Hughes to the fourth line and then once we get Luru back that's where TJ Hughes will probably go back and play with the Eagles where he could play a bunch more minutes over there in a more leadership role and definitely get more opportunities to score over there play like a first line role over there rather than a third line role in the NHL and then once we need him yet again or if someone's not performing well or if someone gets hurt TJ Hughes is the first guy that is going to get called up i'm i imagine with how this season has gone so far with the injuries TJ Hughes is probably going to play at least 50 games this year especially if he keeps up his production in the NHL they're going to keep proving the point that he belongs on the main roster with the rest of the team and eventually i think that will lead into next season where he will be a permanent stay on that third or maybe even second line going into next year all right Colorado is seeking a boost from the returning depth Jared Bednar is going to want a big pickup from this team because we've had a bad last like week week and change but stress is not a word that is in his vocabulary that he would use to describe his team's mindset at this point but there is a high level of urgency to try and get this back on track and get our progress our process back together looking the right way a big thing that i saw from a lot of posts on twitter was that the abs are by four and one and the abs did not get their fourth regulation loss until january last season so we are definitely way behind the point from last season and we're going to have to make up some room especially if we want to dominate the central once again this season a lot of teams seem like they're struggling but a lot of teams have definitely figured it out. Utah is doing really well, so is Minnesota, and so is Winnipeg. But Dallas and Colorado have not had a great start so far this season, but we need to make sure that we turn around before they do because we know how much our rivalry with Dallas is a pain in our backs. All right, here's where the placement is currently in the Central right now. Utah is in first at 7-3, Minnesota is second at 6-2-2. Dallas is actually in third now, 5-3-1, so they're ahead of us as of right now. But Colorado is 5-4-1, Winnipeg 4-3-2, so on and so forth. So Dallas has definitely found a way to catch up. They've been playing well since our back-to-back against them. Alrighty, so this was the whole takeaway from practice today. O'Connor is going to add a familiar physical option. Brinley was returned to the Eagles, and Waugh's next participation step remains worth watching. So we'll see what goes on there. Alrighty, where will Logan O'Connor's return help this team the most? will his forechecking and physical play be the best thing will there be bottom six lineup options help flex that bottom line part bottom part of the winger lines or will the penalty kill options be helping out the most i personally think it's going to be the forecheck and physical play because the abs has spent a lot of time trying to chasing guys in their own zone rather than you know making plays and creating offense that's just my opinion thank you very much for watching just think about those questions let us know in the comments what you think don't forget to subscribe yet again and we'll be back with more news in the future thank you very much for watching i'll see you next time