Colorado Avalanche
The Colorado Avalanche are a team that is definitely in a go for it status at this stage. They won the Stanley Cup just two seasons ago and boast one of the best forwards in the world with Nathan MacKinnon as well as probably the best all around defenseman in the game as well with Cale Makar.
Adding to Makar on the back end the team also has Devon Toews, Bowen Byram, Sam Girard and Josh Manson giving them an embarrassment of riches on the blue line. Starting with the best group of defensemen in hockey allows a team to have a good, but not elite goaltender, but the Avalanche are struggling to get enough saves right now.
Their crease tandem is supposed to be Alexandar Georgiev and Pavel Francouz but Francouz was just ruled out for the entire season. He was expected to miss some time this year, but him being out for the whole year would have come as somewhat of a surprise.
The Avalanche have been using Ivan Provsetov as their backup this season, and he has a 2.90 GAA and a .899 SV% in four appearances. For his part, Georgiev has played 11 games and has a 3.29 GAA with a .887 SV%. He was never expected to be a “workhorse” goalie and would be at his best if he played about 45-50 games so the Avs need a great backup.
Enter Montembeault or Allen. Both would be great fits as a 1B option with Georgiev, and would put up drastically better numbers in Colorado playing behind that incredible defense. Knowing Francouz is out for the year, and knowing they can place him on long term injured reserve and use that extra cap space gives the Avalanche options.
The market meanwhile, does not give them a lot of options, so they may be calling on the Canadiens immediately to see if they can find their next goaltender.
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