Josh Manson is expected to miss eight weeks for the Colorado Avalanche because of an ankle injury, coach Jared Bednar said Friday.

The defenseman left a 5-2 win against the New Jersey Devils on Wednesday at 15:19 of the first period after falling awkwardly after a missed body check and did not return.

Manson has four points (one goal, three assists) in 13 games this season. He leads the Avalanche in hits (28) and is third in blocked shots (17).

He is in his sixth season with the Avalanche and won the Stanley Cup with them in 2022.

"It's a kind of (an) irreplaceable loss," Colorado defenseman Brett Kulak said. "The leadership, the physicality, that experience, it's not easy to replace.

So yeah, we're going to miss him a lot and just hope his recovery goes quick. I think it was just good news on the injury.

Like I think it could have been a lot worse than it was.

With Manson out of the lineup, Noah Juulsen is expected to be a regular in the lineup. He has one assist in eight games this season and is averaging 10:38 of ice time per game.

"I love his attitude. He wants to do anything he can to help," Bednar said.

"He's a real positive guy, and he's played great for us. So yeah, we're going to need him, obviously, with'Mans' being out for eight weeks.

We've had a lot of years here where we just had six'D' and our seventh is a recall guy, and it's nice to have him here because he's with our group every day. There's no, like, bringing guys up to speed.

He just jumps right in and continues to play well.

Colorado (7-5-1) next hosts the Calgary Flames on Saturday (10 p.m. ET; ALT, SN).

"It's nothing new. We've all kind of experienced a big piece going down," Kulak said.

"We missed Cale (Makar, last season). We've missed lots of different guys.

It's just part of the business, part of the game. We know what to expect.

You got to pick up the slack, and you know what? Everyone's got to have a little more bite in their game, too.

You don't have to go and lay the hits'Mans' lays, but you still got to collectively make it a hard night, hard team to play against for the other teams.

NHL.com independent correspondent Ryan Boulding contributed to this report