Goalie workload; Forward lineup predictions | Evan's 'Bag

Welcome to Evan’s ‘Bag, where Evan Rawal answers all your Avalanche (and hockey) related questions each Monday. If you’ve got a question for the mailbag, feel free to send it to evan.rawal@gazette.com.

Why haven’t Brannstrom and Kylington settled in and fit better?

Well, I guess Brannstrom won’t be settling in.

The Avalanche dealt Brannstrom for a 2025 fourth-round pick and defenseman Tucker Poolman (who is out for the season) on Sunday. Brannstrom, who was signed as a free agent over the summer, really struggled in the preseason and was prone to some ugly turnovers. Honestly, the same could probably be said for Kylington, although his turnovers haven’t been quite egregious.

It’s not exactly easy to adjust to playing for the Avalanche. Standards are higher and the team just plays faster than most other teams. Early on last season, some of the new additions struggled for a few months getting used to everything. Who could forget Devon Toews’ quote after an ugly loss last December in Chicago?

“I think we got some guys who think they're playing well and I think they're kidding themselves at this point,” Toews said.

He was talking about a lot of the new players. Some of them adjusted, some of them didn’t. Maybe the Avalanche recognized it a little quicker this time around with Brannstrom and decided to get in front of things. Kylington hasn’t played a lot of hockey over the last two years and the organization might be more willing to be patient with him because of that.

When does Nichushkin come back?

Nichushkin was handed a six-month suspension back on May 13. As far as we know, the earliest he can be reinstated is November 13, but the NHL hasn’t given a date. There's no guarantee that he’ll be reinstated right away, but that’s believed to be the earliest date he can return.

What's your projected line-up for the beginning of the season and the line-up once both Val and Landy have returned?

With no Lehkonen, Nichushkin, or Landeskog to start the season, I expect the lines to look a little like what we saw at practice last week...

Drouin – MacKinnon – Rantanen

Colton – Mittelstadt – Ritchie

Kovalenko – Kelly – O'Connor

Wood – Wagner – Kiviranta

The fourth-line center spot could also be Ivan Ivan, but the rest of the lineup will look something like that.

When Lehkonen returns, you could slot him onto the second line and move Colton back to his third-line center spot. Ritchie still seems rough around the edges and likely to head back to the OHL before his entry-level contract kicks in, and that’s where Nichushkin would slot in.

As for Landeskog? That’s tough to say. On TNT last week, GM Chris MacFarland said that “we’re still in the wait and see pattern” with Landeskog. That doesn’t sound like a great update, so until he takes that step of joining the team in practice, it’s tough to really start penciling him into any hypothetical lineups.

That’s the hope and what Bednar indicated he would like to do in his season-opening press conference. He won’t be afraid to adjust on the fly. But if Justus Annunen can play well enough to limit Georgiev’s workload to around 50 games, that would be ideal.

What's your over/under on combined regular season games played for Nichushkin and Landeskog?

Let’s set the line at 60 games.