Sakic expects Duchene to report to Avs camp: 'He's under contract'

There will be no holdout in the Mile High City.

That's certainly the expectation of Colorado Avalanche general manager Joe Sakic, who told Adrian Dater of BSN Denver that despite Matt Duchene staying put this offseason, he is still to show up to the team's training camp.

"He's under contract and I expect him to be here on the 14th," Sakic told Dater. "He doesn't have to be here until the 14th. Not everybody always comes to camp early. It's not for me to (say), but I assume on the 14th, he'll be here."

Duchene made headlines last week when he did not take part in an optional pre-camp captain's practice. Further pressing the issue was that Duchene was just one of two Avalanche players not to attend - the other being Nathan MacKinnon, who was in Manhattan covering NHL media tour duties.

"I talked a little bit with Dutchy. He's not here; that's not a secret," Avalanche captain Gabriel Landeskog told Mike Chambers of The Denver Post last week. "But we'll have to wait and see. As of right now, he's a part of the Avalanche organization and we all expect him to be here when training camp starts. I don't really know what else to tell you right now."

Asked whether Duchene intends to report to camp, his agent, Pat Brisson, was non-committal, telling Dater: "I don't have much to say at this point."

Duchene's name has swirled in trade rumors since early January, but in the ensuing months the Avalanche haven't found a deal to their liking. Nor does it appear Sakic has changed his stance on waiting for the right deal to come to fruition.

"We're going in a direction," Sakic added. "We're building this thing up, and whatever we can do to help our building process, we're going to do."

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