Avalanche getting 2 injured players back for Game 4 vs. Wild

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Colin Gallant, ClutchPoints

Mon, May 11, 2026 at 7:19 PM UTC ·

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The Colorado Avalanche are looking to rebound from a 5-1 loss to the Minnesota Wild on Saturday night — their first defeat in the 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs — and the reinforcements are arriving ahead of the critical contest.

Both Josh Manson and Joel Kiviranta will be available for Game 4 at Grand Casino Arena on Monday, head coach Jared Bednar told reporters, including The Athletic’s Peter Baugh.

“Manson and Kiviranta are both options for tonight, per Bednar,” wrote Baugh. “Bednar thinks Manson’s size, physicality will help against Minnesota.”

Manson has been out of the lineup since April 23 with an upper-body injury. He was a key piece of the Avalanche’s Stanley Cup run in 2022, and should immediately play a significant role on Colorado’s blue line for the duration of the postseason.

Nick Blankenburg has been playing alongside veteran Brent Burns on the third pairing, and it looks like he’ll come out of the lineup to make room for Manson. The 6-foot-3, 218-pound defenseman will be a welcome addition to the lineup, adding experience and physicality.

Manson has managed two assists in three games in the postseason, adding a plus-two rating. He scored five goals and 31 points in 79 games in the regular season, along with an excellent plus-42 rating.

As for Kiviranta, it’s not clear whether or not he will enter the lineup despite being healthy. He’s missed five games with an undisclosed injury, and had been skating on the fourth line before the ailment.

Ross Colton has been filling in, and Bednar might want to keep him in for Game 4 considering he has 69 games of playoff experience, culminating in a championship with the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2021.

NHL.com’s official line projections show Colton on the third line with Nazem Kadri and Nicolas Roy , and Parker Kelly , Jack Drury and Logan O’Connor rounding out the fourth line.

It’ll be interesting to see if Kiviranta ends up getting the call for Game 4, but either way, he will likely get into the lineup at some point this spring.

Mackenzie Blackwood gets the start for the Avalanche after Scott Wedgewood was pulled in Game 3. Puck is set to drop from Grand Casino Arena just past 8:00 p.m ET on Monday night.