Colorado Avalanche Playing Roulette with Goalies

The Colorado Avalanche are playing Spencer Martin over the acknowledged backup goalie, Calvin Pickard, against the San Jose Sharks.

The Colorado Avalanche have three serviceable goalies in their system: Semyon Varlamov, Calvin Pickard and Spencer Martin. Varlamov, of course, is out with his annual groin injury – he should be out until after the All Star Break at least.

Ostensibly, that should mean Pickard is the starting goalie because he’s won the spot as Varlamov’s backup. Indeed, there’s a pretty good faction in Avs Nation that thinks Pickard should be taking over the starting job sooner rather than later. We’ve covered that idea here:

As of right now, Calvin Pickard has started 20 games and played in a total 22 — just two fewer than Varlamov, incidentally. His record is 7-12-1 with a save percentage of .904% and a goals against average of 3.01. Those numbers are better than Varlamov’s through a similar sample size.

They still aren’t the most stellar of numbers, but this has been a horrendous season for the Colorado Avalanche. Pickard has faced 638 shots, roughly 30 shots per game.

With Varlamov out, it makes sense to let Pickard show what he can do as the starter. It’s hard to know how the Avs could eventually unload Varlamov. The Denver Post’s Mike Chambers puts it pretty succinctly:

Sounds good, but how do you shed said contract when he's often injured and has a sub-.900 SP? https://t.co/Di9Tszk099
— Mike Chambers (@MikeChambers) January 23, 2017

Nonetheless, we can dream moving forward about Pickard and his $1 million cap hit serving as our number one goalie one day with Varlamov’s $5.9 million off the books. (Not to mention his wonky groin dictating the pace of Avalanche seasons.)

In any case, Pickard has been groomed for the last two seasons to be the go-to guy when Varlamov is out. Yet tonight against the San Jose Sharks — who competed for the Stanley Cup last June — AHL goalie Spencer Martin is getting his second consecutive start.

Before I go any farther, let me make this clear: I have nothing against Martin. He’s been good in the AHL — good enough to be nominated to the AHL All Star Weekend.

He had a good game against San Jose. He faced 30 shots and made 27 saves in his NHL debut. He got the team to overtime, and the game-winning goal was not a soft one. I don’t mean this to be a knock on Spencer Martin.

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Instead, I’d like to point out that this appears to be another example of Jared Bednar happily putting in AHL players in place of NHLers. He’s been doing it with Cody Goloubef since December. And, yes, I think it’s because he’s really an AHL coach at heart.

Now, Pickard doesn’t seem to be as fragile as the rest of the team. According to the Denver Post, Picks acknowledged that the situation was unique in that the Avs are playing the Sharks in back to back games. He added:

"“I think they want to get him back in there. He’s fresh with that team in his mind.”"

Bednar concurred in his hokey way:

"“I thought he played real well in San Jose. [We’re] giving him a good chance to go back in the net and see if he can kind of repeat that last performance.”"

Pickard has already been tapped to start Wednesday against the Vancouver Canucks.

There is no goalie controversy. Pickard is a professional and an absolute team player. I’m sure he has a good relationship with Martin, which could come in handy if they’re the tandem next season.

MORE FROM MILE HIGH STICKING: The Avs Solid Calvin Pickard

However, I would never put it past the Colorado Avalanche to make a bone-headed move like expose Pickard in the expansion draft instead of Varlamov with an eye to putting Martin in as the backup. Especially since Bendar has been pretty free with criticizing Calvin.

No, I hope these back-to-back starts really are nothing more than riding a (semi) hot goal tender.