Schwartz Is Still Out. Training Camp Is Not Still Waiting.

Jaden Schwartz signed his three-year deal on July 1. It is now August 5, and he remains out with no timeline. I have written this note, in various forms, three times now. The situation has not changed. What has changed is the calendar.

Training camp does not move for an offseason injury. Colorado built its depth plan around Schwartz being a functional piece — a steadying presence behind the MacKinnon and Necas lines, the kind of secondary scorer who was supposed to address exactly what failed in the playoffs. Georgii Merkulov is here too, signed on a one-year deal, and he carries his own uncertainty — Boston gave up on him, and Colorado is betting that was a mistake. That is a reasonable bet. It is also not the same thing as having Schwartz healthy and ready.

The right wing situation compounds this. Valeri Nichushkin is gone, traded to Columbus in June, and the depth behind him on that side is thin. The front office made its moves. The problem is that the marquee one is still sitting out, and the contingency options have not been tested at this level. My read is that Colorado needs Schwartz in camp, not just eventually — because the depth group has to build chemistry before October, and you cannot build chemistry around a player who is not there.

The elite core is intact. MacKinnon, Necas, Makar's re-signing confirmed. That foundation is real. But the whole offseason argument was that the top end was never the problem — finishing in close games, producing down the lineup, that was the problem. Schwartz was the answer to that argument. Right now, he is not an answer. He is a question with no date attached.