The Colorado Avalanche will need to make a decision on whether or not to extend goaltender Alexandar Georgiev or let him skate off into free agency following the 2024-25 season. In my opinion, the team needs to hold off as long as possible to extend the 28-year-old, who they signed to a three-year extension following a trade with the New York Rangers in 2021.
Georgiev has had some obvious struggles throughout his career. He played more than 30 games in three of his years with the Rangers, and became the Avalanche’s full-time starter upon his arrival and Darcy Kuemper’s departure to the Washington Capitals after just one season.
Georgiev has ranked in the bottom half of the NHL during his Avalanche tenure in save percentage (25th) at .908, goals against average (31st) at 2.77, and GSA (goals saved against average) at 19.1 (19th).
The thing that complicates the idea that the Avalanche should wait to extend him is that, even though he ranked in the bottom half in the NHL in those categories I just mentioned, he still led the league in wins last season with 38. I would completely understand if the team extends him, but what if he ends up having a poor showing in 2024-25? Jumping the gun on an extension for Georgiev could prove to be a terrible move by general manager Chris MacFarland.
Another side of this is how many of the goals allowed the team feels is on Georgiev and how many are on the rest of the team. At the end of the day, the stats go against the goaltender, but it’s not always his fault. That has caused some frustration that was shown by Georgiev last year, which is completely understandable. There’s no question that they have to play better defensively for their goaltender.
Something to keep in mind is that it seems as though they want to give Justus Annunen more games this upcoming season than they did last year. Annunen started 12 of 14 games he played in last season, posting a record of 8-4-0-1, a GAA of 2.25, and a save percentage of .928.
The Avalanche have several other goaltenders in their system that they hope can turn into something significant, including three drafted this past NHL draft. Talk about those will be for another year, I’m sure. We could also be seeing an addition to the goaltender position at some point, with Jeremy Swayman apparently on the trade block.
It certainly is possible that both sides gets a deal done prior to the end of the season, but I would not be surprised if they waited to see how Georgiev’s 2024-25 season plays out.