Avalanche lands top young goaltender

DALLAS – Shortly before the start of the NHL Draft, the Colorado Avalanche kicked off the NHL’s trading season with a deal with the Washington Capitals to address their needs at the goaltender position.

The Avalanche received defenseman Brooks Orpik and goaltender Philipp Grubauer from Washington in exchange for the first of their two second-round selections, 47th overall, in this year’s draft.

As the negotiations with incumbent backup Jonathan Bernier appeared to break down in recent days, the Avalanche quickly shifted their focus to Grubauer, who has widely been viewed as the top backup available this year.

At 26, Grubauer is coming off an excellent season with the Stanley Cup champion Capitals. He appeared in 35 regular-season games, registering a 15-10-3 record and .923 save percentage and three shutouts. He started Washington’s first two playoff games, but was replaced by Braden Holtby after a mediocre showing against Columbus.

Because of Grubauer’s excellent play in a backup role, it was expected a team with a starting job available would make the biggest push for Grubauer but in the end, it was the Avs – who still have Semyon Varlamov on the roster. Varlamov is entering the final year of his contract while Grubauer is currently an unsigned restricted free agent.

The team also acquired Orpik, who at 37 is entering the final year of his contract. The Avalanche wanted Orpik four years ago before he ultimately settled on signing with the Caps.

The team will not keep Orpik, however, as they intend to either flip him (and likely retain salary) to another team buy him out and allow him to choose his next destination. Either way, Colorado was able to use their abundance of salary cap space to keep the cost of acquiring Grubauer to just a single selection.

The next step is for the Avalanche to come to terms on a contract with Grubauer. What does this mean for Varlamov, you ask? Maybe nothing. He is expected to go into training camp as the presumed No. 1, but he’ll have to play well to keep it. Grubauer has No. 1 potential, as he showed with Washington.

The Avalanche will go into the second round with Nashville’s selection (58th overall), which they acquired in the Matt Duchene trade.