Colorado Avalanche Will Move A Goalie Before Expansion

The Colorado Avalanche may have to move one of their goalies before the expansion draft to get some return on him.

The Colorado Avalanche are what in what is normally considered a good spot: they have an experienced number one goalie and a backup with a lot of potential for the future. However, with the expansion draft looming GM Joe Sakic is sure to move one of them.

One good thing from this off season is that Sakic has finally proven he can sign a talented young player without going to arbitration. In case you haven’t heard, Calvin Pickard is now locked up through the 2018 season at a very modest 1 million a year. However, it’s a one-way contract meaning that if for some reason the Colorado Avalanche do decide they need to send him down he’s nearly guaranteed to get lost to waivers.

Anyway, it’s great the Colorado Avalanche have locked him up. Too bad they’ll have to move either him or Semyon Varlamov before next June, here’s why.

Goalies And The Expansion Draft

More from Mile High Sticking

With Las Vegas getting a team for the 2017-2018 season there will be an expansion draft next June. The NHL has already made it clear that they don’t want a repeat of past expansions where teams like Nashville and Atlanta struggled for years before being able to compete (and the Thrashers really never competed at all). As such the expansion draft rules are much more aggressive this time around.

For a full list of the expansion rules visit click here, but we’re going to focus on one aspect for right now: teams can only protect one goalie.

Now June 2018 may seem like a long ways away, but teams are already making trades based off of it. It was a definite factor in the Ducks trading Frederick Anderson to Toronto. It was also very likely a factor in Brian Elliot being traded to Calgary. And it will be a factor when the Avs move one of their goalies sometime in the next year. Why are these teams moving goalies for a draft in which there’s only 1/15 chance that a goalie of theirs is taken that won’t happen in a year? Because the better managed a team’s goaltenders were, the more they have to lose.

So the Colorado Avalanche have Semyon Varlamov (who we’ll call a solid number one for this discussion) and potential star Calvin Pickard both under contract past the expansion draft. For the sake of argument let’s say Varlamov regains his form this season and is the indisputable starter, but Pickard is still waiting to take the reigns one day. Do you protect Varlamov for the 3 more good years he has and risk leaving a very bright young player with a modest cap hit open to the draft?

Or if Pickard does well, do the Colorado Avalanche want lose Semyon Varlamov (who will always has some trade value for as unspectacular as he has been the last two years his numbers are still solid), for nothing in the expansion draft?

Next: Avs Roster Starting To Take Shape

The answer to both of those is obviously no. The Colorado Avalanche look to have two fairly valuable goalies on their roster right now, and they can only protect one. And unless either’s play falls off a cliff without a parachute next season there’s really no right answer to who’d you protect.

The answer will be (or at least very much should be) to move a goalie now so they actually get something in return. But if Sakic tries to pay hardball, the goalie market may dry up quickly, leading to diminished returns on whoever he decides to move. And if he sits on his butt and does nothing I’m guessing I’ll be here in a year linking to this article as the Avs start the 2018 season without a very valuable goaltender.