(Photo by Dave Sandford / NHLI via Getty Images)
Another season for the Colorado Avalanche has come and gone. In part three of our season review, we’ll interview goalkeepers who played for Colorado this year, as well as Colorado’s head coach Jared Bednar. As Tampa Bay and Dallas compete against each other in the Stanley Cup race, the Avs will no doubt be making off-season adjustments to their roster and style of play, and we’re taking a close look at the netminders who have been strongholds for this Colorado team over the course of the 2019-20 season as well as those who appeared in just two games.
First, let’s take a look at the man responsible for much of the recent success of this Colorado Avalanche team.
Jared Bednar
Grade: A +
In his fourth season as head coach of the Colorado Avalanche, Bednar led an injured team into the second round of the 2020 Stanley Cup Playoffs. Despite Colorado’s final defeat to the Stars, the team overcame a 3-1 deficit and pushed the series despite numerous injuries to players and Injuries to first and second string goalkeepers, Philip Grubauer and Pavel Francouz, on a seventh game. Under Bednar, the team overcame players’ injuries in both regular and postseason, showing wise coaching decisions regarding line changes, as well as team depth largely due to previous smart trades and acquisitions made under Bednar’s watch. Trading in Nazem Kadri ahead of the 2019-2020 season, for example, was invaluable as Kadri scored 11 points in eight postseason games with the Avalanche, adding depth in the middle and bringing energy and grit to the team’s second line.
Although Bednar was not selected as one of the three finalists, he came in fifth in the election of the Jack Adams Award, which is given annually to the top coach of the NHL. The Avalanche finished the regular season with 92 points (42-20-8), just two behind the St. Louis Blues, who led the Central Division with 94 points. Bednar’s ability to perceive his team’s needs and accommodate them with game changes, AHL calls, his insights into player acquisitions, and his expertise in integrating the skills of newly acquired players like Andre Burakovsky became more important as Colorado’s injuries himself piled. Bednar juggled the lines throughout the season when one or the other top player succumbed to an injury, and he made sure that players like Nathan MacKinnon, Mikko Rantanen, Gabriel Landeskog and Burakovsky were always on the road to success when they were on Were ice cream. He also changed Colorado’s style of play after Grubauer’s initial injury and saw the need to emphasize team defense with a less experienced net maintainer between the pipes.
Nothing tests a coach’s competency like repeated injuries, and if the Avalanche make it into the second round of the Western Conference playoffs with so many missing players, a healthy squad under Jared Bednar could prove very dangerous.
Philipp Grubauer
Grade: B +
Grubauer was the Avalanche’s start netminder for most of the year and ended the regular season with an 18-12-4 record, a GAA of 2.63 and a savings of 0.916 percent. In the postseason, he started seven games before injuring his lower body and ended with a GAA of 1.87 and a savings of 0.922 percent. While he was sure to make excellent saves in key moments of the game, his SV% ranks twenty-fourth in the league and multiple lower body injuries prevented him from being consistently on the ice for his team. On the other hand, Grubauer wasn’t the only Avalanche player to miss the Ice Age due to injury, and playing with a healthy team would undoubtedly have affected his performance.
According to Ryan S. Clark of The Athletic, Bednar had said that by the time the Avalanche were eliminated from the playoffs, Grubauer was “a week or weeks” away from returning to the season training camp. Despite rumors that the Avalanche are looking to win a goalkeeper in the off-season, coach Bednar has expressed his confidence in Grubauer’s ability to succeed next season.
Pavel Francouz
Grade B
During the regular season, Pavel Francouz started only six games less than netminder Philipp Grubauer. He was announced as a substitute goalkeeper for Colorado for the season in July 2019, realizing a savings of 0.923 percent and a GAA of 2.41. The team won 21 of the 30 games he started and Francouz proved to be an effective backup for Grubauer during the extent of his injuries.
In the playoffs, Francouz’s performance was less than satisfactory than the regular season, with a safe percentage of just 0.892 and a GAA of 3.23. In game one of the second round of the Western Conference Playoffs against the Dallas Stars, the Czech goalkeeper suffered an otherwise unspecified head injury and did not appear in any of the following games. Per Coach Bednar: “None of these injuries [Grubauer’s and Francouz’] are injuries to worry about. Train hard in the summer and make sure it doesn’t happen again. “While Bednar seems confident in the pairing between Grubauer and Francouz and Francouz has certainly been promoted to this occasion in the 2019-2020 regular season, his playoff performance earned him a B grade.
The Avalanche signed Francouz in February 2020 for a two-year contract extension. With the exception of this season’s playoffs, he was an integral part of the success of the Colorado Avalanche, taking action when needed in Grubauer’s absence and generating invaluable savings.
Michael Hutchinson
Grade B
Hutchinson acquired the avalanche in February of this year as part of a deal with the Toronto Maple Leafs. He appeared in fifteen games with the Maple Leafs and four with the Toronto Marlies, their partner in the American Hockey League, in the 2019-20 season before being sold to the Avalanche. In his NHL career prior to joining Colorado, the Ontario native hit a record 50-52-14 with a savings of 0.905 percent and 2.81 GAA.
Hutchinson made his NHL playoff debut and first on-ice playoff game for Colorado after substitute goalkeeper Pavel Francouz sustained a head injury in Game 1 of the second round of the Western Conference playoffs. He started the following four games and ended with an SV% of 0.910 and a GAA of 2.75. While not getting the chance to play many games, Hutchinson was a substantial supporter of his team after losing his two best goalkeepers and was only the seventh NHL goalkeeper to ever win his first two playoff wins in a row while his team was about to go out was standing.
Hutchinson, one of the many substitute goalkeepers who rose to mark the occasion this year’s postseason, has undoubtedly stood the test of time in this playoff appearance. Additionally, the team seems to like his hardworking and optimistic demeanor, and having a goalkeeper between the pipes that players respect and build trust is an integral part of good team chemistry and performance.
Antione Bibeau
Grade: C-
Bibeau played two games with the Colorado Avalanche this season. His GAA was 3.27 and his SV% was lower than all four other Colorado goalkeepers at 0.881. Bibeau was drafted a total of 172 from the Toronto Maple Leafs in 2013 and has been playing with the Colorado Eagles since shortly before the 2018/19 season. He began his first game with the Avalanche in a 5-4 win over the Vancouver Canucks in November 2019. He was called up due to injuries to Grubauer and Francouz and returned to the Colorado Eagles shortly afterwards.
Adam Werner
Note: C.
Like Bibeau, Werner only played two games with the Avalanche in the 2019-20 season. His GAA was 3.42 and SV% was 0.914. On his NHL debut against the Winnipeg Jets, Werner stopped 40 of 40 shots after Pavel Francouz sustained an injury after just 32 seconds. When Avalanche Werner started two days later in a game against Edmonton, the 22-year-old netminder gave up five of eighteen shots on goal and scored a certain percentage of just 0.722. A forty-shot shutout still gives him an advantage over Bibeau, especially since he made it on his first NHL appearance.
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