LAS VEGAS — The Colorado Avalanche is suddenly flush with goaltending prospects and University of Denver players.
Colorado selected goaltender Ilya Nabokov with the No. 38 pick Saturday morning at the 2024 NHL draft inside The Sphere. Nabokov was the Avs’ first selection of the draft and the first goalie off the board.
They added a pair of goalies later in the draft as well, addressing a position that was particularly thin on the organization depth chart. The Avs had selected just one goaltender in the past four drafts (Ivan Zhigalov in the seventh round in 2022), and have only one netminder under contract below the NHL level (Trent Miner, a seventh-rounder in 2019).
“(We) hadn’t drafted a goalie in quite a while, so our amateur scouts did a lot of work with that and found ones we liked,” Avs director of player development Brian Willsie said. “Happy to have three in our prospect pool.”
The Avs also selected a pair of DU commits: Jake Fisher with pick No. 121 in the fourth round and Tory Pitner at No. 185 in the sixth round. Both players will play for the Pioneers next season.
Fisher, who was eligible but not selected in the 2023 draft, had 23 goals and 47 points in 51 games for the Fargo Force in the USHL this past season. He helped the Force win the USHL championship and was a Mr. Hockey finalist two years ago in Minnesota at Cretin-Derham Hall High School.
Pitner won a USHL title two years ago with Youngstown. He is a defense-first defenseman who said he models his game after John Marino
“I think defending is probably my biggest strength,” Pitner said. “I think I can use my brain and really bait other players into plays they don’t want to make. … Ultimately just be a prick to play against.”
Fisher and Pitner just became roommates at DU this past weekend. They’ll have a short commute to Avalanche development camp, which starts next week at Family Sports Complex.
The Avs have had success drafting players from the Pios program, most recently including Logan O’Connor and Sean Behrens.
“We know it’s a great program,” Willsie said. “David Carle does a great job winning for one, but developing as well. … The players going there, we know they are in great hands and will develop well on their path to being pros.”
Nabokov is 21 years old, having been passed over in previous drafts, but he had a dominant 2023-24 season for Metallurg Magnitogorsk in the KHL. He had a .930 save percentage in 43 regular-season games, then followed that by winning playoff MVP honors while helping Magnitogorsk to the Gagarin Cup. He went 16-6 during the KHL playoffs with a 1.82 goals-against average and a .942 save percentage.
He is listed at 6-foot-1, which is shorter than the prototypical NHL goalie in 2024, but Nabokov wasn’t a one-year wonder. He posted save percentages of .932 and .933 over the previous two seasons while playing for Magnitogorsk’s junior team in the MHL.
Nabokov is the first goaltender Colorado has drafted in the second round since 2010, and at No. 38 he’s the highest selection at the position by the Avs since taking Marc Denis at No. 25 in 1995 — the first draft after the franchise moved to Denver.
Colorado had the No. 38 pick after trading back Friday night. The Avs sent No. 24 to Utah for Nos. 38 and 71 in this draft and a 2025 second-round pick.General manager Chris MacFarland kept dealing Saturday morning, sending the No. 71 pick to Buffalo for the 76th and 161st selections in the 2024 draft.
The Avs used No. 76 on Will Zellers, a forward from Shattuck-Saint Mary’s School in Minnesota. Zellers, listed at 5-11 and 167 pounds, had 57 goals and 111 points in 54 games for Shattuck this past season. He will play for Green Bay in the USHL next season before enrolling at North Dakota for 2025-26.
“Growing up in Minnesota, I watched a lot of Zach Parise,” Zellers said. “He went to the same boarding school I went to and he went to North Dakota. He’s been a favorite of mine for a long time.”
Colorado also selected goaltenders Louka Cloutier and Ivan Yunin five picks apart in the fifth round at Nos. 132 and 137. The Avs also added a trio of centers later in the draft, including Maxmilian Curran, a Czech-born player from Tri-City in the WHL, at No. 161; USA Hockey National Development Program product Christian Humphreys at No. 215; and Nikita Prishchepov, a Russian-born player from QMJHL, at No. 217.
It was also a big weekend for the Pioneers overall. Zeev Buium was the No. 12 pick Friday night by the Minnesota Wild, becoming the fifth first-round pick in program history.
Two other incoming freshmen were also selected. Hagen Burrows was pick No. 128 by the Tampa Bay Lightning and Jame Reeder went at No. 198 to the Los Angeles Kings.
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Originally Published: June 29, 2024 at 12:02 p.m.
