DENVER – Colorado Avalanche acquired Buffalo Sabers’ Jonas Johansson on Saturday in an attempt to strengthen their backup goalkeeper.
Sabers received the draft pick from the sixth round of Colorado in a deal agreed upon a day earlier. Sabers had to wait for the results of the COVID-19 tests after the Boston Bruins, their most recent opponent, had four players enter the NHL protocol on Friday.
Buffalo also had to wait for goalkeeper Michael Houser, who was signed on Friday, to remove the exemptions to avoid being called up by a minor goalkeeper.
The avalanche relied heavily on starter Philipp Grubauer this season, with a reserve Pavel Francouz out of a lower body injury. Hunter Miska sometimes handled Grubauer, but struggled and averaged 4.16 goals.
Miska was recently sent to the Colorado Eagles in the American Hockey League, with Adam Werner recalled from the Eagles.
Johansson is 0-5-1 in seven games for the Sabers this season, with an average of 3.79 goals and a save percentage of .884 and has an overall record of 1-8-2. The 25-year-old was selected in the third round by Buffalo in 2014.
He received increased playing time with the Sabers after incumbent Linus Ullmark suffered a lower body injury last month. Ullmark is expected to be gone in a few weeks.
Grubauer was spectacular despite the large volume of work. He is the first Colorado goalkeeper to start at least 20 of Semyon Varlamov’s first 25 games in 2012-13.
Grubauer, 29, already has 17 wins. His best career is 18 years, which he has had in each of the last two seasons. The average of 1.82 goals against Grubauer is the first of the goalkeepers. It also has four closures.
“It’s great to have that reliable goalkeeper in the back,” said striker Tyson Jost. “It’s been great all year. We need that from him to continue throughout the year.”
Defending Colorado was also a great help. The team kept their opponents under 30 strokes in a franchise that recorded 18 consecutive games. In the last six competitions, Avalanche has surpassed the teams with a combined margin of 259-116.
Avalanche is 18-8-2 in the middle of the season. Their .679 percentage is the third best mark in the middle of the moment since the team moved to Denver.
The Sabers are in selling mode while in a 0-11-2 skid and at the risk of extending their drought in the playoffs to an NHL record that corresponds to season 10.
This is expected to be the first of many transactions for Buffalo. It’s been three days since first-year general manager Kevyn Adams hinted that he should have passed the list after firing coach Ralph Krueger.