Skip navigation
Favorites
Sign up to follow your favorites on all your devices.
Sign up

Avs’ Downie is 100 percent healthy, but not quite ready

downiegetty

Colorado Avalanche winger Steve Downie is 100 percent healthy after recovering from knee surgery, yet he told the Denver Post that he isn’t 100 percent ready for full-speed competition.

“The way I look at it this camp is, I haven’t played a game in two years,” Downie said. “I just have to get the legs going. I’m going to take it relatively slow, because I still have almost a month to get ready. I’ll be ready for opening night. No question about opening night.”

The 26-year-old forward has only played in 22 games since being traded to the Avs during the 2011-12 season, including just two contests in 2013.

New head coach Patrick Roy reiterated that the plan is to line up Downie with Nathan MacKinnon and Jamie McGinn, a combination that could very well serve as the league’s most dangerous third line.

Downie brings the kind of snarl of a player who has some questionable hits in his past, but can also bring some offensive punch; that combination was most potent with the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2009-10, as he scored 22 goals and 46 points while collecting 208 penalty minutes in 79 games.

Follow James O’Brien @cyclelikesedins