Francouz looking good early in the AHL should be no surprise, after all he has been the best goalie in the 2nd best league in the world. My projection for him is to become a mid level starter in the NHL.
Yeah I think so as well. But I also wouldn't even rule out him being an elite quality starter in the NHL.
He's just such an unknown to North America. But you dont put up those kind of elite numbers in the KHL without being very good. And who knows how well he could translate that game to the NHL level. I mean he's clearly translating to the North American game and the AHL with ease. Maybe the same thing happens when he goes up to the highest level.
To me, Frankie might just be the most interesting non roster player the Avs have right now. His upside to me is completely unknown. But the one thing that becomes more clear with every passing game he plays, is that we could have a really, really good goalie in our system just waiting for his chance.
It really is. If he could stay healthy I'd want Varly back 100%, but that's such a question mark. And Grubauer has been good, not great but good. While Francouz is off to a fantastic start in the AHL.
I can't see them moving on from Grubauer after trading/signing him just this summer, and Varly is a UFA... but if he keeps playing the way he has how do you possibly let him go?
I kind of wish we didn't go after Grubauer and instead went for a 1 year stop gap backup and give Francouz that role next season/split with Varly.
Yeah, I mean with the benefit of hindsight especially, it would have been really nice to of used that 2nd round pick and a couple other minor assets to get Jeff Skinner instead. And just brought back Bernier for 1 more year behind Varly.
But at the time of the deal, the Grubauer acquisition turned goaltending from a real question mark for us into a major strength. Having one of the best backups(If not the best) on our team on top of a really good starter who's only real concern was health. And then also having added one of the best goalies in the world not in the NHL as well.
We made our goaltending a strength very, very quickly this summer. In hindsight just making the one move of adding Frankie might have been all that we needed to do. But now we're in a potential position to deal from a strength to help a weakness again in the near future.
Cant forget that we also drafted one of the better available goalies in the 2019 draft as well in Annunen. Depth in net is very true for us currently.