The 2023-24 NHL trade deadline has come and gone with the Colorado Avalanche making plenty of moves to try and help them make it to the postseason. They sent Bo Byram to the Buffalo Sabres for Casey Mittelstadt and also acquired forward Yakov Trenin and unsigned draft pick Graham Seward. They also added Sean Walker in a trade.
The one position that fans might question the Avalanche in not addressing is the goaltender spot. By not trading for a goalie—and there were some that went to other teams in a trade—it shows that the Avalanche are content with sticking with Justus Annunen and Ivan Prosvetov behind starter Alexandar Georgiev.
Earlier in the day, it appeared that the Boston Bruins were exploring a trade by shipping off Linus Ullmark, but it didn’t come to fruition due to some sort of geographical reasoning. I believe that the Colorado Avalanche were likely exploring the addition of Ullmark, especially with media suggesting the team was in on the goaltender market just earlier today. It would make sense that they would go for someone such as Ullmark.
The Avalanche could have heavily benefited from adding to their goalie position, with such a lack of experience behind Georgiev. Although Justus Annunen has done well for the team lately, those games were against the Chicago Blackhawks, the worst team in the entire NHL. So it’s safe to wonder how confident fans should be with that spot on the roster. I like Annunen and think he can improve, but if the Colorado Avalanche had a chance to make that spot better on the team, they should have done it.
Who knows—maybe Annunen will prove to be a viable option going forward. He certainly hasn’t shown enough for people to say he is not the guy for the job—but will the Avalanche look to replace him the next time they are able to? Only time will tell.