Shutting goalie Semyon Varlamov down is the right move for the Avalanche’s future

With their season circling the drain, the Colorado Avalanche have decided to put their starting netminder on the shelf until next season.

On Thursday, the Avalanche announced that Semyon Varlamov will miss the rest of the 2016-17 NHL season to recover from hip surgery focused on repairing his injured groin.

In that press release, Avalanche coach Jared Bednar admitted that the Avalanche would rather think long term with Varlamov with the playoffs certainly out of reach this year:

“We can’t put him in the net if it’s just going to be temporary, short-term [solutions]. So we have to come up with a way to make sure he’s either playing, or he’s doing the right things so he is put in a position to be able to play a lot of games,” he said. “I would say that [surgery] could be an option, yes.”

Varlamov finishes the season with a dismal stat line that reflects the current state of the last-place team in front of him: a 6-17-0 record, an .898 save percentage, and a 3.38 goals-against average. All of those are career-worst numbers. Colorado is 13-31-2, with a minus-63 goal differential and the best shot at the first overall pick.

In fact, Varlamov’s numbers have trended in the wrong direction ever since he finished second in Vezina Trophy voting in 2013-14:

Varlamov, 28, is signed through 2019 with a $5.9 million cap hit. And it’s worth wondering if this is the latest move in Colorado’s rebuilding effort.

Calvin Pickard, 24, will start most of Colorado’s remaining games. The former second-round pick by the Avs in 2010, Pickard has fared only somewhat better than Varlamov in a backup role. He’ll be backed up by Spencer Martin, the 21-year-old goalie selected by Colorado in the third round in 2013. Martin is 15-9-0 with a .915 SV% with the AHL’s San Antonio Rampage this season.

Colorado will assess the two youngsters over the next few months. If both play well, who says the Avalanche won’t expose Varlamov in the upcoming expansion draft? In that sense, shutting Varlamov down is the best option for his future and the looming decisions about the future of the Avalanche.