Has Swap In Net Changed Colorado’s View On Backup Situation? (+)

Marc-Andre Fleury. Jake Allen. Kaapo Kähkönen. If there’s a 1B or backup goaltender rumored to be available in a trade, the Colorado Avalanche have probably been linked to them.

There’s a reason why. For a large portion of the season, Alexandar Georgiev has struggled. On top of that, he’s had to play far too many games with so many unknowns behind him on the depth chart. Are his struggles connected to being overworked? It’s possible. Since the All-Star break, he’s put up a .909 save percentage. Not great, but an improvement on his numbers from most of the year.

The All-Star break just so happens to be the time the Avalanche made a swap in net, waiving Ivan Prosvetov and bringing up Justus Annunen. Since the call-up, Annunen has started three of the 11 games Colorado has played, and on Wednesday, Jared Bednar indicated that he’ll start one of the games on the two-game road trip this week. Trust seems to be growing in Annunen. On top of that, the Avalanche have to see what they have in him before making a decision on what to do in net prior to the NHL Trade Deadline.

Could this swap have changed their view of whether or not they need to use assets to acquire a backup goaltender?