No Avalanche fan wants to think about the team needing to call-up players from the Eagles. If anything, fans are hoping for the opposite! After all, Logan O’Connor is due back in the lineup in November. Joel Kiviranta, Gavin Brindley, and Sam Girard will hopefully be back eventually as well. If all goes according to plan, no other players will get injured this year and the Avs won’t need any call-ups at all.

But hockey fans know that’s rarely how it works. As the adage goes, “hope for the best but plan for the worst”. So, if the worst should happen and the Avalanche needed to call up more Eagles, which players are the most likely picks?

Tristen Nielsen

Tristen Nielsen is 25-years-old and, until this year, played his entire professional career with the Abbotsford Canucks, helping them win the Calder Cup last season. The former Canuck currently has five goals and four assists in eleven games with the Eagles. He’s a fast, pesky player who can drive his opponents nuts with the forecheck. He’s also incredibly selfless with the puck. Nielsen has mostly played on a line with Danil Gushchin and TJ Tynan. Together, the three dominated Eagles scoring through the first few games of the season, earning Nielsen a two-year, two-way contract with the Colorado Avalanche on October 7, 2025, including $1,550,000 guaranteed, and an average annual salary of $775,000.

On his recent call-up, Nielsen played only about five and a half minutes. He led the team in hits with four, and  had a couple of bad turnovers.

Quick tangent:

I know it’s common for call-ups to get limited ice time, but I’m always struck by how unfair it is for these players to have such a short time to prove themselves. They’re not only nervous; they’re also playing on a line with brand new teammates. By comparison, look at when the Avalanche sent Tyson Jost down to the Eagles for eight games in January 2019. Jost was coming down a league, which should (in theory) be easy for a player to do. The team also gave him maximum ice time, and he played on a line with the Eagles’ most productive players. Even then, he didn’t record a point until his fourth game with the club, when he scored a single assist. He didn’t score a goal until his fifth game.

If it takes an established NHL player multiple games playing top-line minutes to adjust to a lower league, how can we possibly expect an AHL player to amaze us in less than six minutes of their very first NHL game?

Regardless, this is the task AHL players face when called up. Even though Nielsen’s call-up may have been underwhelming, I hope he gets another chance to prove himself because his playing style and skills fit perfectly in the Avalanche bottom-six.

Danil Gushchin

Danil Gushchin is only 23-years-old. He’s a two-way forward with an offensive upside. Gushchin spent the last three seasons in the San Jose organization, playing 18 games with the Sharks. He had two goals and four assists in that time. He also played 182 games with the Sharks’ AHL affiliate, the Barracuda. In the 2024–25 season, he was second on the team for goals scored (28) and third on the team in points (51). He currently leads the Eagles in goals, having scored seven of them (plus one assist) in nine games.

Like Nielsen, Gushchin has a style that’s perfectly suited for the Avalanche bottom-six. Ideally, they could even play on a line together as they’ve proven how well they work together. Obviously, nobody hopes for there to be two openings on the roster, but if the worst-case scenario were to happen, these two could absolutely rise to the occasion.

Alex Barré-Boulet

Alex Barré-Boulet is 28-years-old. He’s spent the last seven years being a bubble player — mostly playing in the AHL but getting occasional call-ups to the NHL. Six of those seasons were with the Syracuse Crunch and Tampa Bay Lightning, as well as two games with the Seattle Kraken. He spent last season with the Laval Rocket and Montreal Canadiens before signing with the Eagles for the 2025–26 season. In his one season with Laval, he led the team in both points and assists. He’s a consistent playmaker and threat to bring the puck to the net.

While Nielsen and Gushchin started the season hot right out of the gate, Barré-Boulet took a bit to get going. But he’s definitely going strong now. He’s currently second on the team in points with three goals and seven assists. All three goals and four of the assists were in the last four games alone.

Just based on the last four games, I predict that Barré-Boulet could get an NHL call-up soon.

Defensemen

Ideally, I’d round out this article with some predictions for defensive call-ups, but I think Avalanche fans have already seen the two best options for that: Jack Ahcan and Wyatt Aamodt. In fact, I predict the Avalanche will finally opt to trade Girard this season as Ahcan could take his spot for a lot smaller cap hit.

Not that there aren’t other good defensemen playing for the Eagles right now. Sean Behrens, Bryan Yoon, Ronnie Attard, and Alex Gagne have all shown great promise. However, I think they all need more time in the AHL before they’re NHL-ready. Ahcan and Aamodt remain the best options as far as defensive call-ups for the near future.

Conclusion

For now, the Avalanche have reassigned Nielsen to the Eagles. Jack Ahcan remains with the Avalanche. The Eagles play back-to-back home games against the Abbotsford Canucks on Friday and Saturday. The Avalanche don’t play again until Saturday night. With O’Connor set to return soon, nobody hopes for the Avalanche to need more call-ups. But if the need should arise, Nielsen, Gushchin, and Barré-Boulet are all promising options.