DENVER – The Colorado Avalanche acquired Jonas Johansson from Buffalo Sabers on Saturday in an attempt to reinforce his unstable goal defense.
The Sabers were given the choice of Colorado in the sixth round of the draft in a negotiation agreed the day before. The Sabers had to wait for the results of the COVID-19 test after Boston Bruins, their most recent opponent, had four players enrolled in the NHL protocol on Friday.
Buffalo also had to wait for goalkeeper Michael Houser, who was hired on Friday, to release the layoffs to avoid having to call up a minor goalkeeper.
Avalanche relied heavily on starter Philipp Grubauer this season, with reserve Pavel Francouz off the pitch due to an injury to his lower body. Hunter Miska has already replaced Grubauer at times, but he has struggled and has an average of 4.16 goals against.
Miska was recently sent to the Colorado Eagles of the American Hockey League, with Adam Werner called the Eagles.
Johansson is 0-5-1 in seven games for the Sabers this season, with an average of 3.79 goals against and a percentage of 0.884 saved and has an overall record of 1-8-2. The 25-year-old was chosen by Buffalo in the third round in 2014.
He received more playing time with the Sabers after holder Linus Ullmark suffered an injury to his lower body last month. Ullmark is expected to fail a few more weeks.
Grubauer was spectacular, despite the heavy workload. He is the first Colorado goalkeeper to start at least 20 of the team’s first 25 games since Semyon Varlamov in 2012-13.
Grubauer, 29, has already won 17 victories. His best career is 18, which he has had in each of the last two seasons. Grubauer’s 1.82 goals average is the first among goalkeepers. It also has four shutouts.
“It is incredible to have that reliable goalkeeper behind,” said striker Tyson Jost. “He’s been great all year. We need that from him to continue throughout the year.”
Colorado’s defense also helped a lot. The team kept opponents with less than 30 kicks in a franchise record of 18 consecutive games. In its last six matches, the Avalanche overcame the teams by a combined margin of 259-116.
Avalanche is 18-8-2 in the middle of the season. Its 0.699 percentage is the third best mark in the middle of the road since the team moved to Denver.
The Sabers are in liquidation mode during a 0-11-2 skid and are at risk of extending their playoff drought to an NHL record corresponding to season 10.
This is expected to be the first of many businesses for Buffalo. It has been three days since first-year general manager Kevyn Adams hinted that a change in squad was about to come after firing coach Ralph Krueger.