DENVER – Suspended Colorado Avalanche forward Valeri Nichushkin's return to practice was so sudden that teammate Mikko Rantanen had a minor incident when he spotted him on the ice.
Rantanen recovered with an icebreaker.
“I made a little joke to him, like, 'It's nice to see you, Val,'” Rantanen said. “I didn’t even know he was skating with the team today until I saw him on the ice. … I was excited to see him there.”
For now, it's just practice for Nichushkin, who remains in Phase 3 of the NHL/NHLPA Player Assistance Program and is ineligible to play. Although his suspension is expected to last at least until mid-November, coach Jared Bednar hopes Nichushkin can be back in the lineup on November 15th.
Nichushkin's return would strengthen a team that is already short on forwards this season due to a series of injuries. But things are starting to change as Artturi Lehkonen came off injured reserve over the weekend and is expected to make his season debut against Seattle. He has been sidelined since undergoing offseason shoulder surgery.
“We need all the help we can get,” said Bednar, who received news a few days ago that Nichushkin could return to training. “Every guy we bring back in, things start to go a little bit the way we want them to.”
The struggling Avalanche are still without forward captain Gabriel Landeskog (knee), Ross Colton (broken foot), Jonathan Drouin (upper body) and Miles Wood, who was placed on injured reserve with an upper body injury. Drouin ran in a red non-contact sweater.
“A big boost,” defender Cale Makar said of his teammates’ early return. “I mean, obviously they play a big role for us.”
Makar said the team received Nichushkin warmly.
Due to off-ice circumstances, Nichushkin was unavailable for postseason play for the second straight season last May. The league and players' association announced his suspension an hour before the start of the Avalanche's 5-1 loss to the Dallas Stars on May 13 during a second-round series that Colorado would lose.
The 29-year-old Russian right winger also abruptly left the team in a 2023 first-round playoff series against Seattle for personal reasons. He missed the final five games of that postseason as the Avalanche lost the series 4-3.
“I don’t think there’s really anything to say,” Makar said. “I think Val is one of those people he's going to trust with the job and you have to trust that. If he wants to lean on us, we can always help him.
“It's great to see him again. It’s great to see him at the rink smiling, having fun and just being on the ice with the guys again.”
Nichushkin is under contract through the 2029-30 season after signing an eight-year, $49 million deal with the team in 2022. Last year, he scored a career-best 28 goals in 54 regular-season games.
“Of course we need him. I don’t want to dwell on the past at all, what happened before, but we need him in the lineup,” Rantanen said. “He's a big part of our team, a really good player and he'll help us win games. That’s why we’re happy to have him back because all we care about is winning games.”
