The Avalanche set their opening-night roster Tuesday, reducing the roster to the NHL maximum of 23 players by assigning defensemen Kevin Connauton and Calle Rosen, and forward Jayson Megna to the Colorado Eagles of the American Hockey League.

Defenseman Ian Cole, who had offseason hips surgery, was placed on the injured list.

They'll begin with rookie defensemen Cale Makar and Conor Timmins. First-year goalie Pavel Francouz technically isn't a rookie because of his age (29).

Timmins missed all of last season to recover from post-concussion symptoms.

The Avalanche will begin the 2019-20 season Thursday against Calgary at the Pepsi Center with 14 forwards, seven defensemen and two goalies.

Forwards: Pierre-Edouard Bellemare, Andre Burakovsky, Matt Calvert, J.T. Compher, Joonas Donskoi, Tyson Jost, Nazem Kadri, Vladislav Kamenev, Gabriel Landeskog, Nathan MacKinnon, Valeri Nichushkin, Matt Nieto, Mikko Rantanen, Colin Wilson.

Defensemen: Mark Barberio, Samuel Girard, Ryan Graves, Erik Johnson, Cale Makar, Conor Timmins, Nikita Zadorov.

Goalies: Philipp Grubauer, Pavel Francouz.

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Makar was given a maintenance day Tuesday and didn’t practice, but coach Jared Bednar told reporters he should be able to play against the Flames on Thursday.

“Maintenance day,” Bednar said. “He should be good to go. He’s just got a little tweak, so he’s going to take the day (off) and get fixed up.”



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