The Colorado Eagles are set to add a familiar name back into the organization, with goaltender Hunter Miska signing an AHL deal for the 2026-27 season, according to Tony Androckitis.
Miska, 31, already knows the Avalanche system well. He spent three seasons in the organization from 2019-22, and this move puts him back in the mix as Colorado continues to sort out its goaltending depth across multiple levels.
He’s expected to see time with the New Mexico Goatheads, the Avalanche’s new ECHL affiliate that is entering its inaugural season. That setup comes with Colorado carrying Mackenzie Blackwood and Scott Wedgewood in NHL roles, while Trent Miner and Ilya Nabokov are likely to split the workload in the AHL.
The Goatheads’ goaltending tandem appears to be Miska and 21-year-old Nikita Novosyolov, who signed with the Avalanche on June 1.
Miska’s most recent stop came with the Utah Grizzlies, Colorado’s previous ECHL affiliate. He finished last season there after signing a professional tryout with the Eagles in April, and over 16 ECHL appearances he went 7-5-3 with a .902 save percentage and a 2.98 goals-against average.
Before coming back to North America, Miska spent two seasons with the Straubing Tigers in Germany’s DEL and part of another season with Dynamo Moskva in the KHL. After that, he joined the AHL’s Bridgeport Islanders, where consistency was hard to come by before he moved on to Utah.
His earlier run in the Avalanche organization included five NHL appearances during the 2020-21 season. He opened that year as Philipp Grubauer’s backup with Pavel Francouz out for the full season, but the situation in net quickly became a problem for Colorado.
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The bigger point for the Avalanche is how Nabokov fits into a system that still needs time to sort itself out. Even with his development set to unfold in the minors, the attention around him is part of a broader week in which Tucson also kept winger Tyler Tullio on a one-year deal and prospect Colin Fitzgerald mapped out his next step before heading back to the OHL. For Colorado, Nabokov remains one of the more intriguing pieces in that mix, even if the immediate job in net is spoken for. [Read more 🡒]
