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Colorado Avalanche goaltender depth an issue? Francouz out for 2023-24

By Graham Tiedtke

Apr 9, 2023; Anaheim, California, USA; Colorado Avalanche goaltender Pavel Francouz (39) defends the goal against the Anaheim Ducks during the second period at Honda Center. Mandatory Credit: Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports
Apr 9, 2023; Anaheim, California, USA; Colorado Avalanche goaltender Pavel Francouz (39) defends the goal against the Anaheim Ducks during the second period at Honda Center. Mandatory Credit: Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports /
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The Colorado Avalanche announced on Sunday that they will be without goaltender Pavel Francouz for the entire 2023-24 season as he recovers from an LBI, also known as a lower-body injury. As you may know, or maybe you don’t, in the NHL, teams usually are hush-hush about specifics when it comes to injuries, so your guess is as good as mine.

Well, at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter for right now. The speculation of when Francouz will return will have to wait until the beginning of next season. Maybe he’ll be ready to go, maybe he won’t.

That leads me to the next thing: With Francouz out, that leaves Ivan Prosvetov the primary backup to Alexandar Georgiev, who unfortunately has gotten the first few losses of his season recently. No, I’m not going to blame all the goals against on him because there are many factors that go into that sort of thing in every situation.

The defense of the Colorado Avalanche has sometimes failed to help the goaltenders. While, yes, it is a goaltender’s job to save every puck that is shot his way, the defense needs to be in position and be able to prevent some of the shots from going through. That is not what has been happening some of the time and it has been evident.

Prosvetov is 1-1 this season in place of Georgiev after Georgiev started the first eight games of the season. No, we shouldn’t expect Prosvetov to start in goal a whole lot, but when he does start, the Avalanche defense needs to help him out a lot. The offense has to stop gifting takeaways by the other team.

I would love to say that we should expect Prosvetov to reach the next level in his game, but that’s an unfair ask right now. I would say keep things the way they are right now. It is a long season and having a change in the net isn’t always a good thing. It could cause a lot of miscommunication.

We are just hoping that Prosvetov is the answer this season, and who knows going forward.

Francouz is scheduled to become a free agent in the offseason. Whether or not the Colorado Avalanche re-sign him is heavily dependent on his recovery from whatever it is that’s keeping him out this entire year. That being said, I hope for the best during his recovery. It has got to be very serious.

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