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Avs keep prized rookie Rantanen, sign Skille after PTO

Mikko Rantanen

Mikko Rantanen

AP

Some fairly noteworthy developments out of Denver on Tuesday, the biggest being that Mikko Rantanen -- the 10th overall pick at this year’s draft -- has made the Avs’ opening-night roster.

Rantanen, 18, was considered one of the more NHL-ready prospects at the draft but “fell” to the Avs, which proved a good thing -- Colorado has a long history of fast-tracking high picks to the NHL, as Matt Duchene, Gabriel Landeskog and Nathan MacKinnon all made the leap in their draft years.

At 6-foot-4 and 210 pounds, Rantanen already has big league size. It’s possible he opens the season on a line with center Carl Soderberg, one of the club’s big summer acquisitions.

Elsewhere in Colorado...

For the second straight day, a veteran forward has successfully converted his training camp tryout into an NHL contract.

On Tuesday, the Avs announced that Jack Skille had signed a one-year pact with the club. Skille, 28, is a former first-round pick (seventh overall in ’05) that’s appeared in nearly 250 career NHL contests with Chicago, Florida and, most recently, Columbus.

With Colorado, Skille is expected to fill a bottom-six checking role. As mentioned above, he joins Scottie Upshall as the other forward to successfully turn his PTO into a new deal -- yesterday, Upshall signed a one-year, two-way pact with the Blues.