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One-year deal for Francouz |
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Rick Sadowski
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The Avalanche announced Friday that they have re-signed goalie Pavel Francouz to a one-year contract.
Francouz, 28, had a 27-17-3 record in 49 games with the AHL Colorado Eagles this season, his first in North America. He had a 2.68 goals-against average, .918 save percentage and three shutouts.
He had two relief appearances with the Avalanche, posting a 1.97 goals-against average and .943 save percentage.
Francouz joined Team Czech Republic for the IIHF World Championship tournament in Slovakia after the Eagles lost their first-round playoff series.
"We are excited to have Pavel back with the Avalanche organization for another year," general manager Joe Sakic said in a news release. "He had a very strong first season in North America last year, being named an AHL All-Star and leading the Eagles to the Calder Cup playoffs. He brings extensive international experience and got a taste of the NHL last year and performed well."
Francouz is expected to compete for the backup position behind Philipp Grubauer in 2019-20, assuming the Avalanche don’t re-sign Semyon Varlamov.
In a recent interview with Eurolance.com, Francouz said he wasn’t interested in playing another season in the AHL.
“At the moment, I don’t think it would give me all that much,” he said. “I viewed it as a necessity in order to adapt to North American hockey. I didn’t take it as something negative or any sort of punishment to be in the AHL. I thought of it as another step I needed to take to get to the NHL.”
Francouz spent three seasons with Traktor Chelyabinsk of the KHL in Russia before signing with the Avalanche in May 2018. He had a 32-27-11 record, 1.73 goals-against average and a .945 save percentage in 83 career regular-season games. He was 8-9 in 18 career postseason games with a 1.98 goals-against average and .943 save percentage.