Nashville, Tenn. (Nov. 30, 2024) – Nashville Predators General Manager Barry Trotz announced today that the team has acquired goaltender Justus Annunen (YOOS-tuhs AN-uh-nehn) and a sixth-round pick in the 2025 NHL Draft from the Colorado Avalanche in exchange for goaltender Scott Wedgewood.
Annunen, 24 (3/11/00), is 6-4-0 with a 3.23 goals-against average and .872 save percentage in 11 games (nine starts) for the Avalanche this season. He won four straight starts from Oct. 20-27, including a season-high 26-save performance on Oct. 27 vs. Ottawa; he has made at least 25 saves in four of his 11 appearances. The 6-foot-4, 210-pound netminder is in his fourth partial NHL season, establishing career highs in games played (14), starts (12), wins (8) and shutouts (2) in 2023-24 with Colorado.
Originally selected by Colorado in the third round (64th overall) of the 2018 NHL Draft, Annunenmade his NHL debut with the Avalanche in December 2021 and has gone on to post a 16-9-2 record and 2.81 goals-against average in 29 career games (24 starts). Annunen has spent the majority of the past three seasons with the AHL’s Colorado Eagles, where he went 60-29-19, winning 24 games in 2021-22. Prior to joining the Eagles at the end of the 2020-21 campaign, he played parts of four seasons in Finland’s Liiga, posting the league’s best goals-against average (1.77) and save percentage (.929) in 2019-20, appearing in 23 games. Internationally, the Kempele, Finland, native won gold at the 2018 U-18 World Championship – where he went 6-0-0 – and played in six games on his country’s entry at the 2020 World Junior Championship. He hails from the same hometown as Pekka Rinne.
The Predators now own 10 picks in the 2025 NHL Draft – three in the first round, two in the second and sixth rounds and one in the third, fourth and fifth rounds.
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