LAS VEGAS – J.T. Compher will play wing with center Nathan MacKinnon and left wing Gabe Landeskog in even-strength Friday afternoon against the Vegas Golden Knights. Compher replaces Mikko Rantanen, who’s diagnosed with a lower-body injury.

“I enjoy the way our traces played on that road trip and we all had a success this past year using Compher playing those men and that’s going to be our first go-to for tomorrow night,” Avs coach Jared Bednar told the media in Denver before the Avs flew Thursday afternoon.  “We’re open to change. We want to provide this a crack before we proceed to anything else. ”

Rantanen, who’s tied to MacKinnon using a team-high five goals, seven assists and 12 points, may miss his first match Friday since suffering a leg injury at Monday’s 3-1 loss at St. Louis. Bednar declared Wednesday the Rantanen is “week-to-week. ”

Compher, 24, was recently the right winger with center Tyson Jost and Colin Wilson. Compher had assists on a couple of Jost’s goals at Saturday’s 6-2 triumph at Tampa Bay.

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“I consider his match from Tampa; this line was really great, Jost’so lineup, and he also had been the driving force, left a great deal of plays into the puck, had great poise with the puck, used his speed in a whole lot of different regions to help that line,” Bednar stated of Compher. “I believe Mack and Landy may use just a bit of this that’s I’m putting him there. ”

Compher, a Chicago-area indigenous who played three years at the University of Michigan, serving as captain for a junior, may also replace Rantanen on the No. 1 power play. Compher served in that capacity although Rantanen missed training camp and preseason while with no contract, before he signed a team-high six-year deal worth $55.5 million.

Footnotes. Bednar stated Philipp Grubauer will begin in target, which suggests backup Pavel Francouz will play Saturday in the Pepsi Center to finish a back-to-back set. … Bednar has changed up his defensive pairings, moving Ian Cole with newcomer Cale Makar and Nikita Zadorov with Ryan Graves. The pairing of Sam Girard and Erik Johnson remains undamaged.

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