Patrick Roy said Thursday that while deciding to recall a pair of 20-year-old defensemen, Chris Bigras and Nikita Zadorov, from San Antonio of the AHL on Wednesday, the Avalanche also considered bringing up 19-year-old Finnish winger Mikko Rantanen from the Rampage.

Speaking after the morning skate in advance of the Avalanche’s game against the New Jersey Devils at the Pepsi Center, Roy said that Rantanen, Colorado’s first-round draft choice last year, had a minor hand injury that ruled out his recall — for the time being.

Previously, Roy has been adamant that Rantanen needed a season of AHL experience to make the transition to the North American pro game, but the Avalanche is softening on that stand.

“There’s some forwards that we’re not necessarily happy with,” Roy said. “It was part of our conversation. We didn’t just talk about our ‘D,’ we talked about the entire team.”

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What about when Rantanen — who recently served as captain for the gold-medal winning Finnish team in the World Junior Championships in Helsinki — recovers?

“We’ll see how it goes tonight and we’ll make decisions down the road,” Roy said. “Obviously, he’s coming from a big event in his hometown. We’ll see how it goes now. First of all, he just needs to (get) better … and we’ll let him play a few games just to get his timing back and we’ll re-evaluate the situation after.”

Rantanen played six games for the Avalanche at the start of the season, not getting a point, before he was sent to San Antonio. He hasn’t played for the Rampage since Dec. 21, or shortly before the World Juniors. Finland beat Russia 4-3 in overtime on Jan. 5 to claim the gold medal, so Rantanen hasn’t played in a game in a little over a week.

Defenseman Nate Guenin cleared waivers Thursday morning, but unless plans change, he will remain with the team and be a healthy scratch against the Devils, along with Andrew Bodnarchuk and center Mikhail Grigorenko. Chris Wagner will be back in the lineup for the first time since Dec. 12. Calvin Pickard will be in the Colorado net.

Zadorov and Bigras weren’t paired together at San Antonio and won’t be with the Avalanche, either. In the defensive pairings at even strength against the Devils, Zadorov will be with Francois Beauchemin and Bigras with Zach Redmond. That leaves the Tyson Barrie-Nick Holden pairing intact. Zadorov, acquired from Buffalo in the Ryan O’Reilly trade in the offseason, played 11 games for the Avalanche, getting two assists, before he joined the Rampage.

Roy said his of message to Bigras and Zadorov: “I said to them it’s their chance … to push some guys out of the lineup and I want some consistency from them. We’re a team that wants to make the playoffs and they have an opportunity to show what they can do.”

Roy added, “From Z, he’s a big man, I want him to be intense on every shift. I don’t want him to be casual out there. When he makes his pass, have knees bent, be ready to follow the play. He has the tendency to when he makes his pass, stand up tall and look at what’s going on. I want him to stay involved. When he does that, I think he can compete against the top line. He can do a good job there”

Bigras was Colorado’s second-round pick in 2013 and joined the Lake Erie Monsters to finish out last season and winding up his major junior career with the Owen Sound Attack.

“It’s his first game,” Roy said. “He’s smart out there, positioning himself well, and we just want to see him doing the same thing.”

Is Roy concerned about having two 20-year-olds on defense?

“It’s a young league,” Roy said. “Look around the league. There’s a lot of young players in this league. They’re part of our future and we really feel it’s a good opportunity for us as an organization (and) for them as younger players, to break the ice. I had a chance to play as a 20-year-old (with Montreal) and why not give a chance to some guys to play as 20-year-olds.”

After the morning skate, Zadorov said his time in San Antonio “was a great experience (with) lots of ice time. I know I got more comfortable working on other things they want to see and I’m just happy to be back.” He added, “The thing I learned is if you’re in this league, you have to be focused every game and play your best every game to stay here for a long time.”

Bigras has cause to be more nervous, because it’s first NHL game against the Devils.

“Coming into the season, I was hoping to be up here and whatever happened happens, so it’s awesome that it did happen and I’m extremely grateful for the opportunity here,” he said.

He said of his stay in the AHL: “It’s always a learning experience. It’s the first year or pro life, not having a billet, cooking by myself, stuff like that. So I learned some stuff in the kitchen and on the ice, it’s just little details and habits of the game that pros do so well and that’s what I’ve been trying to define, the details of my game.”

Both young D-men are conscious that Roy said he wanted them to contribute a spark.

“Well, Z’s a big body, he likes to throw the body around,” Bigras said. “I’m sure he’ll be doing that to get a spark going. For me, it’s just playing my game, moving the puck up to the forwards, jumping into the offense and just making good decisions out there.”

Terry Frei: tfrei@denverpost.com or @TFrei