Nathan MacKinnon was back on skates Wednesday at the Pepsi Center, a participant in a roughly 90-minute Avalanche practice before the team boarded a charter to Dallas to begin a two-game preseason road trip that will finish in that hockey capital of the world, Las Vegas.

MacKinnon is “100 percent again,” he said, after missing some time with a hip-flexor injury.

“It was a minor thing for sure, but it was kind of a gradual thing that was going on through camp. This was my first training camp, and I was a little tight before (his first preseason) game, and after the first period it just kind of flamed up a little bit,” MacKinnon said. “But I’m back ready to go, and excited to get my first road game.”

MacKinnon will be in the Avs’ lineup Thursday night at American Airlines Arena when they play the Dallas Stars. The Avs will conclude their preseason with a Saturday night game at the MGM Grand Garden Arena against the Los Angeles Kings.

MacKinnon is a hard skater, with a long stride. Is he worried about hip and/or groin issues becoming a recurring problem?

“I’ve grown a lot the last couple years. I used to be really small. So, I’m pretty tight still,” MacKinnon said. “But I’ve been working a lot off the ice to get my hips and groins looser. Obviously, with my stride, it can be pretty long, so I definitely have to work on keeping my flexibility. But I think I think I’ll be OK. I think I’ll have a healthy career for sure.”

Elliott demoted. The Avs on Wednesday sent defenseman Stefan Elliott to Lake Erie of the AHL, brining the training-camp roster down to 27 players. The team must cut four more players by opening night of the regular season.

“It was a tough decision, but at the same time, we think he needs to play,” Avs coach Patrick Roy said. “He needs to play a lot of minutes. He needs to be a No. 1 guy over there. Here, he could have been (a seventh) D-man, and I thought that would not be good for his development.”

Adrian Dater: adater@denverpost.com or twitter.com/adater