Only two skaters from the 2024 NHL draft have played NHL games this season. On Saturday, you can add a third.

This one isn’t quite as decorated as the other two, though.

Nikita Prishchepov, Colorado’s seventh-round pick in June, is set to make his NHL debut on Saturday. With all the injuries the team is currently dealing with, and Matt Stienburg being hit with a two-game suspension on Friday, the Avalanche decided to bring up the 20-year-old, who has four points in six games with the Colorado Eagles.

The young Russian, whose English is quite good, was shopping for his new apartment in Loveland on Friday when he got the call that he was needed in the NHL.

“I was like, no, I don’t need to shop anymore,” Prischepov said after his first practice with the team. “I’ll just go home, and I called my mom right away, (and) called my agent right away.”

Prishchepov’s call-up only makes the start to this season even wilder for the Avalanche. He’ll join No. 1 overall pick Macklin Celebrini and Jett Luchanko as the only 2024 draft picks to debut in the NHL this season. Prishchepov was selected 204 picks after Luchanko, so his debut is unexpected, to say the least.

A month ago, Prishchepov wasn’t even sure if he’d be playing pro hockey, as there was always a possibility he could be sent back to the Quebec Major Junior League. He earned an NHL contract with a solid training camp and has played well in the AHL.

“It’s only six games in pro hockey, and now I’m going to play in the NHL. It’s unbelievable,” he said.

Based off the lines at practice on Friday, he will start paired on the wing with Parker Kelly and fellow countryman Nikolai Kovalenko. That should help ease the transition.

“It’s always nice to have someone Russian,” he said.

Prischepov will be the fifth rookie to make his NHL regular-season debut for the Avalanche this season.

Kelly, who only has 188 NHL games under his belt, is suddenly the veteran on the third line. After the third line took a beating against the Tampa Bay Lightning, he said the focus will start in there end.

“I’m just going to really try to emphasize the defensive zone first,” he told The Denver Gazette. “They’re so crafty with the puck in the offensive zone, you can kind of just let them do their thing, but I’m just going to emphasize making sure I’m always on top of guys, defensively responsible, and the rest should take care of itself.”

Kelly confirmed he does not speak Russian. He might be the end of the weekend, though.

Penalty kill improving

One area of Colorado’s game that is improving is its penalty kill. After a rough start, the Avs have given up just one power-play goal in the last five games, and that came with an extra attacker on the ice late in the game against Seattle.

Kelly felt like the penalty kill was playing better than what the numbers would have indicated early in the year.

“Outside of the first game and maybe one or two mistakes, I think everything else has been kind of unlucky,” he said. “If you look at the analytics, we’re in the green in a lot of the major categories. I’ve really liked our penalty kill pretty much all year, besides a few mistakes.”