Notebook: With Goaltending Settled, What’s the Next Move for the Avalanche?

It only took the Avalanche two games to realize that goaltending would be a problem. But to no avail, the team still sat back and gave both Alexandar Georgiev and Justus Annunen ample opportunity to take control of the crease.

And as we’ve seen over the past handful of weeks, general manager Chris MacFarland acted quickly to revamp his goalies completely. Scott Wedgewood and Mackenzie Blackwood — two former teammates, two guys with upbeat personalities — were brought in over the course of nine days.

The sample sizes are small but the results look great so far. Wedgewood is 3-2-0 in five games, boasting a 1.91 GAA with a shiny .931 save percentage. He also has Colorado’s only shutout victory this season. And Blackwood, who made his debut on Saturday against Nashville, is 1-0-0, stopping 37-of-39 shots against the Predators (.949 save percentage).

Again, the sample size isn’t all that big. But the early returns tell me that the goaltending position is secure. Is there still a possibility that one or both goalies struggle at times? Yes, of course. But I find it hard to believe the Avalanche are going to end up in another situation like the one they were in from early October until late November. Georgiev and Annunen donned the 50th and 52nd best save percentages out of 52 goalies when both were dealt.

The team is suddenly 5-2-0 in its last seven games, guys like Nathan MacKinnon and Casey Mittelstadt, who were struggling for parts of the last couple of weeks (for their standards), are back to producing. And things seem to finally be getting figured out. Was this all the team needed to prepare for a playoff run — is the roster composition complete?

“Not totally yet, no,” MacFarland said last Monday following the Blackwood acquisition. “I think there are things that we could still be better at that we certainly will have to try and improve.”

Taking that into account, I raise the question: What’s the next move for the Avalanche?

I still wonder about center depth. I mentioned on Saturday on my podcast, Rinkside with Aarif Deen, that the Blackwood trade would’ve looked a whole heck of a lot better had the forward coming back to Colorado been Nico Sturm. It’s a player they’re familiar with and one that could slot nicely into a bottom-six center spot — preferably on the fourth line. But at $2 million, bringing in Sturm without some sort of salary retention would eat up a lot more than the team probably would want for a player of his ilk.

The Sharks would’ve had to eat half his salary for it to make sense.

Head coach Jared Bednar said postgame on Saturday that he’s not considering moving Ross Colton back to center anytime soon. He’s really happy with the production he’s getting from him on the wing and also noted he likes who he currently has down the middle.

Parker Kelly is centering the third line and Ivan Ivan is the 4C. They’re doing an admirable job, but I find it hard to believe the team is going to roll into the playoffs with them in those spots.

Trading for a third-line center is an obvious move. Someone like, for example, Morgan Frost. He’s currently centering Philadelphia’s second line but is better suited for a bottom-six role. Frost has four goals and 12 points in 29 games. I’m sure other names make more sense but I’ll dive into a long list of options closer to the deadline. It’s hard to speculate on who could be moved when teams are still at or around 30 GP.

Aside from center depth, I really wonder if this is the year Colorado makes another splash on defense. In 2022, Erik Johnson was a staple of the top four before the Avalanche went out and acquired Josh Manson. Suddenly, Manson was the RHD on the second pair, pushing EJ down to the third pair, and Ryan Murray and Jack Johnson were the extra options on defense.

Could something like that happen again? It’s well-documented that the Avs need another mean, big body. Manson is currently injured but hasn’t played quite as well as he did a year ago when healthy. He could use some help, or perhaps a bump to the third pair just like the bump EJ got heading into the eventual Stanley Cup championship run.

With Cale Makar, Devon Toews, Samuel Girard, Sam Malinski, and Manson, a top-four acquisition could make Colorado’s blueline one of the deepest in the league. Granted in this specific scenario, one of Manson or Malinski would need to play on the left for them to be paired together.

I don’t expect any other big moves to come soon, but the team feels like it’s still incomplete. The trade deadline this season is on March 7.

Calum Ritchie

Calum Ritchie was named to Team Canada’s roster for the upcoming World Junior Championship. Props to the kid for continuing to excel offensively in the OHL following a brief seven-game stint with the Avs. Ritchie, who is one of the older players on Canada’s roster this year, has 34 points in 18 games with the Oshawa Generals. Depending on how things shake out, he could find himself as the first-line center for Team Canada.

Unrelated to the Avs, but I loved seeing three draft-eligible prospects get named to Team Canada as well. Porter Martone and Matthew Schaefer — two of the projected top-5 picks in the upcoming NHL Draft both made the roster. Schaefer, a defenseman, and Martone, a forward, are both enjoying breakout seasons.

But the one that intrigues me most is Gavin McKenna. The 17-year-old leads the WHL in points and isn’t eligible to be drafted until 2026. He’s still a year out from his draft year and is dominating that league. He’s expected to go No. 1 overall in 18 months and will get his first look on a big stage.

Selfishly, I’d love to see Ritchie centering McKenna and Martone.

(Also, for those who are unaware, I’m Canadian!)

Miles Wood

I’ve thought about this since before his injury, but I wonder if Miles Wood is someone the team would like to trade mid-season. At $2.5 million, you could do a lot to bring in more useful players given the lack of center depth, defense, etc. Also, when Wood was healthy, Bednar was playing Joel Kiviranta on the third line ahead of him quite often. Either way, nothing is going to happen while he’s out so we’ll first have to wait and see how long it takes him to get healthy and back into the lineup.