You say almost all, but I have stated his time with the Avs multiple times within this thread and that Varly has had only 1 great season. The focus is on the last few seasons, because that is the impact now. Varly has been borderline bad the last 2+ seasons. Part of it is injury, but injuries are a part of Varly.
I've stated plans for goalies many, many times over the years here... it doesn't have to be restated in every thread. I think the Avs have missed the boat on selecting them early and going after the best (or at least top 3) in the draft classes. I think they missed the boat on not protecting Picks in the expansion draft (I don't think Varly would have been selected by Vegas, but if he was... they would have done us a favor). There have been trades they could have pulled off for some young goalies (Forsberg was nearly an Av). Enough solid goalies enter the UFA or cheaper trade market every year. There are many ways to attack this... but grand scheme, if a goalie isn't going to make a difference on a team... don't spend big money on them.
Protecting Pickard would not have improved the goaltending. Unless we're comparing him to Bernier, who I think we can admit is doing just as good as Picks so far. We all saw how Picks looked in a starter role last year. Any other hypothetical trades are hypothetical options.
The only legit starter to hit UFA in the next few years, that has less inconsistency problems as Varly, is Holtby. That's in 2020-21, after Varly's deal expires, and Washington would be idiots to let him go for any price the Avs would match.
Going with a cheap 1A/1B tandem rarely works out in the long run. We've seen them try it in Colorado multiple times, and it didn't work.
They tried Aebischer and Budaj. Budaj and Raycroft. Budaj and Elliott. All of those guys were viewed just as highly at the time, if not higher, than any of the cheapish starters available the next few years. They didn't end up with a legit starter after any of those attempts.
I don’t know how long everyone here has been watching the Avs, but for those that have followed them since their glory years, you should have a pretty good idea of how hard it is to find a high level goaltender to cover for this team’s mistakes, and how Varly stacks up against everyone else they’ve tried.
They’ve tried Aebischer, Budaj, Theodore, Anderson, and Varly as starters. They’ve tried Kolesnik, Aitto, Berra, Elliott, Giguerre, Raycroft, and Pickard as either backups, or split duty starters.
Out of those 12 goaltenders they’ve tried since Roy retired, I think Varly and Anderson are clearly a notch above the rest, and Andy only had one good season, before he stopped playing hard because the team sucked.
If people think Spencer Martin or any other young unproven goaltender is gonna be the answer, then they either didn’t see, or have forgotten that people said the exact same thing about Aebischer, Budaj, Aitto, Berra, and Pickard. They looked promising in a NHL backup or lower level starter role. Then were given the keys to the starter role on the big club, and they failed.
Maybe Martin pulls it off, but you can't give him the keys and walk away before he shows you he can drive at this level.
If they just give up on Varly, and look for some $2-3M goaltender, the most likely scenario is they get a $2-3M goaltender. Someone on the level of Aebischer, Budaj, Theo, Elliott, Raycroft, or Pickard. Maybe they have some good games here and there to start, but over the long haul in a starter role, they’ll clearly be at a level below Varly.
If Varly has more and more bad games like he did against Washington, then it’s a moot point. He needs to go, and they need to take a chance on someone else. Just like you said.
But, if you look back on his season this year and those bad games were few and far between like most legit NHL starters, and he shows he can give the team a chance to win most nights, and steal games here and there, then you have to be very careful about giving up on him in favor of someone else, because chances are you won’t be happy with what you get.
