It hardly came as a surprise when the Colorado Avalanche announced that Pavel Francouz was going to miss the entire season.
The team likely knew it was coming, but it’s still a tough pill to swallow.
After the optional skate on Thursday, Avalanche head coach Jared Bednar reflected on the impact Francouz had on the franchise over the last few years. Here’s everything he had to say.
“We never (would have) won without him. That’s the way I look at it. Everyone has an important role to play. Great story for me, because we bring him over from Europe, he grinds with the Eagles for a couple years, earns a backup position with us. Played really well for us over the course of a few years, the pinnacle being, even fighting through a lot of injuries and surgeries and what not, pinnacle being the playoffs in 2022, right? He goes 6-0 in the playoffs with a goalie injured. It’s an amazing story. He’s a champion with us, and we miss him. He came through the other day, and said hello to the guys. He’s been around a couple times during the year. You always hate to see players get injured and not be able to play with the enjoying your team, especially when they mean as much as Frankie did to us. He’s heading back to Czech, or he’s gone back to Czech now to spend the year, and I don’t know what the future holds for him. We miss him around here, and he was a big part of our championship run. That’s what he’ll be remembered for.”
Who could forget the Ball Arena crowd showering chanting “FRANKIE” on his way to a shutout over the Edmonton Oilers?
A "FRANKIE!" chant starts in Ball Arena and Francouz acknowledges the Avs faithful pic.twitter.com/NcBhjbrVNe
— B/R Open Ice (@BR_OpenIce) June 3, 2022
“Obviously, we had a great team, but he was a big part of that,” Bednar said of the playoff run. “It’s always scary when you have a starter and a backup and then your starter goes out, especially at the most important time of the year, and Frankie elevated his game to a whole new level during that time.”
It’s very possible Pavel Francouz has played his last game in an Avalanche uniform, but his impact on the Stanley Cup run won’t be forgotten.
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