Justus Annunen deserves more playing time for the Colorado Avalanche

Thankfully, the Colorado Avalanche have secured a playoff berth following the team’s impressive victory over the Nashville Predators on Saturday. In a move that sparked the team into dominance, replacing Alexandar Georgiev with Justus Annunen early was the right call made by Jared Bednar.

Once again, I admit that I was wrong about the team’s goaltender situation… in a way. I thought that the Avalanche needed a more experienced backup to Alexandar Georgiev. In reality, I now think that Justus Annunen should get a few more games of action. He has earned it.

He is 6-3 on the season, with a save percentage of .932. Annunen has not allowed more than three goals since his first three starts on the season. The Colorado Avalanche have been playing solid hockey since the 2024 NHL trade deadline, too.

It might be crazy to say—but maybe not—that the Avalanche seem to play better with Annunen in the net. Of course, I understand that every goalie has a bad game here and there, but in my opinion, Georgiev’s confidence might be shaken at this point. It might be the perfect time for Annunen to get more playing time in place of the starter Georgiev.

The Avalanche signed Annunen to a two-year extension recently, and it was well-deserved. Again, I was wrong in thinking that the team made a mistake in not trading for a goalie, but at the time, Annunen hadn’t put enough good games together for me to feel the way that I feel now about him. The contract extension was a great move by Chris MacFarland and Joe Sakic.

With just a handful of games remaining in the 2023-24 NHL regular season, I would not be surprised to see Annunen get a handful more games to close out the year as we head into the postseason. When he gets in a postseason game or two, I don’t plan on going into the game nervous.