Avalanche Biggest Western Conference Pretenders

Despite Stanley Cup ambitions, the Colorado Avalanche are the biggest pretenders in the Western Conference.

May 17, 2024; Denver, Colorado, USA; Colorado Avalanche center Nathan MacKinnon (29) skates towards Dallas Stars goaltender Jake Oettinger (29) in the second period in game six of the second round of the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs at Ball Arena. Mandatory Credit: Ron Chenoy-Imagn Images / Ron Chenoy-Imagn Images

The Colorado Avalanche are now two seasons removed from their Stanley Cup championship run in 2022. The core of the team, Nathan Mackinnon, Cale Makar, and Mikko Rantanen are still three of the best players in the league. With such a talented core, many believe they are in the hunt for the Cup again this upcoming season.

Unfortunately for the Avalanche and their fans, that is a misplaced belief. Colorado will be a playoff team, there's no argument to make against that. But they are not one of the Stanley Cup contenders entering the season.

The biggest hindrance to the Avalanche's upcoming Stanley Cup pursuit starts and ends in net. When the team hoisted the trophy in 2022, they had Darcy Kuemper and Pavel Francouz backstopping the team. Neither was a Vezina Trophy-winner by any means, but they were exactly what the team needed during their run.

Now the team depends on Alexandar Georgiev. In both seasons as the starter, he's played 62 games, winning 38 and 42 games respectively. Winning games in the regular season isn't a problem for the Avalanche or Georgiev.

The problem is the postseason. Maybe it's overuse during the regular season or some sort of issue that other teams are picking up on, but Georgiev struggles in the playoffs. This past postseason was troubling for the Bulgarian-born netminder. Starting 11 games, he posted a middling 2.85 goals against average and his save percentage dipped to .897%. It was, simply put, not a championship effort or performance, and the Avalanche sputtered to elimination during the second round of the playoffs.

It would be less of a problem for the Avalanche if there were other options available. Backing up Georgiev is Justus Annunen. The 24-year-old Finnish goaltender looked promising over 12 starts last season, but he's still unproven. The Avalanche are likely to rely more on him this season to relieve the pressure on Georgiev, but he's not ready for any larger role than back-up.

Which means the Avalanche will likely start Georgiev 50-60 games again in 2024-2025. Maybe this third season will be the charm for Colorado and yield a different result. However, it's more than likely that with their current tandem in net, the Avalanche will remain one of the biggest pretenders in the Western Conference this season.

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