Notebook: How Many Goalies Will The Avalanche Use This Season?

I would’ve never thought a week ago that the Avalanche would be in this spot on Oct. 14. It would’ve been really hard for me to believe that they’d lose Jonathan Drouin and add him to their long list of injuries, yet they’d still score four goals in each of the first two games. But have nothing in the standings to show for it.

Goaltending is obviously the story right now. Well, the lack of goaltending. And later tonight, the Avs will play host to the 0-1-1 New York Islanders. Neither team has won a game yet. And this could be a big put-up or shut-up moment for both clubs. It’s also worth mentioning that the Islanders love Patrick Roy and they’re going to want to win this one for him.

At this point, I genuinely have no idea how the goaltending situation is going to play out. Last year I went through the entire regular season being a firm believer that Alexandar Georgiev was the guy. I backed him every step of the way and always pulled his stats from 2022-23 as the reason why I felt we needed to be patient with him. I believed the Avs would go out and bring in someone like Marc-Andre Fleury or Jake Allen to be his 1B — but he’d still be the 1A.

The moment I finally had enough, where I wrote about him no longer having my confidence, was after Game 1 of the first-round series against the Winnipeg Jets. It wasn’t until then that I finally wrote a column calling for head coach Jared Bednar to turn to Justus Annunen. And if he’s still sick, play Ivan Prosvetov. I was over it. I felt the team needed a change. But what did Georgiev do? Came right back in Game 2, then 3, 4, and 5, and eliminated the Winnipeg Jets in the next four games. He was also solid against Dallas, albeit the second-best goalie in that series.

So, I’m struggling with what to feel about his start. On one hand, two terrible games aren’t enough to define an entire season. But Georgiev had the entire offseason to work through whatever inconsistencies he had last year. And to be quite honest, his preseason was terrible before this. Nothing seems to be going his way. We know Georgiev is likely starting against the Islanders. But anything more than that is anybody’s guess. I think right now the issue isn’t necessarily what game Georgiev starts. The team just needs him to finish one.

So with all that being said, I raise the question: How many goalies will play for the Avalanche this season? Gone are the days where a team regularly dresses only two…