Avalanche Injury Woes Begin

A report on Friday night says that the Colorado Avalanche will be without both forward Brandon Yip and defenseman Jan Hejda for the beginning of the season, which will actually open up some spots for some of their emerging youth.

Yip is now expected to miss the next 4-to-6 weeks with a broken forearm after blocking a shot on Friday night.  Yip would then be expected to return to action in the middle of November, assuming he missed the entire six weeks worth of action.

Hejda, on the other hand, is expected to miss the next 2-to-4 weeks with a knee injury, an injury he suffered earlier in this preseason, but there is a lot of uncertainty as to when it actually happened.  Hejda would be scheduled to be back before the end of October.

Be sure to adjust your projections accordingly, I dropped 5 points from each player's projections on my list for these injuries.  This now also opens up the opportunity for young players like Gabriel Landeskog, Brad Malone and Tyson Barrie to get longer looks in camp, trying to work their way into a spot on opening night.