Calum Ritchie would’ve never envisioned the past 16 months playing out the way they have. After falling in the first round of the 2023 draft to Colorado at No. 27, and then starting the 2023-24 OHL season injured, Ritchie suddenly finds himself ready to make his NHL debut just a year later.
“It still hasn’t really hit me,” he told me following the team’s practice on Tuesday. “It’s obviously been a dream of mine since I was a kid and my family’s coming down [to Vegas] so it’ll be awesome to share that with them.”
Ritchie is expected to start the game on the Avalanche’s second line with center Casey Mittelstadt and fellow rookie Nikolai Kovalenko. The latter of the two, who joined Colorado in the playoffs and played two games, is also making his regular-season debut. Both of them are getting an opportunity in the top six because the Avs are starting the season without Gabriel Landeskog, Valeri Nichushkin, and Artturi Lehkonen.
“I’m pretty confident myself, but I think even if I would have said this would happen like a couple of months ago, it still would’ve been pretty hard to believe,” Ritchie said. “[Mittelstadt and Kovalenko] are both really smart, and they work, they compete really hard. I played the preseason game with Kovalenko and you see how good he is on the forecheck and how many battles he can win all over the ice so it’s awesome playing with him.”
Ritchie is in a unique position. It’s hard to say if this opportunity would’ve even presented itself had the Avs been fully, or even mostly healthy. But because of his age, the 19-year-old can’t play in the American Hockey League this season. His options are to either stick with the Avs all season or get sent back down to the Ontario Hockey League for another season with the Oshawa Generals.
Last year, Ritchie dominated in the OHL, scoring a career-high 28 goals, 52 assists, and 80 points in 50 games. He also had eight goals and 30 points in 21 playoff games.
There’s no doubt he has an offensive side to his game and the confidence to create scoring chances. But under head coach Jared Bednar, Ritchie is going to need to round out his defensive game if he’s looking to stick around all year.
Lehkonen might not be back in October, but he and Nichushkin could both very well join the lineup in November. Assuming everyone else stays healthy, both Ritchie and Kovalenko might find it hard to stick in the top nine when the duo of championship wingers return. They’ll have to give Bednar a reason to consider giving them third-line minutes in that scenario.
Because of his pro experience in the KHL, Kovalenko likely has the upper hand right now to do that. But Ritchie’s game is something that could improve, and quickly. He calls it a work in progress and he’s excited to see where he can go. It all begins on Wednesday in front of a raucous crowd at T-Mobile Arena.
“I think I play a smart game, and I think I’ve shown my offensive instincts,” Ritchie said. “But I needed to work on the defensive side through camp and preseason and I think I did that and got better at it. It’s still a work in progress but I’ve been improving slowly.”
