Goalkeeper rumors? Already? This is the case if your goalkeepers have conceded a total of 21 goals in four games.

On one hand, there’s an idea floating around that the Avalanche don’t need to make any changes – that they just need Alexandar Georgiev to get better. Frankie Corrado said this on TSN on Thursday. On the other hand, Elliotte Friedman, NHL insider at Sportsnet, believes Colorado’s front office needs to look for other options. Even if the season is only four games in.

“There’s no way the Avalanche aren’t going to look at this and say, ‘What can we do?’ ‘How do we fix this and do we need to go somewhere else?'” Friedman said on the “32 Thoughts” podcast about the Avs’ goaltending woes . “That doesn’t mean they will. But they have to look at it.”

Friedman linked two names to Colorado, although that sounded more like speculation than anything else. Admittedly, the longtime insider has never been one to throw things out into the world of hockey unless they have some semblance of truth. Even if it’s only superficial. The first name is MacKenzie Blackwood – once the future of the New Jersey Devils and Olympic hopeful for Team Canada. Now Blackwood is in San Jose, where he has had an incredible number of dangerous chances over the last two seasons.

The second name he mentioned was John Gibson. Anaheim’s experienced goalkeeper has lost his starting job to the young Lukas Dostal. Gibson won’t even be on the roster when the Avs host Anaheim on Friday as he recovers from an appendectomy.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if Blackwood was the guy who at least said, ‘Okay, if we choose this path, could he solve our problem?’ I find it impossible to believe that they won’t at least look at it, whether they actually do or not,” Friedman said. “But the other guy that comes to mind is Gibson. The thing with Gibson is that he needs to stay healthy. Someone asked me if Gibson was the perfect tonic for the Avalanche’s needs. And theoretically the answer is yes, because he is a good goalkeeper and could make a difference. But he has to stay healthy. It’s always been like that for him.”

The two goalkeepers offer the Avs completely different opportunities. For Blackwood, the impending unrestricted free agent is in the final year of his contract, which pays him just $2.35 million per season. It would be the type of move that gives the Avs flexibility heading into the offseason, where they had already expected Georgiev’s contract to expire. But Gibson is in a different boat. He still has several years left on a contract that will pay him $6.4 million. Excluding recent contracts signed by NHL goaltenders, Gibson is one of the highest-paid goaltenders in the league.

“You can work out the contract. If you believe the player is good enough, you will find a way to make the contract work,” Friedman said. “He only has two years left, people won’t be too scared of that term if he could play. I just think he needs to prove he can play for health reasons.

“It’s just hard for me to believe that the Avalanche aren’t paying attention to the goaltending situation. (Head coach Jared) Bednar says the right things publicly. That’s his job. Talk to the team, don’t let the boat get watered, and don’t give anyone the impression that you’re giving up on your man. But it’s the front office’s job to sit here and say, ‘What are our other options?’ When I looked at the goaltenders that might be available or even make sense, Blackwood jumped out at me right away.”

It’s hard to gauge what the Avs want to do with the goaltender. Last season, the same conversations started pretty early in the year. However, with Georgiev having had a good 2022/23 season, he wasn’t really the name that was thrown around. It was more of a situation where Colorado needed to bring in someone to help him out and take on the burden of a backup goalie. Pavel Francouz was injured before the season started, Ivan Prosvetov didn’t work for them and before the calendar changed to 2024, Justus Annunen didn’t do enough to even get a chance.

In the end they didn’t make any goalie moves and instead increased calls. At the end of the year he was in good hands as a substitute, even if he didn’t quite compete against the strongest opponents on most evenings.

The reality is that Colorado has a goaltending problem. Regardless of whether Georgiev is part of the solution or not, their current setup with him as the starter and Annunen as the backup doesn’t work. If you’re wondering why Bednar was hesitant to start Annunen over five games, then his relief appearance in a winnable game against Columbus is for you. The goalie came into the game when the Avs were down 3-1 early in the second period. Before he could even get a shot off, Colorado scored two goals and tied the game at 3-3. But then he conceded one goal on his first shot and two on the first five shots he hit, letting the game slip away against weaker opponents. All the momentum was gone immediately.

So it’s not just a matter of Georgiev having to be replaced. Again, Bednar doesn’t have two goalies he can trust. He hardly has one.

Is Blackwood the answer? Or Gibson? I’m not sure. However, I am confident that Kaapo Kahkonen will be given every opportunity to at least serve as a backup player when he arrives in Denver this year. And if Georgiev is still struggling in mid-to-late November, perhaps giving him a deal for one of the two options above would be a safe bet. Something needs to change here too – even if that means Georgiev splitting duties with another goalkeeper who is capable of taking over starting duties if necessary.