Key Avalanche forward activated after missing 17 games

The Avalanche will welcome back an important forward on Saturday as the team announced that forward Ross Colton has been activated off LTIR.  Winger Jonathan Drouin has been moved to injured reserve retroactive to Nov. 23 to make room for him on the active roster.

Colton will return against Detroit Saturday after missing the last 17 games. The 28-year-old was shifted to LTIR earlier this week, but since it was retroactive to late October when he first suffered his foot injury, he has already missed the required 10 games and 24 days to return to the lineup.

Before being injured, Colton was off to a hot start with eight goals and an assist while logging 18:38 per game, more than five minutes higher than his career average ATOI.  He’s expected to start on the second line, but head coach Jared Bednar has indicated he wants to move Colton onto the top line soon.

Drouin has missed the last two weeks due to an upper-body injury but has been skating recently. His retroactive placement means he’s already missed the required seven days to return to the lineup, so as soon as team doctors clear him, he can be activated.

His second season with the Avs hasn’t gone as well as his first.  After putting up 19 goals and 37 assists for a career-best 56 points in 2023-24, Drouin’s upper-body injury troubles have limited him to just five games.  While he has been relatively productive in those with two goals and two assists, this certainly hasn’t been the start to the season he has wanted, especially with it being another contract year after inking a one-year, $2.5M deal to return to the Avs in free agency back in the summer.