Avs captain Gabe Landeskog<\/a> and defenseman Devon Toews even turned up to wish the old guard well.<\/p>\n\u201c(Gabe) looks great right from the end of the year, the way he played (in the) playoffs. I think everybody was surprised how well he did, even himself,\u201d Avs president of hockey operations Joe Sakic said before the game. \u201cInstead of worrying about rehabbing this summer, for him to come and just train the way he\u2019s trained all his life to get ready for a season. It\u2019s going to be great to have him back. His leadership and what he does on the ice is really important. You can tell we missed him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Rycroft and John-Michael Liles made like Laurel and Hardy on the Avs bench, even getting caught canoodling when the \u201cColdplay Cam\u201d swung their way early in the second period.<\/p>\n
Liles scored on Davis, now with the AHL\u2019s San Jose Barracuda, halfway through the second stanza to bring the Avs alums to within 4-2. He found the back of the net again in the third period to tie things up at 7-7.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s great because this is what you miss,\u201d Sakic said. \u201cYou don\u2019t really get that until you all get back together. Everybody\u2019s got their own lives now. When you have an opportunity, just for a weekend, to have everybody get back together, you have a lot of fun, you have a lot of good laughs, a lot of memories. Really, it\u2019s like you\u2019ve never left the team.\u201d<\/p>\n
Their hamstrings said otherwise. But anything for a good cause, right? Over the last three years, the Avs\u2019 Alumni Association has raised about $900,000 for youth hockey locally and contributed to more than $55,000 in scholarships.<\/p>\n
Ryker said it best, didn\u2019t he? Amazing.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo see that part of (hockey) growing everywhere, especially in Colorado,\u201d Avs alum Pierre Turgeon mused, \u201cis a beautiful thing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Even more beautiful? They\u2019re planning on doing this again next year.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s pretty cool,\u201d Acorn said, \u201cto see two big organizations and very successful organizations within the hockey world giving back to the youth, because it\u2019s so important. That\u2019s the only way we can grow the game here.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Max](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/TDP-L-AVS-PIONEERSA03_7234x.jpg\")
Max Lacroix (33) of the Colorado Avalanche gives up a goal on a shot by Drew Shore (15) of the DU Pioneers during the first period of an exhibition game at Magness Arena on Sunday, Aug., 24, 2025. (Photo by AAron Ontiveroz\/The Denver Post)<\/p>\n
Originally Published: August 24, 2025 at 6:00 PM MDT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Maddy Acorn can squeeze a nickel until Thomas Jefferson taps out. She can juggle 18 flaming swords with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":94252,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[69716,64,63,29935,69717,59632,1762,4762,7522,69718,69719,69720,69721,69722,3915,69723,3914,61660,8440,61995,575,69724,27167,85,2136],"class_list":["post-94251","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-andrew-cogliano","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-avalanche","tag-avalanche-takes","tag-cale-makar","tag-coldplay","tag-college-sports","tag-colorado-avalanche","tag-darren-helm","tag-denver-pioneers","tag-denver-pioneers-hockey","tag-devon-toews","tag-gabriel-landeskog","tag-hockey","tag-joe-sakic","tag-latest-headlines","tag-logan-oconnor","tag-michigan","tag-more-avalanche-news","tag-nhl","tag-peter-forsberg","tag-sean-keeler","tag-sports","tag-sports-columnists"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94251","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=94251"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94251\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/94252"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94251"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94251"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94251"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Young](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/TDP-L-AVS-PIONEERSA03_7671x.jpg\")
Young Kings players Ryker Wellman (left) and Mikey Jend cheer for their coach Kyle Ostrow (19) of the DU Pioneers during the second period of an exhibition game against the Colorado Avalanche at Magness Arena on Sunday, Aug., 24, 2025. (Photo by AAron Ontiveroz\/The Denver Post)<\/p>\n