Alexandar Georgiev
Colorado Avalanche Goaltender
Thirty-eight wins — the most in this edition — with the lowest save percentage of any goaltender who won thirty-five.
| Season | Team | GP | W | L | OTL | GA | GAA | SO | SA | SV% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017-18 | NYR | 10 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 27 | 3.15 | 0 | 331 | .918 |
| 2018-19 | NYR | 33 | 14 | 13 | 4 | 91 | 2.91 | 2 | 1057 | .914 |
| 2019-20 | NYR | 34 | 17 | 14 | 2 | 96 | 3.04 | 2 | 1063 | .910 |
| 2020-21 | NYR | 19 | 8 | 7 | 2 | 44 | 2.71 | 2 | 465 | .905 |
| 2021-22 | NYR | 33 | 15 | 10 | 2 | 85 | 2.92 | 2 | 832 | .898 |
| 2022-23 | COL | 62 | 40 | 16 | 6 | 156 | 2.53 | 5 | 1904 | .918 |
| 2023-24 | COL | 63 | 38 | 18 | 5 | 183 | 3.02 | 2 | 1770 | .897 |
| 2024-25 so far | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Career | — | 254 | 136 | 82 | 22 | 682 | 2.85 | 15 | 7422 | .908 |
This Season So Far
The 2024-25 season has not started. The empty row above is his, and both it and this paragraph fill in on their own from the morning after he first plays: what he has done, what it is worth against his own last season, and the run he is on when the two disagree.
Last Season
Sixty-three games, 38-18-5, an .8966 save percentage, a 3.02 average and 2 shutouts on 1,770 shots.
Thirty-eight wins is the most of any goaltender in this edition and an .8966 is the lowest save percentage of the eight men who won thirty-five. The club’s goaltending came in 10.4 goals worse than the chances faced, 24th in the league, in front of the 11th-best chance suppression in hockey — and Justus Annunen posted a .9275 in the same crease. He carries a career .9081 across 254 games and posted a .9181 the season before, so the fall is real and recent.
The Physical Game
He is 6-1 and 178 and plays deep, relying on positioning and a quick glove rather than on aggression. The glove hand is genuinely good and it is what a .9181 season was built on.
The rebound control is the weakness, and behind a club that concedes from the perimeter that should be survivable. It was not survivable often enough. At 178 pounds he is moved in his crease by traffic and the second chance is where the goals came from.
The Mental Game
Sixty-three starts on a club that scores 304 goals is a comfortable place to accumulate wins and a hard place to be judged. The save percentage did not recover across a full season, and a goaltender who has played 254 games knows exactly what that means.
He is 28 and has been a starter for two years. This was the first season in which the club could reasonably have wondered.
The Intangibles
Undrafted, born in Bulgaria, and 136 wins in 254 games with 15 shutouts and a career .9081. That is a real career built without a single thing being given to him.
Colorado’s answer to a 24th-ranked crease was to sign a goaltender who went 7-24-3. The starter’s job is his by default rather than by argument.