Colorado Avalanche News

Schwartz continues to skate with the Blues, but is not ready to play yet. The Blues next game is Saturday vs. the Wild, so monitor his status leading up to the weekend.

Schwartz has not played since October 20th, but he finally returned to practice on Wednesday, which is an excellent sign that he could be back after the All Star break. Schwartz’s return would be huge for a banged up Blues team. His owned percentage has dropped to 49%, so he may be available in your league.

Landeskog was scratched in Wednesday's game against the Penguins. Landeskog was expected to play but did not come out for warmups and ended up being scratched with Mikhail Grigorenko returning to the lineup. Consider Landeskog as day-to-day until the Avalanche release more information.

Kadri missed Monday’s practice with an illness, but head coach Mike Babcock said that Kadri will be in the lineup on Tuesday. Deploy Kadri like you normally would.

After serving a two game suspension, Landeskog will be back on the Avs’ top line with Nathan MacKinnon and Matt Duchene on Thursday. Landeskog’s return means less minutes for Mikhail Grigorenko—Colorado’s captain has 12 points (5G / 7A) in 16 games.

Manson missed Monday’s game with an illness and head coach Bruce Boudreau said that he will be a “game-time decision at best” tonight. Korbinian Holzer replaced Manson last night and could play there again tonight.

Hinostroza had no points and four shots in four games since being recalled. Hinostroza has been returned to the AHL, which suggests that Bryan Bickell will be back in the lineup on Thursday in Winnipeg.

Schwartz was injured in practice on Friday and will now miss 12 weeks or three months of time. This timetable would put Schwartz out until late-January which would likely see him miss 40 games. This is a terrible break for the Blues, who will likely move Robby Fabbri into the top six when he is healthy and could be forced to move some blueline depth to pick up a forward.

After being helped off of the ice at practice this afternoon, Schwartz was taken to the hospital to have his leg examined. This obviously is not good news for Schwartz or the Blues, who are expected to give a full update on Saturday morning. With Schwartz out and Robby Fabbri still sidelined, the Blues have recalled Ty Rattie from Chicago (AHL).

Schwartz reportedly had to be helped off of the ice by his teammates after crashing legs-first into the net. We saw Logan Couture suffer a serious injury in practice last week and it looks like Schwartz might be the latest victim of practice injuries. Stay tuned, but it doesn’t look good for Schwartz.

Hinostroza, 21, was a sixth round pick (169th overall) in 2012. The 5-foot-9, 180 lbs. forward had 44 points (11G / 33A) in 42 games at the University of Notre Dame last year, before moving to the AHL. In seven career games for Rockford, he totalled three assists. He will make his NHL debut tonight vs. Columbus.

McKinnon has played the majority of his young career on the wing, but if they use MacKinnon in the middle it allows the Avalanche to give 18-year-old Mikko Rantanen a shot in the NHL and opens the door for Curtis Glencross and Jack Skille a chance to make the team on PTO’s. If MacKinnon indeed ends up on the third line, look for Rantanen and Blake Comeau to play on his wings.