Don’t sound the alarm but the Colorado Avalanche opened the 2024-25 NHL season with a resounding 8-4 loss at the hands of the Vegas Golden Knights and currently sit third-last in the league standings. Without being too focused on the outcome of a single game, it’s important to note the lingering goaltending storyline is already rearing its head early on in the season.
Starting goalie Alexandar Georgiev was pulled from the net after conceding five goals on the first 16 shots and his poor play reignited fan discussion around his place in the lineup and future with the organization. The blame for the goals against can’t fully be heaped onto Georgiev as some defensive miscues magnified the issue, but more is required from him if a Stanley Cup run is in the team’s future.
Related: 3 Things the Avalanche Need to Fix After Season Opener
Georgiev is an unrestricted free agent (UFA) following the conclusion of this season and is not guaranteed to return to Colorado next season. Let’s dive into what the first game represented, and what the future holds for the relationship between Georgiev and the Avalanche.
Georgiev’s Opening Night Performance Part of an Unsettling Trend
Shell-shocked Avalanche fans may have been yanked back to Georgiev’s performance in Game 1 of their first-round playoff series versus the Winnipeg Jets when the Russian netminder surrendered seven goals on 23 shots. His meltdown prompted a public call-out from head coach Jared Bednar and he recovered to post a respectable .910 save percentage (SV%) in the Avalanche’s 10 other postseason games (they lost to the Dallas Stars in six games in Round 2).
Still, performances such as those against the Golden Knights and the Jets have become more commonplace from Georgiev since his stellar debut season with the Avalanche. His regular-season SV% dropped from a sparkling .918 to a subpar .897 last season while his goals-against average (GAA) rose from 2.53 to 3.02 to finish in the bottom half of all qualified goalies in 2023-24 (minimum 10 games played).
Georgiev also struggled with his consistency during his sophomore season. He allowed three or more goals in a game on 37 occasions in 2023-24, six more times than in 2022-23 despite appearing in just one more game than the season prior. He also allowed four or more goals in a game 25 times last season, a noticeable increase from the 16 times that happened in 2022-23.
An extended run of poor play has slashed Georgiev’s value, but he could still earn a sizeable raise on the $3.4 million average annual value attached to his current contract if he and the team shelve the forgettable season-opening performance. Given the state of the organizational depth chart, his spot in the crease is all but assured.
2024-25 Season Could Be Annunen’s Opportunity to Break Out
Hot on Georgiev’s tail is 24-year-old netminder Justus Annunen, the Avalanche’s top prospect at the position. The young Finnish goalie will finally shed that label after appearing in 14 games last season, and he could force his older contemporary out of the crease by the end of the campaign, though he also allowed two goals on four shots in relief against the Golden Knights.
Annunen only has 19 NHL games to his name, but boasts career marks of a 2.68 GAA, .911 SV%, and 6.71 goals saved above expected (GSAx). He may be the organization’s goalie of the future, but throwing him into the deep end during a campaign in which a deep playoff run is expected is likely undesirable on the team’s end.
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The Avalanche have several intriguing games against the bottom-feeding Columbus Blue Jackets (Oct. 12), Anaheim Ducks (Oct. 18), San Jose Sharks (Oct. 20), and the Chicago Blackhawks (Oct. 28), so Annunen may have the opportunity to build his case for the starting role sooner than expected if Georgiev continues to falter.
Annunen is under contract through next season and counts for $0.837 million against the cap. He will be a restricted free agent (RFA) upon the expiry of his deal and should remain with the organization in some capacity barring an abrupt reversal in form.
Kahkonen Claimed off of Waivers as Insurance Policy
Though the timing of the move could have been a coincidence rather than an indication of the front office’s feelings towards the goaltending situation, 28-year-old netminder Kaapo Kahkonen was claimed off of waivers Friday afternoon from the Jets before playing a single game for the organization. He carries a cap hit of $1 million through this season and will become a UFA this summer.
Kahkonen owns a career record of 49-67-15 over 139 games split between the Minnesota Wild, the Sharks, and the New Jersey Devils. He owns a career GAA of 3.33 and a SV% of .899 while never playing more than 37 games in a single season.
For what it’s worth, Kahkonen posted a .923 SV% and a plus-3.85 GSAx over six games with the Devils last season after being traded from the Sharks at the 2024 Trade Deadline. This stretch, however brief, could be more indicative of his ability behind a contender than how he’s looked backstopping a rebuilding Sharks club over parts of the last three seasons.
It would be a major surprise if Kahkonen managed to corral the starting job from either of Georgiev or Annunen, but it can’t hurt to see if the front office can catch lightning in a bottle with the claim.
Avalanche’s Goaltending Situation in Flux
That these discussions (however unfair or reactionary) are happening so soon into the new campaign is an indictment on the organization. Though new contracts were needed for a number of players including Casey Mittelstadt and Jonathan Drouin and the status of Valeri Nichushkin is seemingly always up in the air, addressing the goaltending should have been a greater priority during the offseason.
Goaltending has been a sore spot for the Avalanche during the Cale Makar era (post-2019), where Philipp Grubauer, Darcy Kuemper (who won the Stanley Cup in 2022), and Pavel Francouz in addition to Georgiev and Annunen have all taken a crack at the starting job over the past half decade to varying effect.
Stanley Cup windows can be open for a surprisingly-brief period of time and any time not spent trying to capitalize on that opportunity is time wasted. One of Georgiev, Annunen, or Kahkonen could easily find their game and become the long-awaited saviour, but the crisis in the crease could have – and should have – been avoided.
Data courtesy of Evolving Hockey, Natural Stat Trick, and the NHL.
