DENVER — Jean-Luc Foudy has been busy this summer preparing to make a good impression on the Colorado Avalanche.
“Still being a young guy, I’m just working on getting faster, stronger,” Foudy said. “Some of that stuff comes with your body maturing, and then just working on all these little things and especially working on my shot.”
The 20-year-old is home in Toronto working out with his brother Liam, a Columbus Blue Jackets forward prospect, and Arizona Coyotes center Jack McBain after playing his first full professional season with Colorado of the American Hockey League.
“Finally getting the full season under my belt helped with knowing where I am and everything,” Foudy said. “Being there with the Colorado staff, we kind of discussed at the end of the year the things that I needed to work on. So that helps.”
Foudy had an unconventional journey to this point due to the Ontario Hockey League shutting down because of concerns surrounding the coronavirus during what would have been the forward’s third season with Windsor in 2020-21. That allowed the No. 75 pick in the 2020 NHL Draft the rare opportunity to play with in the AHL as a teenager.
“It’s kind of weird because there’s only a few of us that played [in the AHL] before we were 20, so it was kind of odd having like all the guys I played with growing up still playing in juniors,” Foudy said. “I learned a lot just from moving on from junior and playing my first full pro season. It’s a lot different and it took a little at the beginning to adapt, but I really felt like I found my stride near the end there. I think it helped quite a bit playing there this year.”
Foudy (5-foot-11, 177 pounds) had 14 points (three goals, 11 assists) in 34 AHL games in 2020-21. Then last season he had 26 points (nine goals, 17 assists) in 65 regular-season games with Colorado and seven points (four goals, three assists) in nine playoff games. He also got to witness the Avalanche win the Stanley Cup up close and in person after his AHL season was complete.
“It was pretty electric, watching the games, just the atmosphere and everything,” Foudy said. “You could just see that they really wanted to win, and that was their only goal in mind. So that was pretty cool to see. To see them win, that was awesome.”
His attention now is focused ahead on rookie camp with the Avalanche.
“Just [want] to showcase my talent. Go there, be a good teammate, and be able to show the Avalanche what I’ve worked on throughout this offseason and have a good camp leading into the main camp,” Foudy said. “We have a bunch of good young prospects there. A few of them played with [me in the AHL]. I’m sure we’ll have a couple more in this year, but we have a good, young group. There’s some really talented players, so it’ll be interesting to see what we can do.”