Behold, a long-form podcast “in-between-isode” with AJ Haefle of the BSN Avalanche Podcast – who is probably the most knowledgeable person I know when it comes to the Colorado Avalanche. So, when I began to ask myself questions about the Colorado Avalanche goaltending situation and pipeline, AJ was the first person I reached out to with this loosely held hypothesis.
In short, I think that the Colorado Avalanche may be setting themselves up to be weak in net as the rest of the team starts to develop into a legit playoff team.
And for good reason, they had a real problem at defense that needed to be addressed before anything else. But with the recent additions of Girard, the improved play of Zadorov and Barrie, and the rest of the defensive core starting to gel in the Bednar system – I feel like we’re further along on the defensive pipeline than we expected to be by now.
So what next?
A year ago today the Avs had deep concerns about depth at every position. But, with the recent trades and drafting efforts of Joe Sakic and gang, we’ve started to solve our defensive problems a bit, at least enough to ponder the question, what really, is our next greatest need?
We are notably short when it comes to a true top six forward core. But it’s also arguable that we’re further along in that area than it seems with the play of MacK, Landy, Rants, Compher, Jost, Ghetto… Wilson. And who knows, maybe a Greer, Kerfoot or even a Kamenev can start to give us more than we expected in at forward. If not as a true top 6, just having some legit depth to step-in for a handful of games here and there is still valuable, and may be good enough for a draft year.
But the one area I’m completely unclear on is goaltending. Who will be the Colorado Avalanche Goaltender when our young core matures and we start having real conversations about going deep in the playoffs, and maybe even about a run at the Stanley Cup?
Show Notes:
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