Colorado Avalanche Top 25 Under 25: #3 Justus Annunen

Edmonton Oilers v Colorado Avalanche — Photo by Michael Martin/NHLI via Getty Images

The 24-year-old goaltender looks to be Colorado’s backup option full-time.

The Top 25 Under 25 is a Mile High Hockey staff collaboration. Six writers have ranked players under the age of 25 in the Colorado Avalanche organization as of August 1, 2024. Now, we’ll count down each of the 25 players ranked.

Justus Annunen is a name that any and all Colorado Avalanche fans should be familiar with at this point. The 24-year-old goaltender was drafted by Colorado in the 3rd round of the 2018 NHL Draft. Since then, Annunen has continued to develop really, really well in the Avalanche system, primarily in the AHL.

Last season, Annunen played more time in the NHL than he did in prior seasons, playing 14 games in total for the Avalanche, with a 2.25 GAA, 0.928 SV%, and posting two shutouts as well. Colorado has shown a lot of commitment to Annunen, and rightfully so given his growth, but they continued to demonstrate that commitment by signing him last spring to a two-year one-way contract carrying an AAV of $837,500k.

Given all of that, Annunen seems absolutely ready to step into the full-time backup goaltender role for Colorado this year. He has certainly continued to develop well since he was drafted by the Avalanche, and Colorado has in turn shown a continued commitment to him, by getting him in progressively more NHL games every year and signing him to an extension earlier this year. He looks more than ready to step into that role, and it’ll be really exciting to see how he does this upcoming season!