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Siemens on waivers; Rantanen practices |
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Rick Sadowski
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UPDATE: The Avalanche have placed defenseman Duncan Siemens on waivers, according to generalfanager.com and other reports.
Would have liked to see him get a chance in the NHL, but I expected this move. Maybe someone will claim him. So the Avalanche will go with two extra forwards and one extra defenseman when the season starts Oct. 15 against Dallas at the Pepsi Center.
It's been a long and bumpy road for Siemens, a 6-feet-3, 210-pound defenseman, since the Avalanche made him the 11th overall pick in the 2011 draft, nine spots behind Gabriel Landeskog. He's played 156 games in the AHL, one in the NHL -- the season finale against Chicago on April 11, 2015.
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Mikko Rantanen practiced Saturday morning while wearing a no-contact jersey, his first practice since he sustained an ankle injury in a rookie game against San Jose on Sept. 17.
Rantanen, Jarome Iginla (hip), John Mitchell (hip flexor) and Blake Comeau (groin) didn’t make the trip to Las Vegas for the Avalanche's final preseason game Saturday night against Los Angeles in the T-Mobile Arena.
The Avalanche will have Sunday off and resume practicing Monday.
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Coach Jared Bednar said the Avalanche assigned defenseman Chris Bigras to the Rampage on Thursday "because he needs to go play."
Defenseman Anton Lindholm and forward J.T. Compher also were assigned to the AHL team.
"(Bigras) needs to go play big, important minutes down there," Bednar said. "He had a great camp. I like what I see from him.”
Bigras, 21, was the Avalanche's second-round pick (No. 32) in 2013. He had a goal, two assists and 16 penalty minutes in 31 games with the Avalanche last season following his Jan. 13 recall from the Rampage.
“All three of the guys that we let go, I think have promising futures,” Bednar said. "They are important pieces for the future, and they need to go play and be impact players for the time being until they can get up here and help us win on a nightly basis.”
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Bednar said his wife and daughter evacuated the family home in Charleston, S.C., in advance of Hurricane Matthew, taking up residence with friends in inland Columbia. He and his family have lived in Charleston since his time as a player and coach for the South Carolina Stingrays of the ECHL.
"Everything's good, my family's gone," he said. "They evacuated along with a lot of other people in Charleston. We’re just waiting for the storm to go through or hopefully miss us and we’ll re-evaluate everything from there. Hopefully, it doesn’t do any damage to the area. We can’t control it and hopefully everyone stays safe back home and follows the directions of our leadership there in South Carolina and gets out of town.
"We've sat through storms before, no major hurricanes, but some of the tropical storms and stuff. They can do some damage. The rainfall and the high tides usually cause some damage in Charleston just because it's so low."
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