Avalanche rookies battling each other for roster spot

ENGLEWOOD -- Chris Stewart scored 82 points in 62 games for Kingston in the Ontario Hockey League last year. He’s finding it more difficult training for the NHL.

He’s one of 28 players in rookie camp fighting for a roster spot with the Colorado Avalanche when training camp opens Friday.

Stewart has made his mark in just the first two days of camp. He’s scored four goals in two scrimmages against his fellow newcomers. But that doesn’t mean he’s having an easy time of it.

“There’s a lot of us challenging for those last couple of spots on the team,” Stewart said. “It’s already a big competition.”

Stewart, the Avalanche’s first-round choice in the 2006 amateur draft, did nothing to disappoint last year in Kingston, and has impressed even the toughest critic.

“I’m a very conservative guy,” Craig Billington, director of player development said. “He’s progressing on the right side of the hill right now and he’s preparing himself to be a good pro.”

Certainly there was an amount of rust Saturday, the rookies’ first day, as the two sides scored 11 goals in 60 minutes of scrimmage.

But whether the rust dissipated or the jitters calmed, Sunday looked like a much sharper day.

And it was needed because most of the 28 have never seen each other, much less play together.

“I haven’t seen a lot of these guys play,” said Mark McCutcheon. “There’s a lot of young guys here. So it’s good to see the differences between college and junior guys.”

There is a fair balance of rookies who have come from juniors and those who played in college. McCutcheon, T.J. Galiardi, and David Jones all came from the collegiate-level ECAC Hockey. While Stewart, Brad Snetsinger and Trevor Cann have made their marks in the OHL.

Junior players are often thought of as more skilled, whereas college players are generally bigger and stronger, if for no other reason than their advanced age, McCutcheon said.

But it doesn’t matter at which level the rookies have played, Billington said.

“I just kind of take them at face value,” he said. “College hockey is great hockey. Junior hockey is great hockey. You just kind of take it in context of who, not where, they are.”

There is no set amount of rookies Colorado will keep for full-team camp and preseason games when the veterans arrive next week.