Justice For Justus: New Contract

Annunen deserved it

First off, hello again. After seven of the sickest days of my life, I think I’m on the road to recovery again.

I’ve often been an open book about some of my life, but I hate talking about health problems publicly. I’ll just say that I had a surgery recently and then developed an infection after the surgery and had several nights of high fevers, with temperatures over 103 at times, and honestly there were some moments when I just felt like I might not make it or something.

But antibiotics have coursed through my veins the last couple of days and already the improvement has been to where I feel like a functioning human again. Fortunately, Pat Salvas has been here to carry the load in my absence, and what a job he’s done, right?

There’s a reason I picked Pat to be my “other voice” for this and a previous site of mine: because he’s damned good, as a writer and an Avs analyst. I mean, I’d rather read Pat’s takes on the Avs more than my own. I’m sure at some point he’ll either inherit this site and make it more his own or start his own. I’m going to be 60 (what???) next year and most of you know I’m on the fence about whether I want to continue this site beyond that, or even beyond this season. It’ll probably come down to whether I feel healthy enough or not. I already feel bad enough that I’ve been absent too much at times this season, and I don’t want to feel like I’m cheating y’all if I just don’t feel up to it - because when I write something I always put 100 percent into it. If I feel like I don’t have that drive to be the best anymore, it’s time to bow out. One thing I can promise: you’ll never, ever see any price increase on this site and it’ll never be cluttered with junk ads. Never.

OK, so anyway…Two years for Justus Annunen. Just announced. A cap hit of $833,000 each year, on a one-way deal. That’s a darn good deal for the Avs, and a nice accomplishment for the big Finn. He’s been so good in this second half, and deserves this.

He’s a homegrown product - a rarity with Avs goalies - and seems to be getting more confident with every passing week. We all thought the Avs would get another backup goalie at the trade deadline, but Annunen’s play obviously convinced management to hold off. That’s looking like a smart play right now.

See you tonight on the live chat. I still don’t have a ton of energy right now, but certainly enough to host a tremendous group of people we’ve got here.