The 2026 NHL Draft is complete, and the Avalanche have restocked their prospect pool with a whopping 10 players.
The team selected goaltenders with two of those selections—Tobias Tvrznik in the fourth round and Alexandre Raymond in the seventh. We’ve already covered these two selections, so the next step is to analyze the team’s prospect pool.
In total, the Avalanche have eight prospects in their pipeline. They are Trent Miner and Ilya Nabokov of the Eagles, newly acquired Magnus Chrona, Nikita Novosyolov, Louka Cloutier, Ivan Yunin, plus the two added on Saturday.
In 2024, the team took a swing on three goalies in the draft (Nabokov, Cloutier, and Yunin). They are extremely high on Nabokov, as they wanted to get him to the AHL as soon as they possibly could, while still lending him to the KHL in the process.
Right now, Colorado has two goalies who are capable of holding down the fort in Mackenzie Blackwood and Scott Wedgewood. Wedgewood is in his mid-30’s while Blackwood is 29 going on 30 in December. In the end, the Avalanche are going to have to get someone to replace one or both of these guys.
The big question is, what are they doing? It’s not the end of the world that they keep adding to their goalie pipeline, but it does raise a question perhaps about how the goalies are doing in development. Do they know something that Avs Faithful doesn’t? Or do they just have the flexibility to throw those darts?
Throwing darts in the mid-late rounds of the NHL Draft can be a good thing. That’s really what part of the job is. They are players who very well might not ever make it to the NHL level. They might make it to the AHL at the very most. That’s okay. You’re not expecting late-round gems all of the time. That’s not realistic.
The Avalanche are clearly in contention mode right now, and they have done a lot to add to their current roster while shipping off draft picks in the process. However, they acquired three draft picks in return of Valeri Nichushkin—of which all three are in separate drafts, including the second-round pick they got in this class.
Nabokov figures to be the next big star goaltender for the Avalanche, pending something shocking like someone else stepping up. It’s going to be interesting to see how it all unfolds in the next five-plus years. The team’s window is open and will be open as long as Nathan MacKinnon are in charge.
You really don’t hear a whole lot about developing prospects. I’d be curious to know what is going on behind the scenes. Hopefully, it’s not a sign that something is going wrong with their crop of goalie prospects.
Joe Sakic is in charge now, so maybe that has something to do with the decision. Either way, it’s something to monitor for the next several years as the current roster goalies get older and the developing ones get closer to hopefully making it in the NHL.
Add us as a preferred source on Google