Avalanche Goalie-Go-Round

Ever since the Avs went with Budaj/ Raycroft it’s been a joke. What you say? But Craig Anderson! Yes, yes. BUT. But, if you can be honest with yourself, that was a shot in the dark, a gamble, a roll of the dice. Ok, over doing the metaphors? It wasn’t a complete shot in the dark, maybe a shot in a dimly lit room.

Anderson was an unknown as a starter. At least with Raycroft and Theodore they had a little hardware in the trophy case to back up the gamble. Anderson? Nothing. So sure, it worked out for a year. I guess we should be happy about that. But then once the Avs did get a decent goalie they played the old hard-ball way of doing business. One contract offer, take it or leave it. That was all fine and dandy in the old glory days. Players wanted badly to be a part of this wining, star-studded team. But times have changed.

Really, I should amend that. Ever since Theodore/Budaj it’s been a joke. Or was it Budaj/Theodore? And that’s the point, isn’t it? How did Peter Budaj manage to usurp Jose Theodore’s starting job? Peter Budaj, a guy the Avs are going to let walk this off-season? Uh-huh.

So whether it’s bringing in bust goalies or busting the balls of the decent one we had – this organ-eye-zation hasn’t got it right since Roy. It doesn’t take statistics to determine that that is a poor rate of success.

Imagine if we were looking at Elliott/Budaj in goal next season? Wow. That’s not rebuilding. That’s a wrecking ball. Apparently it isn’t going to happen, thankfully.

Should the Avs have gone for Michael Leighton when he went through waivers? Beats me, I thought so and said as much on Twitter but now that I think about it, it’s just more of the same. Hmmm, that Bryzgalov guy was claimed off waivers and that worked out ok…well anyway.

Now there is a little talk going on in Washington that Semyon Varlamov might not be signing with the Caps. That’s a guy that has had some injury problems but that also looks pretty solid when I’ve seen him play. Heck, he replaced Jose Theodore as the #1 goalie…oh wait, everyone does that…well anyway. The Avs and Caps may be able to work another trade. The Caps need help at center and defense and the Avs just happen to be doing well in those positions if you consider future prospects.

A veteran candidate is Tomas Vokoun, though why he would want to play here I can’t imagine. Bryzgalov wouldn’t play here even if the Avs did pay him. The hot, young trade possibilities all seem to be in the West or worse, in the Northwest and that just makes it less likely that teams are going to want to face that player on down the line.

By far this area of the Avalanche is going to come under the most scrutiny this next season. If the Avs falter in acquiring a quality goalie, the critics are going to be talking about how they let Anderson get away. And they would have a legitimate point.