Oct. 9: Romanov has cleared waivers and will be assigned to Springfield, according to Chris Johnston of TSN and The Athletic.
Oct. 8: The Blues have signed goaltender Georgi Romanov to a two-way deal, the team announced. He’ll be reporting to AHL Springfield, but he needs to clear waivers first. Renaud Lavoie of TVA Sports confirms he landed on the wire today. He had been in training camp with the Devils on a PTO, and while they never confirmed they released him, today’s news solidifies it.
Romanov is entering his seventh professional season and his third in North America. The Russian netminder signed with the Sharks as an undrafted free agent in 2023 after putting together a strong resume with Gornyak-UGMK in the second-tier VHL, only getting one game of top-flight KHL action with Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg before making the jump. He enjoyed brief call-ups to San Jose in each of his two years there but was not given a qualifying offer this summer, making him an unrestricted free agent.
The 25-year-old brings six career starts and four relief appearances to the Blues’ pipeline. He fared as expected in them for a rookie netminder behind a league-worst team, going 0-6-0 but posting a respectable .888 SV% and 3.53 GAA while cumulatively allowing 3.5 goals above expected, per MoneyPuck.
Romanov did well at the AHL level, posting a 3.12 GAA and a .904 SV% with a 20-15-13 record in 50 appearances for the San Jose Barracuda over the past two years. He looks to slot in as the new AHL starter and No. 3 goalie on St. Louis’ depth chart. The club lost Colten Ellis, who logged a .922 SV% in 42 games for AHL Springfield last season, on waivers to the Sabres earlier this week.
.988% saves. Yikes.