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Colorado Avalanche: Pavel Francouz is Here To Stay

By Karen Cherrett

NEWARK, NEW JERSEY - JANUARY 04: Pavel Francouz #39 of the Colorado Avalanche skates in warm-ups prior to the game against the New Jersey Devils at the Prudential Center on January 04, 2020 in Newark, New Jersey. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)
NEWARK, NEW JERSEY - JANUARY 04: Pavel Francouz #39 of the Colorado Avalanche skates in warm-ups prior to the game against the New Jersey Devils at the Prudential Center on January 04, 2020 in Newark, New Jersey. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images) /
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Pavel Francouz signed a new 2 year deal with the Colorado Avalanche yesterday, then had his first career shut out. He’s here to stay.

Yesterday was a day to celebrate for Colorado Avalanche fans. And I’m not talking about the win against the Anaheim Ducks.  That was the icing on the cake. No, I’m talking about celebrating the fact that Pavel Francouz signed a new two-year contract with the Avalanche.

That means he’s ours till the end of the 2021-22 season.

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We all heard about Frankie playing for the Colorado Eagles. He was doing great things for them. But, that fact is off to the side as a fan, because it’s the Avalanche that we watch and root for.

Then during the 2018-19 season, he got to play two games for us. And we got to see him in the NHL light.  I must admit that I don’t remember those games. They were losses, so I imagine I wasn’t happy, whether I put part of the blame on him for each loss, or not.

This season though, it’s a very different story.

Francouz has played 25 games to date. At the start of the season, I was wanting him to play every game.  He’s suddenly become my favourite goaltender for the Avalanche.

Why? For me, he has a solidness about him when he’s in goal.  I watched him on the night when we were being beaten, take himself off to the side of the net during the break and run through his stretching and movement routine, mentally getting himself back in the space of stopping that puck from going into the back of the net.  And he did.

It was that night that had me realize his strength. When Frankie is in goal I notice a consistency.  That’s not as apparent with Grubauer, to me. There have been nights when I’ve groaned to find Grubi was our netminder.

I feel as though you never know what you’re going to get.  He’s either really switched on, or not. Whilst he’s pulled out some good wins and the Coach thinks he’s great, he is our #1 goalie, after all, I don’t feel that confidence.

When I hear that Francouz is our goalie I feel a confidence that we’re going to get a great night of goal tending.

I wouldn’t wish injury on anyone, yet with Grubauer out indefinitely with a Lower Body Injury the best news was the Frankie would be in net.

I’m glad that Joe Sakic has the belief in him to sign him on a new two-year contract. He proved that he is worthy of playing in the NHL shutting out the 26 shots that the Anaheim Ducks put on net last night.

Next. Francouz and Kaut Record Firsts. dark

It will be interesting to see what happens when the new Seattle franchise becomes operational. We’ve lost our good goalies to these situations before, and it’s disappointing. Calvin Pickard is the person I’m thinking of. I loved him in net for us. When he was moved in the 2017-18 season he lost the edge that he’d had with the Avs.

I, for one, certainly hope that we see Francouz with the Colorado Avalanche for a number of years to come.

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