Avalanche’s Jonathan Drouin to miss time with upper-body injury

Jonathan Drouin will miss the Colorado Avalanche’s game on Saturday – and likely more – due to an upper-body injury, coach Jared Bednar has said.

The Avs are set to host the Columbus Blue Jackets on Saturday in their second game of the season after an 8-4 loss to Vegas on Oct. 9.

The exact timeline for Drouin’s return is unclear, but the club will play three games at home next week against the New York Islanders, Boston Bruins and Anaheim Ducks before shipping off for a Sunday evening fight against San Jose.

Drouin played 21:25 against the Golden Knights earlier this week, failing to register a point. Drouin played alongside Nathan MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen on the top line, with Rantanen registering a hat-trick.

The 29-year-old winger is in his second year with the Avalanche. After betting on himself with a one-year deal last year, Drouin scored 19 goals and 56 points for the best output of his pro career. Re-uniting with his former junior teammate in MacKinnon allowed Drouin to look much better than he did in Montreal, and he eventually earned a second deal worth $2.5 million this season.

Since getting drafted third overall in 2013, Drouin has managed to register 96 goals and 337 points in 565 games over three years. Before last year, Drouin’s previous best was a pair of 52-point seasons with Tampa Bay (2016-17) and Montreal (2018-19).

With Drouin out, the Avalanche could look to rely on newcomers Nikolai Kovalenko or Cal Ritchie to help fill the void. They’re already missing Gabriel Landeskog, Artturi Lehkonen and Valeri Nichushkin, leaving heavy holes up high in the lineup.

The Avalanche are looking to bounce back in 2024-25 after falling to the Dallas Stars in the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs. The Avs beat Winnipeg in five games after qualifying as the third-place team in the Central Division.