As we enter the start of the regular season in a few days, one name will not be on the Colorado Avalanche lineup sheet on a nightly basis. This would be none other than Pavel Francouz, the 33-year-old Czech Republican netminder.
Unfortunately for Francouz, he has struggled massively with injury in his time in an Avs uniform. After signing a new two-year deal before the 2022 Stanley Cup run, he’s only played in 16 games. This equals out to $125K per game. In his previous two-year, $2M deal he only played in 62 games, including the playoffs.
The year he played the most games in the NHL was in the 2019-20 season, which was 40 games including the bubble playoffs in Edmonton. This was back when he was only making $950K a year on his one-year deal, giving himself and the team the most worthy performance which ultimately earned him his new contracts.
The Avs bet on Francouz and paid him to do so in his backup role. It sucks he’s battled through continuous lower-body injuries requiring surgery after surgery, only to play in limited games and cause a little goaltending carousel the last few seasons. He has been in the rotation with 12 different goaltenders in his five-year career with Colorado.
Some of those 12 never actually played with Francouz (mostly due to the fact he was out with injury and hence the need for new goaltenders in the team), but is just an example of what the Avs have gone through in net the last few seasons with Frankie injured and a rotating back-up goaltender.
Colorado knows what Francouz is capable of when he is healthy. Just look at his incredible relief efforts in the 2022 Stanley Cup Playoffs when Darcy Kuemper had his eye injury. He won six of the seven games he appeared in, posting a 2.81 goals-against average and a .919 save percentage. Some point to his shutout in Game 2 of the Western Conference Final against the Edmonton Oilers as his best performance, and when fans believed they could go all the way regardless of who was in the net.
But, with only 86 games under his belt in five years, it is far from ideal for a guy who was touted to be a serviceable, solid backup netminder. While most of it isn’t his fault due to injury, it is still an unfortunate circumstance for a solid player.
The tricky and most interesting part of this ordeal is the following: the conclusion of the 2023-24 season marks the end of his current contract. With the team having had to deal with his injury issues for the longest time, his unreliability due to injury, and his age, could he even be re-signed?
With Justus Annunen taking the reigns for the start of the regular season after an impressive preseason, Chris MacFarland and Joe Sakic could turn their focus on their current healthy netminders. This includes giving more money to Alexandar Georgiev when his deal is up in 2025, and re-signing a much younger Annunen when he is an RFA at the end of the season.
Could this be the unfortunate final season for Francouz in an Avalanche uniform before losing him to free agency over the summer, or in a trade at the trade deadline? Will he even make it on the ice with his injury issues? Let us know in the comments below!