Avalanche HC Jared Bednar clears up Nathan MacKinnon, Cale Makar status for rest of regular season

The Colorado Avalanche have two games left in the regular season, and they won't risk the health of their two best players ahead of a hopeful Stanley Cup run.

Head coach Jared Bednar clarified on Friday that both Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar won't travel with the team on the road trip, per NHL.com. Jonathan Drouin and Ross Colton will also stay back in Denver and rest up for the first round.

“They're not going on the trip,” Bednar said Friday. “We got a lot of guys dealing with stuff. The training room's full, as you can imagine, this time of the year and the schedule that we've been playing. So yeah, we'll make some informed decisions on some guys, and we're obviously not going to be able to [rest everyone].

“There's so many guys dealing with little things that you can't take them all out,” Bednar continued. “It's just not possible. So we'll pick and choose some guys that we want to make sure are feeling the best they can feel come next weekend (start of playoffs).”

While MacKinnon won't win the Hart Trophy again, he is having a fantastic campaign. The Canadian is tied for first in the NHL in points with 116 alongside Nikita Kucherov, scoring 32 times and tallying 84 helpers. As for Makar, he's one of the best offensive defencemen in the league. Makar has 30 goals and 62 assists, which is second on the team behind MacKinnon.

The Avalanche are in third place in the Central Division and will have a tall task ahead of them in round one as they are set to face either the Dallas Stars or the Winnipeg Jets. Colorado's final two games of the campaign are against the Los Angeles Kings and the Anaheim Ducks — a back-to-back in Southern California.

The Stanley Cup Playoffs begin on April 19.