Nichushkin’s absence leaves big hole in Avalanche’s top-six

With Colorado Avalanche forward Valeri Nichushkin going to the NHL’s Player Assistance Program his absence leaves a hole in the Avs’ lineup. Today on Daily Faceoff Live, Frank Seravalli and Tyler Yaremchuk talked about what the Avs could do to replace Nichushkin and what the shopping list might look like for Avalanche GM Chris MacFarland come trade deadline

Tyler Yaremchuk: With the absence of Nichushkin that leaves a big hole in the Avs lineup and if you don’t get that cap relief sucks. You know all thoughts with Nichushkin but from a hockey standpoint you look at the Avs top six and you see Joel Kiviranta in your top six. The Avs are going to need to add a forward Frank  

Frank Seravalli: Well they already in their West objectives they need a 2nd line center. Ryan Johansen was added, so was Ross Colton. Colton has been fine but Johansen has certainly not been living up to the bill and If you could bump each player down, you’d put Colton at 3C position and Johansen slotted at the 4C position. I know that’s painful when you’re paying the guy $4 million on the cap but that experiment, which was worthy of a try just hasn’t worked out for Colorado.

Frank Seravalli: They were already in the market for a center so it’s going to be hard to fulfill two top-six roles if that’s what you’re tasked with. Playoffs are a long ways off so I feel like we will see Nichushkin again this season.

You can watch the full show here…