Oct. 29: Kähkönen is back up from his conditioning loan, reports Meghan Angley of Guerilla Sports. He made two appearances for their farm club over the past few days, recording a .919 SV% and a 2.57 GAA in a pair of losses.
Oct. 24: The Avalanche announced today that they have assigned goaltender Kaapo Kähkönen to AHL Colorado on a conditioning loan. While on the minor-league stint, Kähönen will still count against the salary cap and the 23-man roster.
It’s been a whirlwind few weeks for Kähkönen, who’s yet to suit up anywhere in the regular season. He made a few exhibition appearances for the Jets after signing a one-year, $1MM deal in Winnipeg during the offseason. However, he lost the backup job to Eric Comrie and landed on waivers shortly after the season started. Colorado claimed him, but visa issues relegated him to the non-roster list for a few days. He was reinstated ahead of this week’s contests, but he was a healthy scratch in their last two games while Justus Annunen started and Alexandar Georgiev backed up.
The loan can last up to 14 days, after which Kähkönen would need to be placed on waivers again if the Avalanche want to keep him in the minors. The move is good news for Kähkönen, who now gets the chance to get his feet wet after sitting on the shelf entirely for the past few weeks despite being medically available to play. The 28-year-old last played in the AHL with the Iowa Wild in 2019-20 while a part of the Minnesota organization, posting a .927 SV% in 34 games en route to being named the league’s best goaltender.
Kähkönen began last season in San Jose, posting a 6-20-3 record, .895 SV%, 3.81 GAA, and -8.7 GSAA in 31 appearances for the Sharks. He was dealt to the Devils at the trade deadline, where he closed out the season with a strong .923 SV% and 2.51 GAA in six appearances despite a 1-4-0 record. The Finland native has an .899 SV% and 3.33 GAA in 139 career NHL appearances over the past five seasons.
Barry Melrose used to say that when a head coach has been behind the bench of a team for several years the players at some point just stop listening/Need a new voice, I wonder if that’s the real problem in Colorado.
20+ teams in the league would love to have Bednar behind the bench
I’ve wondered that too. He’s got a lot of “I don’t want to be here” energy at the post game pressers which makes it hard to imagine he’s 180* from that in the locker room.
Bednar has been a great coach for the Avs, And he’ll easily get hired again if Colorado decides to let him go. It’s just the nature of the business. The Avalanche brass will likely not make a coaching decision until they can find a competent netminder to see if that will right the ship.
This is not a case of the head coach losing the room in any way. They have been down 4 top 6 forwards all season and played games without the second best defensemen for a couple of games. Add that to the fact that their starting goaltender has been dog crap and it’s not a surprise this team is where they are right now.
I agree but a situation like that usually doesn’t end well for someone.
Edmonton proving again . If don’t have goalie who can actually make a save who the coach is meaningless.
Exactly. There are a number of teams in the NHL (TOR being most prominent, but also DET and PIT) who think they can get by with a league average goaltender and an offensive-leaning defense, sooner or later it bites them all.
Bednar’s message has little to do with Georgiev having an .810 save percentage. My guess is he’ll be waived and sent down if he clears.
The blueline is also a dumpster fire.
Great point. Must be the reason that their 23-24 season ended so early.