The Buffalo Sabres have added a new goalie to their roster. The club announced tonight that they have signed netminder Alexandar Georgiev to a one-year, one-way $825k contract.
Georgiev, who is repped by Dan Milstein of Gold Star Hockey, had lingered on the free agent market after a sub-par 2024-25 season. It was just a few years ago that Georgiev was considered one of the NHL’s more promising young goalies. In 2022-23, his first season as the number-one for the Colorado Avalanche, Georgiev went 40-16-6 with a .919 save percentage, landing a seventh-place finish in Vezina Trophy voting. The next season, Georgiev started 62 games for the Avalanche and represented the team at the 2024 NHL All-Star Game. But despite that honor, some cracks were beginning to show in Georgiev’s performance, as his save percentage declined to .898.
Georgiev struggled mightily to begin 2024-25, and through 18 games, he had a .874 save percentage. The Avalanche decided to move on from Georgiev in December of last year, dealing him to the San Jose Sharks as part of a larger trade that put Mackenzie Blackwood in position to take up a role as the new number-one goalie in Colorado.
In San Jose, Georgiev failed to find his form. He played in 31 games for the Sharks and went 7-19-4, posting an .875 save percentage while playing behind an admittedly poor defensive group. After the season, the Sharks informed Georgiev that he was not in their plans moving forward. After the Sharks’ final game of 2024-25, the netminder told the media, including Sharks Hockey Digest’s Max Miller, that he would not be offered an extension to remain with the club.
By signing with the Sabres, Georgiev has given himself a fresh opportunity to re-establish himself as an NHL goalie. The Sabres are not the most obvious fit for Georgiev – they already have Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen entrenched as a starter, and two other netminders with NHL experience set to compete for the role behind him. Top prospect Devon Levi appeared set to battle with Alex Lyon for the right to be Luukkonen’s backup, and now it appears a third name, Georgiev, has entered the mix for that role.
The Sabres signed Lyon to a two-year, $1.5MM AAV contract this summer, and the cap hit of that deal indicates that he enters training camp as the favorite for the spot behind Luukkonen. But this addition of Georgiev adds a new, qualified veteran for the Sabres to consider. With Georgiev playing to re-establish his place as an NHL netminder, Levi fighting to retain his status as one of the game’s top goalie prospects, and Lyon looking to play a third consecutive season entirely in the NHL, the battle for the number-two goalie spot in Buffalo looks set to be one of the more intriguing roster situations to watch in this upcoming preseason.
Another year of Levi in the minors.
If Levi can’t out play Georgiev at camp here, then there truly IS a problem.
Rochester is where Levi belongs this year. He will get the start, and Georgiev will be a backup.
Their goal differential will not be any better!
Low risk signing. Contract can be fully buried in Rochester.
People need to take a closer look at the 2024-25 Sabres before jumping to conclusions. The team ranked 24th for GF/GA differential. However, when ranking solely for 5v5 differential, they ranked 10th. This highlights two glaring problems for the team:
1) The Sabres had horrendous special teams, but against even strength they played at a solid playoff level.
2) Team defense was the team’s Achilles heel last season. It was not in G, and certainly not the offense that lead to their downfall. This does not fall entirely on the D corp. They had several F’s that were sadly deficient at playing D. Some of them have been traded since then.
Their G’s had very unimpressive stats, but a team willing to play D in front of them would have improved the goal differential tremendously.
The Sabres made several changes to the roster. They have a more balanced RH-LHD, and more players willing & able to play the 200’ game. If they click, the Sabres will be much better, and no one will care about the backup goalie in Rochester.
Buffalo has made significant changes on D, we shall see if it pays off. I wish the Wings had made some significant changes on D in the past 2 seasons rather than signing 7th Ds that were cast offs from other teams.
Adding Kesselring and Timmins will help. They kept Byram since Dahlin can play the right side. Adding Lyons will allow Buffalo to keep Levi in Rochester if needed. Also Adding Josh Doan and Justin Danford will help the bottom 6 forwards play with more grit and be more aggressive. If UPL can bounce back the Sabres should have good goalie depth.
I was going to say for the Sabres to take a gamble on Carter Hart
That is just sad Mr Trump.
He hasn’t played in 2 seasons plus he was up & down as a goalie.
I don’t understand this. Are they gonna carry three goalies? Maybe trade one of them?
I assume it’s just a guy to stash in the AHL as depth. The contract will deter someone claiming him on waivers. Quick look at puckpedia suggests that the Sabres don’t have any goalie prospects that need to play at the AHL next year.
Give me a break Never Remember
Man, I gotta get a break from all the divisive political crap everywhere. I’ll check PHR…..Ah dangit.
If I was Levi I would seek a trade to a team that I would be #2 making my way to #1 starter.
Why? Levi took a 2 year league minimum bridge deal in the offseason. He is still waiver exempt until he plays in 29 more NHL games.
Kevyn Adams is a genius! I don’t know how he does it.