Colorado Avalanche goaltender Alexandar Georgiev led the entire NHL in wins during the 2023-24 regular season. At the end of the day, that’s what matters. The Avalanche were comeback kings, however, as they found themselves behind in quite a few games. You can’t blame Georgiev for a lot of the goals allowed, despite him being the last line of defense.
Georgiev finished the 2023-24 season with a goals-against average of 3.02 and led the entire league in wins with 38. The Avalanche as a team led the entire league with a 3.68 goals for average. That is due to their explosive star player such as Nathan MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen. I think that the defense will have to step up big time if Georgiev is going to have a chance at matching or surpassing his win total from last season.
It certainly is not out of the question that Georgiev leads the league in wins again. One of the problems, however, is that, if Georgiev has a stretch of bad games, the team might want to give Justus Annunen some time in net. I wrote about him possibly getting more playing time in 2024-25 in April. I suppose that will be partially dependent on how goals are being scored on Georgiev. Are most of the goals allowed his fault? Will he be victim of bad defense?
Anyways, ESPN has Georgiev starting one less game than he did last year, with 61. They predict a 37-win season for the Avalanche’s current starter. The site has him ranked as the eighth-best goaltender, according to their system.
Georgiev is also entering a contract year. It would not be surprising to me if Annunen does see quite a bit more ice time this season and takes over as the lead goaltender at some point. That would also help the team’s cap situation going forward, as they would choose not to give Georgiev an extension, and roll with the younger guy. They would have to bring someone in, of course, or it could be possible that the backup to Annunen might already be in the team’s system. Colorado did draft three goaltenders in this year’s NHL Draft.
Whatever his future holds, we as Avalanche fans just hope that Georgiev has an even better season than he did last year. It was underwhelming at times despite the wins the team pulled out. Everybody has to be better, especially Georgiev.