Rantanen excited to be part of camp
Star right winger missed camp last fall
Some Avalanche players probably aren’t thrilled going through a second full-fledged training camp this season. Mikko Rantanen isn’t one of them.
After all, the star right winger missed camp last fall.
Rantanen was without a contract in September and training on his own in his native Finland. He signed a six-year, $55.5 million contract on the last day of the NHL preseason, and joined the Avs just days before they opened the season Oct. 3.
Rantanen had two goals in the opener and was looking great. But following a 7-0 start, Colorado lost Rantanen to a broken ankle in the eighth game of the season at St. Louis, forcing him to miss 16 games. He later suffered a shoulder injury and missed 12 more games before the NHL paused its season March 12 due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Might he have avoided those injuries if he had a full training camp/preseason?
“It’s hard to say. Obviously, you can speculate,” Rantanen said on a Zoom call from Pepsi Center. “I didn’t think the second injury (had anything to do with it). I got
tripped up and went headfirst into the boards, almost, so I don’t think training camp would help with that. But, maybe, it’s speculating with the ankle injury, and what would have happened if I was in the training camp. It’s hard to say.”
What’s become clear is that Rantanen is delighted to continue on in a new-look season, with no fans at Edmonton’s Rogers Place when the Avs return to play Aug. 2.
“Different situation. Everything is going to be a little bit different. But it’s the same game of hockey,” he said. “We have a good team; everybody’s healthy. It’s going to be fun and we have to play our best to get far.”
The key to do that, he said, is to be careful, be smart, stay healthy “so we can finish the season the right way.”
A handful of players around the league have opted out of the proposed 24-team playoffs in which the Avs are among eight teams guaranteed to play in the 16-team field. Rantanen, 23, said he never considered that choice.
“No kids. No wife. So no consideration,” he said. “I was ready to play.”
Footnotes. Day 2 of training camp Tuesday featured a change in the Avs’ top two lines. Left wing Gabe Landeskog dropped to the second line and Andre Burakovsky was elevated to the first. Landeskog had played with second-line center Nazem Kadri previously this season, and Burakovsky has had some time on Nathan MacKinnon’s line. … Fourth-line center Pierre-Edouard Bellemare was injured briefly when linemate Matt Nieto redirected a puck in his chest. Bellemare fell to his knees but finished the 55-minute practice in the second session.