Colorado Avalanche goaltending will be their Achilles heel if a big move isn’t made soon

The Colorado Avalanche’s lack of attention to the goaltending position will continue to bite them. General Manager Chris MacFarland and Co. have paid nearly zero attention to the goaltending position over the last few seasons, including the Stanley Cup winning season with Darcy Kuemper.

Lightning struck once and solid goaltending along with explosive offense led them to hoist the Chalice in 2021-22. Lightning hasn’t struck again as they’ve paid a career backup to step into the starter’s crease since.

Alexandar Georgiev is a hard-working player. He’s been solid statistically, leading the NHL in wins twice during his time wearing burgundy and blue. He also gave up the most goals in the league last season.

Two seasons ago, the Avalanche were the top seed in the West and got bounced out of the playoffs by a scrappy Seattle team in the first round, a far underwhelming result for a team expected to return to the conference finals at the very least.

This past season, they were eliminated by the eventual conference champion Stars, allowing 22 goals in six games. The playoffs began by allowing seven goals in game one in Winnipeg.

Fans were calling for a change during the regular season last year. They continued that call after game one of the playoffs against Winnipeg. Georgiev righted the ship in that series, but allowing 22 goals in six games is exactly the reason why the Avalanche did not move on.

There was a stretch of play last season where Justus Annunen played well towards the end of the season. In the initial portions of the season, Annunen was playing for the Eagles while Ivan Prosvetov had been with the Avalanche.

After one game this season, they’ve already signed Kaapo Kahkonen, a journeyman netminder with a career 3.33 goals against average and a below .900 save percentage (.899). Three of those seasons came while tending goal for the moribund San Jose Sharks, however.

MacFarland is clearly spraying darts across the board, hoping something will hit the bullseye. Its clear to Avs nation that Georgiev is not the answer. Annunen has been decent in spurts, but he’s a younger goalie and goaltenders typically take time to mature in the NHL. Kahkonen has been good in spurts through his career but has yet to see action for the Avs.

With goaltending of immense importance in today’s NHL, judged by Sergei Bobrovsky backstopping the Panthers to a Stanley Cup last season and a Conn Smythe trophy of his own (Playoff MVP), Chris MacFarland needs to make a legitimate move to solidify the position before this season gets away.

Avs faithful is counting on him.