This is the 2025-26 edition — an archived read. Read the 2026-27 report →
Justus Annunen
Nashville Predators Goaltender
Acquired from Colorado in December, .8833 across 34 games between the two clubs, and 6-4 in a crease where Juuse Saros is 5-11.
| Season | Team | GP | W | L | OTL | GA | GAA | SO | SA | SV% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021-22 | COL | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 7 | 4.34 | 0 | 51 | .863 |
| 2022-23 | COL | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 7 | 3.58 | 0 | 48 | .854 |
| 2023-24 | COL | 14 | 8 | 4 | 1 | 30 | 2.25 | 2 | 414 | .927 |
| 2024-25 | COL/NSH | 34 | 15 | 15 | 1 | 95 | 3.18 | 0 | 814 | .883 |
| 2025-26 so far | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Career | — | 52 | 25 | 20 | 3 | 139 | 2.97 | 2 | 1327 | .895 |
This Season So Far
The 2025-26 season has not started. The empty row above is his, and both it and this paragraph fill in on their own from the morning after he first plays: what he has done, what it is worth against his own last season, and the run he is on when the two disagree.
Last Season
34 games between Colorado and Nashville, 15-15-1, a .8833 save percentage and a 3.18 goals-against average, on 814 shots faced. No shutouts. He came to Nashville in December for Scott Wedgewood.
.8833 is a poor number in any context. It was posted behind two very different clubs, and neither of them defended badly enough to explain it away.
The Physical Game
6-4 and 210, and he plays large and deep, taking away the top of the net by occupying it — the exact opposite of the man he backs up. Square more often than not, economical, and he does not travel further than the puck requires him to.
The lateral quickness is the limitation and it is a real one: a puck moved across the slot finds him late, and the second save in a sequence is where the goals come from. The rebound control is the other item — pucks come off him further into the slot than they should, and on a club conceding this many interior chances that compounds quickly.
The Mental Game
Two organisations in one season, 34 games, and the same poor number at both. He did not play badly enough in Colorado to deserve being traded, and he did not play well enough in Nashville to take a job that was there for the taking — a difficult position for a 25-year-old to be left holding.
He does not appear rattled by volume. There is not enough evidence to say much more than that.
The Intangibles
A third-round pick in 2018 who spent five years in the American League, with one genuinely good stretch in Colorado before this.
He is 25 and cheap and he is the only other goaltender under contract on a club whose starter is signed for eight more years. The number that matters is not last season’s .8833 — it is whether a goaltender with this technical base can hold a 30-game share. Nashville is going to find out, because there is no alternative on the roster.