NHL Goalie Tandems to Start the Season:
Anahiem: Hiller (31yo)/Fasth (31yo)
Boston: Rask (26yo)/Johnson (27yo)
Buffalo: Miller (33yo)/Enroth (25yo)
Calgary: MacDonald (33yo)/ Berra (27yo)/ Ramo (27yo)
Carolina: Ward (29yo)/Khudobin (27yo)
Chicago: Crawford (29yo)/Khabibulin (41yo)
Colorado: Varlamov (25yo)/Giguere (36yo)
Columbus: Bobrovsky (25yo)/McElhinney (30yo)
Dallas: Lehtonen (30yo)/Ellis (33yo)
Detroit: Howard (29yo)/Gustavsson (29yo)
Edmonton: Dubnyk (27yo)/LaBarbera (34yo)
Florida: Markstrom (23yo)/Clemmensen (36yo)/Thomas (39yo)
LA: Quick (27yo)/Scrivens (27yo)
Minnesota: Backstrom (35yo)/Harding (27yo)
Montreal: Price (26yo)/Budaj (31yo)
Nashville: Rinne (31yo)/Hutton (28yo)
New Jersey: Schneider (27yo)/Brodeur (41yo)
New York (I): Nabokov (38yo)/Poulin (23yo)
New York (R): Lundqvist (31yo)/Biron (36yo)
Ottawa: Anderson (32yo)/Lehner (22yo)
Philadelphia: Mason (25yo)/Emery (31yo)
Phoenix: Smith (31yo)/Griess (27yo)
Pittsburgh: Fleury (29yo)/Vokoun (37yo)/Zatkoff (26yo)
San Jose: Niemi (30yo)/Stalock (26yo)
St. Louis: Halak (28yo)/Elliott (28yo)
Tampa Bay: Bishop (27yo)/Lindback (25yo)
Toronto: Bernier (25yo)/Reimer (25yo)
Vancouver: Loungo (34yo)/Lack (26yo)
Washington: Holtby (24yo)/Neuvirth (25yo)
Winnipeg: Pavelec (26yo)/Montoya (28yo)
So as you can see no team went into the season with a 22yo back up goalie that had little to no NHL experience. The only 22yo back up goalie was Lehner who had a lot more NHL experience then both Aittokallio and Pickard. Plus Lehner had a better and more impact in the AHL then either of them. Unless one of Pickard or Aittokallio go crazy and win a Calder Cup then they're not ready.
You do realize that at one point most of those 25-28 year olds were either part of a 22-23 year old goalie tandem or were the back up right?
Washington for instance at one point had Varly,Neuvirth and Holtby up fighting for the #1 spot or giving each reps years ago.
Bernier was the back up to Quick when he was what, 22-23?
Reimer himself was Giggy's back up and they had Gustavsson.
Lindback was the back up of Rinne before he was traded.
Halak was the back up to Price at a young age.
Aittokallio's age will have nothing to do with whether he plays with the Avs as the primary back up next year or in the future. It will be where he is in his developmental stage
Varly is young and can play a lot of game so we are under no real pressure to push any of the young guys in the pipeline.