The Colorado Avalanche don’t have a lot of flaws. One of their biggest strengths is the players who are between the pipes night in and night out. Those players are Mackenzie Blackwood and Scott Wedgewood.
Blackwood is locked into a contract until the 2030-31 season, while Wedgewood is entering the final year of his deal. Still, the Avalanche have nearly no choice but to come to an agreement with Wedgewood due to how well he has played for the team.
Keeping Blackwood as their starter doesn’t eliminate the thought that Wedgewood would be signed to a long-term contract from the Avalanche. It does, however, give the team a clear path for another player to come in and try to take command.
With all of that being said, though, the Avalanche have done their due diligence over the past several seasons by drafting goaltenders left and right, as well as acquiring them.
Among the drafted goaltenders still in the pipeline are Tobias Tvrznik and Alexandre Raymond (2026), Ilya Nabokov, Louka Cloutier and Ivan Yunin (2024), and the Colorado Eagles’ starter Trent Miner (2019).
Even though it still remains to be seen whether or not Miner could ever take on an NHL starting job, the team is set up nicely especially because of their interest and all of the hype surrounding Nabokov.
Nabokov was selected by the Avalanche as the first goalie chosen in the 2024 Draft. He has spent the past three seasons with Metallurg Magnitogorsk of the KHL, playing in 130 games, allowing a goals-against average of 2.37 over the last three years combined.
Though his save percentage in each of the past four seasons, dating back to 2022-23 with the Stalnye Lisy Magnitogorsk of the MHL, the Avalanche are likely still high on him going forward. They pretty much have to be. You don’t take the first goaltender off the draft board with the idea that he won’t end up being something productive in the NHL. They took him for the opposite reason—To hopefully take over.
Another possibility, however, is that the Avalanche could still bring in even more goalie prospects to strengthen the pipeline in hopes that they are set for the long-term future. While it did not work out with some goaltenders such as Kaapo Kahkonen in 2024, the Avalanche aren’t necessarily wasting their picks. I’d rather them fill up their pipeline with potential stars than not take shots at the position.
If they hit on some young goaltender prospects in the draft, like they hope they have done ove the past couple of seasons, it lessens the need to sign another goalie to take over until those players are ready. The less money they have to put into the goaltending position, the more they can use to improve the team in front of whoever is between the pipes.
That would come in very handy in the future—maybe seven or eight years from now, as this team is getting older. As Colorado’s veteran core continues to age, the Avalanche will eventually have to replace several important pieces, including Brock Nelson, Brent Burns, Nazem Kadri and Gabriel Landeskog.
Soon, Colorado will have to replace those players at some point, and having a cost-effective solution in goal would give Sakic more financial flexibility to address those future vacancies.
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