Sean O’Malley and Merab Dvalishvili took dramatically different paths to get to UFC 306 but this bantamweight championship matchup at the Sphere is the fight the division has needed for some time.
Already this week we’ve explored one player who needs to deliver this season for each team in the Central Divison, and have also taken a crack at predicting how the standings would play out. Today we look a little closer and explore a question facing each of the teams in this tightly packed division.
With training camps opening midway through next week, we’ll start getting answers to some of these questions, while others will take some time to play out. In one of the NHL’s more interesting groupings, here’s what we’re wondering about the Central.
Colorado Avalanche: How will Gabriel Landeskog and Valeri Nichushkin factor into this season?
Suspended until November, we know Nichushkin won’t start the season with the Avs. Captain Landeskog hasn’t played at all since the 2022 Stanley Cup win because of a knee injury, but there’s finally optimism he’ll be back. When last season ended Landeskog said he was aiming to come back in 2024 and just last month Colorado coach Jared Bednar said there was hope he’d be back “sometime near the start of the season.”
So while neither will be in the lineup for Game 1 in October, both figure to have a major impact on the team’s fortunes for one reason or another this season. When Landeskog returns, how much of his former self will he be? When Nichushkin is eligible to return from suspension, will the Avs welcome him back? There was some question if they’d look to terminate his contract, something the team downplayed though acknowledged that trust needed to be rebuilt with the player. With 28 goals in 54 games last season, and then another nine in eight playoff games, the 29-year-old is a very important piece of this lineup.