The Colorado Avalanche likely have a plan in place in terms of who of their recent goalie acquisitions will be named the starter. It’ll either be Scott Wedgewood (acquired from the Nashville Predators) or Mackenzie Blackwood (acquired from the San Jose Sharks). I think that based off of Thursday night’s game, it might still be up for grabs. It’s a good thing the Avalanche switched up the goalie room. However, if it weren’t for another team, the Avs could have possibly gotten Blackwood for cheaper.
According to NHL insider Elliotte Friedman, the Avalanche had competition for Blackwood, who just recently turned 28 years old. The team that was also bidding for Blackwood was the Carolina Hurricanes.
The Avalanche traded goaltender Alexandar Georgiev, Nikolai Kovalenko, and two future draft picks in exchange for Blackwood, forward Givani Smith, and a 2027 fifth-round pick. Personally, I think that the Avalanche did the right thing here, especially when you think about how Smith actually has played some minutes for the Avalanche already.
Thursday night’s 4-1 loss to the Utah Hockey Club was a lot closer than the score indicates, and by no means were the goals on the Avalanche Scott Wedgewood’s fault. Sometimes it’s just how the cookie crumbles. Two of the four goals allowed by the Avalanche were off of bounces, which are hard to stop.
The Hurricanes have Pyotr Kochetkov as their starting goaltender. Kochetkov has a save percentage of under .900, just like Georgiev.
I’m not sure when the trade talks began between the Avalanche and Sharks, but I think that it was a foregone conclusion that the Avs needed to make a change and were likely going to. It was a bit of a surprise to see both of the goalies who started the year gone within a week of each other, but it does make some sense.
The Avalanche must’ve felt that Annunen wasn’t heading in the right direction despite signing a 2-year extension in March.
Kovalenko played in 28 games for the Avalanche this season, recording four goals and four assists. He was a minus-seven player and averaged 12 minutes a game. While he wasn’t dreadful, Colorado had to give something else up to get the return they wanted. Hopefully Kovalenko turns out to be a very good addition for the Sharks. He’s on a roll with three assists on 13 shifts on Thursday.