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Duchene is eager to line up with O’Reilly

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With a lucrative contract extension in his back pocket and a bounce-back season behind him, things have been looking up for Colorado Avalanche forward Matt Duchene.

Duchene told Adrian Dater of the Denver Post that he’s totally on board with the plan to move Ryan O’Reilly from his normal center position to a spot on his first line alongside P.A. Parenteau, too.

“I just talked some with Ryan today, and he’s going to be great on the wing,” Duchene said. “I think he’s played some there before, and I think he can be really strong there.”

Dater believes that it O’Reilly will be a good fit as well.

I tend to think O’Reilly will be a good winger too. He’s bigger than Duchene, so he’ll be stronger in the corners. He’s great at keeping pucks deep in the zone with his body and positioning, and he goes to the net hard. So I think he’ll find maybe more rebound junk goals as a winger than a center, where your defensive responsibilities are greater than a winger and you have to skate more.