A lot can change in a little over a year, and that’s certainly the case for how people view the goaltending situation of the Colorado Avalanche.
Let’s take a trip down memory lane to January of 2023. The Avalanche were about to take on Calgary Flames in Calgary, and Darryl Sutter, never one to shy away from what’s on his mind, made a statement about Colorado’s goaltending.
“They’ve probably got the best one-two punch in goal for the whole year,” Sutter said.
Who Sutter was referring to was Alexandar Georgiev and Pavel Francouz. Georgiev was in the middle of a breakout season as the #1 goaltender in Colorado, and Francouz was as steady a backup as you could find in the league. Maybe it wasn’t the best tandem in the league, but it might not have been far off, especially at the time.
Entering last summer, everything seemed okay. Francouz was supposed to be healthy and confidence in Georgiev was high, despite an average performance against Seattle. Daily Faceoff ranked them the 12th best tandem in the league heading into last season, and coming off the season he had, some viewed Georgiev as a top 10 goalie
That is no longer the case.
Francouz has since retired, Georgiev is coming off a wildly inconsistent season, and while Justus Annunen performed very well in his starts last year, he’s still largely unproven. The way people view Colorado’s goaltending is quite different compared to a year ago. The Athletic is currently ranking every teams goaltending situation, and have the Avalanche at 15. Not bad, right? On paper, yes, but that’s ranking their entire goaltending outlook, including the future. They like Colorado’s future, but not so much their present, as they have the Georgiev/Annunen combo rated as the 24th best tandem in the league.
FanDuel recently posted the current odds for the Vezina Trophy winner next season. There are 19 goaltenders listed with betting odds to win the award. Georgiev’s name is nowhere to be found. Safe to say that expectations are much lower for him right now than they were a year ago.
Maybe that’s a good thing. Maybe it’s better if Georgiev comes to training camp with a chip on his shoulder. While his regular season wasn’t what everyone expected, I think he bounced back quite nicely in the playoffs. Things could have gotten ugly after that first game in Winnipeg, but he righted the ship and (for the most part) held up his end of the bargain the rest of the way. Entering a contract year, he has plenty of reasons to prove the doubters wrong.
And then you have Annunen behind Georgiev on the depth chart. While Francouz was a veteran who had proven himself to be someone who could hold down the fort for a few weeks if needed, Annunen is largely unproven. His NHL numbers were tremendous last season, but he still has just 15 NHL games under his belt. He should be plenty motivated to show last season wasn’t a fluke.
This season is also an opportunity for Annunen to show he has what it takes to be the number one goaltender for this team in the near future. A big season from him could lead to the Avalanche handing the keys over to him for the 2025-26 season. With Colorado taking the best goalie in the KHL with their top pick in this year’s draft, they’re looking to solidify the goaltending position for years to come. Annunen could easily be a part of that if he continues down the path we saw last season.
There are a lot of question marks surrounding the Avalanche heading into next season, and none might be bigger than the goaltending. Both now have the chance to prove everyone wrong.