The Colorado Avalanche made two stellar trades for goaltenders at the beginning of the 2024-25 season, acquiring Mackenzie Blackwood in exchange for Alexandar Georgiev and then Scott Wedgewood for Justus Annunen. The first former Avs goaltender, Georgiev, could be out of the NHL for good.
News broke recently that Georgiev agreed to sign with the KHL’s Moscow Spartak, and his Sabres contract was terminated..
Georgiev led the NHL in wins during the 2022-23 and 2023-24 seasons. However, in 2023-24 and 2024-25, he had save percentages of .897 and .874, as well as goals-against averages of 3.02 and 3.38. In the world of hockey, anything over .300 is concerning. His goals-against total went from 155 to 183 from 2022-23 and 2023-24. Those stats are cause for why the Avalanche moved off of him when they traded him to the San Jose Sharks for Mackenzie Blackwood last season.
On September 11, 2025, the Buffalo Sabres signed Georgiev to a one-year contract worth $825k. A little more than two months later, he finds himself on his way to the KHL, where the game is a little bit different—most notably the size of the rinks, as well as the quality of play, given that the NHL consists of the best of the best.
It feels like Georgiev has run out of chances in the NHL. Then again, it felt the same way after the Sharks moved off of him. It was quite a surprise when news broke of the Sabres taking a flier on him.
Georgiev is 29 years old. I hope that he has a lot of success over in the KHL, because his chances of returning to the NHL seem pretty low at this point, especially given that two bad teams have given up on him so fast (that is, if you can really call this latest move “giving up” if it was Georgiev’s decision to go to the KHL).
We’ll see what the future holds for the former Avalanche, but for now, he is no longer part of the NHL.