The Colorado Avalanche, as are all the teams in the NHL, are down a player. The Las Vegas Golden Knights selected Calvin Pickard in the 2017 NHL Expansion Draft.
The Colorado Avalanche had chosen to go the 11-player route which allowed them to protect seven forwards, three defensemen and a goalie. Here are the players they protected:
- Matt Duchene, forward
- Nathan MacKinnon, forward
- Gabriel Landeskog, forward
- Sven Andrighetto, forward
- Matthew Nieto, forward
- Blake Comeau, forward
- Rocco Grimaldi, forward
- Erik Johnson, defenseman
- Tyson Barrie, defenseman
- Nikita Zadorov, defenseman
- Semyon Varlamov, goalie
The protection of Blake Comeau and Rocco Grimaldi came as a surprise to most of us.