Colorado Avalanche Could Solve Goalie Woes with a Trade
The Colorado Avalanche need to solve their goal tending woes if they want to salvage the season. That may require a trade.
The Colorado Avalanche need goal tending help. The team relies so much on their goalies to bail them out, and that hasn’t been happening lately.
What’s worse, goal tending has been costing the Avs games. Granted, they haven’t been getting enough scoring, but both goalies are under .900 in save percentage. That kind of net minding isn’t going to help the Avalanche make the playoffs, much less make much of a run.
To be honest, I don’t think we’re going to get any goalie help — I think the current administration and coaching staff is going to continue to do what they’re doing with the admonition to Semyon Varlamov and Philipp Grubauer to “Do better.”
It’s no fun to think that way, though. So, even if we are going to see our season go up in goal tending flames, let’s look at some trades that, if GM Joe Sakic chose to try, might actually solve or alleviate our goalie woes.
For this purpose, I’m only looking at teams who are unlikely to make the playoffs. The main trade I’d suggest is either Varlamov or Grubauer — maybe a late-round pick to sweeten the pot, if necessary.
Keith Kinkaid
Age: 29
Current Team: New Jersey Devils
Current Stats: 3.12 GAA, 0.898 save percentage in 36 games
All-Time Stats: 2.82 GAA , .909 % in 146 games
Unfairly, the New Jersey Devils are deep in the goalie pool. Indeed, I’m going to consider three from their depth. The first is the man they have suiting up as backup to their prized Cory Schneider, Keith Kinkaid.
He’s scouted as a solid backup goalie who moves well laterally and mirrors shooters well. He can get out of position, but he’s a big goalie (6-foot-3, 195 pounds), so he takes up a lot of the net front.
Kinkaid will be an unrestricted free agent this summer. Because of his contract status, I wouldn’t trade Grubauer for him. Because he’s younger than Varlamov and currently putting up better numbers, I’d throw in as high as a fifth-rounder for him in addition to Varly.
Eddie Lack
Age: 31
Current Team: Binghamton Devils
Current Stats: 4.06 GAA, 0.863 % (AHL) in 16 games
All-Time Stats: 2.62 GAA, .909 % (NHL) in 144 games
You know you have goalie depth when Eddie Lack is your fourth stringer. Yes, the 31-year-old goalie’s best days are probably behind him. However, some of those stats are better than we’ve seen in a while — especially when you look at his all-time stats.
Here’s how I think an Eddie Lack trade works. You’d have to send over Varlamov. However, the Avs should expect back Lack and a draft pick or maybe a low-level prospect — Eddie hasn’t seen any NHL time this season, though he played four games for New Jersey last year (3.19 GAA, .903 save percentage).
The rationale for acquiring Lack would be to make room for Pavel Francouz at the NHL level. This one’s a big gamble because Grubauer hasn’t earned the starting position and Francouz has extremely limited NHL time under his belt. But, hey, with Varly out of the way, Lack can take on Eagles duty while we try a Grubi-Frankie tandem experiment.
Age: 22
Current Team: Binghamton Devils
Current Stats: 2.37 GAA, 0.926% (NHL) in 13 games
All-Time Stats: 2.37 GAA, 0.926% (NHL) in 13 games
MacKenzie Blackwood is the Devils’ third-string goalie, and boy-oh-boy is he good. In 13 NHL games this season, he recorded a 2.37 GAA and 0.926 save percentage. Weirdly, his AHL stats aren’t quite as good — 2.63 GAA and 0.912 save percentage.
The Devils picked Blackwood in the second round of the 2015 NHL Draft. After this season, he has one year left on his entry-level contract. He’s big — 6-foot-4, 225 pounds — and young, so he sometimes makes youthful mistakes.
However, I think he could be the future of the Colorado Avalanche’s goalie woes. Unfortunately, I imagine the Devils intend for him to be their future. They’d want Grubauer and maybe a draft pick or prospect. That’s a little painful.
Hindsight is 20-20. I liked the Nicolas Meloche drafting at the time. However, New Jersey picked Blackwood just two picks later — imagine if we’d had that foresight.
Age: 27
Current Team: LA Kings
Current Stats: 2.19 GAA, 0.931 % in 17 games
All-Time Stats: 2.40 GAA, .926 % in 24 games
The LA Kings, for all their woes, are another team that have ridiculous goalie depth. They continue to employ one of the best goalies in the game, Jonathan Quick. His current backup, Jack Campbell, is the player I’m considering for a trade.
Campbell’s is a tale of a career gone awry. The Dallas Stars selected him in the first round of 2010, 11th overall. However, as you see above, he has just 24 NHL games in seven years, and most of them coming this season with the Kings. I think he suffered a lot of missed opportunities.
Indeed, the Kings have him for cheap — $675,000 through next season. Combined with how well he’s doing, they probably don’t want to cough him up. How about Grubi and a prospect? I mean, his stats are better than Grubauer’s (3.38 GAA, .891 %), yet our big German is more expensive ($3.3 million for two more seasons.)
Cal Petersen
Age: 24
Current Team: Ontario Reign/LA Kings
Current Stats: 2.61 GAA, 0.924 % in 11 games (NHL)
All-Time Stats: 2.61 GAA, 0.924 % in 11 games (NHL)
If the Kings don’t want to send over their best backup, maybe they’d cough up their third stringer? Cal Petersen has played in 11 NHL games in his career, all this season with the Kings. And, as you can see above, his stats are good,
Interestingly, like Blackwood, his stats are lesser at the AHL level — this season he’s at 3.94 GAA and 0.891 save percentage with the Ontario Reign.
Petersen has one year left on his entry-level contract, valued at $925,000. Would the Kings accept Varlamov in trade? Sure — if we retained some salary. Might have to cough up a seventh-rounder, too.
Still, it really doesn’t seem fair to see how much goalie depth some teams have when we’re over here parched.
Age: 30
Current Team: Charlotte Checkers
Current Stats: 3.34 GAA, 0.884 % (NHL) in 8 games
All-Time Stats: 2.72 GAA, .908 % (NHL) in 126 games
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The Caroline Hurricanes are another goalie-rich team, and one that’s only three points out of a playoff spot at the time of writing. They have six goalies signed to contracts — Petr Mrazek and Curtis McElhinney with Scott Darling as the third stringer,
It’s Darling I’m looking at as a potential trade target. You might remember he was the “darling” (yep, I went there) of the 2015 Stanley Cup-winning Chicago Blackhawks. He’s a big (6-foot-6, 232-pound) goalie with an inspiring backstory that’s now fallen prey to the reality of pro sports.
Darling has only eight NHL games this season with the Hurricanes after a full season as their number one (?). His numbers weren’t great this year with the NHL team, and they’re not fabulous at the AHL level either — 3.26 GAA and 0.885 save percentage in 13 games.
Darling also doesn’t come cheap. The Hurricanes had to bury his salary when they sent him to the AHL, and he’ll be making $4.15 million over the next two years after this one.
Maybe a change of scenery would help Scott Darling again. That said, the Avalanche would not want to give up much to acquire the veteran net minder — Varlamov should be sufficient. It would be nice if Carolina would retain some of Scott’s salary. However, even if they didn’t, maybe he’d be a better “second number one” for Colorado than the tandem of Varlamov and Grubauer.
Next. 3 Trade Destinations for Tyson Barrie. dark
Like I said in the introduction, I highly doubt the Colorado Avalanche will make a move for any of the above goalies, or any goalie at all. However, it’s nice to think of what can be if the team decided to make a trade.