Calum Ritchie could never have imagined the last 16 months the way they have. After going 27th overall in the first round of the 2023 draft to Colorado and then starting the 2023-24 OHL season injured, Ritchie is suddenly ready to make his NHL debut just a year later.

“It still hasn’t really hit me,” he told me after the team’s practice on Tuesday. “It’s obviously been a dream of mine since I was a kid, and my family is coming (to Vegas), so it’ll be great to share that with them.”

Ritchie is expected to start the game on the Avalanche’s second line with center Casey Mittelstadt and fellow rookie Nikolai Kovalenko. The latter of the two, who joined Colorado in the playoffs and played two games, is also making his regular-season debut. Both get a chance in the top six as the Avs start the season without Gabriel Landeskog, Valeri Nichushkin and Artturi Lehkonen.

“I’m pretty confident myself, but even if I had said this would happen like it did a few months ago, it would still have been pretty hard to believe,” Ritchie said. “(Mittelstadt and Kovalenko) are both really smart and they work, they compete really hard. I played the preseason game with Kovalenko and you can see how good he is on the forecheck and how many battles he can win all over the ice, so it’s great to play with him.”

Ritchie is in a unique position. It’s hard to say if this opportunity would have even arisen had the Avs been fully, or at least mostly, healthy. However, due to his age, the 19-year-old cannot play in the American Hockey League this season. His options are to either stay with the Avs for the entire season or return to the Ontario Hockey League for another season with the Oshawa Generals.

Last year, Ritchie dominated the OHL, scoring a career-high 28 goals, 52 assists and 80 points in 50 games. He also scored eight goals and 30 points in 21 playoff games.

There is no doubt that he has an attacking side to his game and has the confidence to create scoring chances. But under head coach Jared Bednar, Ritchie needs to round out his defensive game if he wants to last all year.

Lehkonen may not be back in October, but he and Nichushkin could very well join the lineup in November. Assuming everyone else stays healthy, it could be difficult for both Ritchie and Kovalenko to stay in the top nine when the Championship winger duo returns. They need to give Bednar a reason to think about giving them minutes on the third line in this scenario.

Given his pro experience in the KHL, Kovalenko likely has the upper hand to do so at this point. But Ritchie’s game could quickly improve. He calls it a “work in progress” and is excited to see where it can go. It all starts on Wednesday in front of a loud crowd in the T-Mobile Arena.

“I think I’m playing a smart game and I’ve shown my offensive instincts,” Ritchie said. “But I had to work on defense in camp and preseason, and I think I did that and got better at it. It’s still a work in progress, but I’ve slowly improved.”