Expansion Drafts Making NHL GMs Leery of Playing Top Young Prospects

March 19th, 2016 by Adrian Dater Leave a reply »

The Colorado Avalanche has a bit of a Faustian bargain on its hands. 

The Avs saw their top two centers, Matt Duchene and Nathan MacKinnon, go down with knee injuries during their ongoing four-game Canadian road swing. The Avs, fighting tooth and nail with the Minnesota Wild for the final wild-card spot in the Western Conference, called up 2015 first-round pick Mikko Rantanen from their AHL affiliate in San Antonio.

While Duchene is expected to return from his injury in a few days, per Sportsnet's Roger Millions, the outlook is less certain regarding the 20-year-old, former Calder Trophy winner MacKinnon. A day after an innocent-looking collision with a Calgary Flames player, MacKinnon's left knee was too swollen and sore for an MRI, which would give a precise diagnosis of the extent of the injury. As it stands, MacKinnon is due to have his MRI on Monday in Denver, according to an NHL source.

If the MRI shows MacKinnon will be lost for at least several weeks, that means Finnish rookie Rantanen would stay with the Avs for the playoff run, right? Wrong.

The reason Rantanen almost cer ...

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