Although the Colorado Avalanche acquired goaltender Kevin Mandolese last month, I think there’s a good argument to be made that they could use a third goaltender with a little bit more NHL experience.

That third goaltender will not be Ivan Prosvetov, although that’s hardly a surprise.

As I reported back in March, CSKA had their sights set on Prosvetov to replace Ivan Fedotov, who came over to the NHL to play for the Philadelphia Flyers. On Thursday, CSKA made it official, as Prosvetov signed a three-year contract with the KHL club. If it was well known for months, then why did it take so long to announce? The main reason is because the IIHF had announced a ban on CSKA because of the Fedotov situation last year. Since the KHL recently announced their independence from the Russian Hockey Federation and the IIHF, CSKA could make it official.

Prosvetov wasn’t perfect with the Avalanche last year, but it felt like he had one really bad game against the Florida Panthers and paid the price for it. After that loss, where he was pulled early in the second period, he didn’t see another second of NHL action the rest of the season. If you’re looking for a third goaltender with some NHL experience, you could do a lot worse than Prosvetov, but he’s no longer going to be an option for the team.

The 25 year old goaltender has never actually played in the KHL, as he came to North America at a young age to play in the NAHL and USHL. He talked to me about that decision back in November. Prosvetov is one of the more charismatic players to come through that locker room in recent years, and from a media perspective, he’ll be missed. Here’s one of his post-game availabilities from November of last year where he jokes that playing Xbox before the game got him ready to play.