A pair of former Avalanche players will be sticking around the organization. The team announced that Andrew Cogliano has been appointed as a Special Assistant to General Manager Chris MacFarland while Pavel Francouz is now a Goaltending Scout. Cogliano retired in May after a 17-year NHL career spanning nearly 1,300 NHL appearances, the last three of which were spent with the Avs. Francouz, meanwhile, was supposed to be the backup to Alexandar Georgiev last season but didn’t play due to a lower-body injury. He unofficially served in a scouting capacity during the season and now has had that role formalized.
- Still with the Avalanche, Corey Masisak of The Denver Post wonders if they might wait until training camp to add another netminder as they did last season when they picked up Ivan Prosvetov off waivers. Notably, Justus Annunen is now waiver-eligible and wouldn’t be a lock to clear after putting up a 2.25 GAA and a .928 SV% in 14 appearances last season. However, with the team set to have some extra cap flexibility to start the year with Valeri Nichushkin not counting against the salary cap while in the third phase of the Player Assistance Program, Colorado could elect to carry three goalies and have a battle for the backup position extend into the regular season.