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Let the draft madness begin.
Even before the draft gets underway tonight with the Avs not participating in the first rounds, the Avs kept the phone lines busy. Joe Sakic was working the landlines again, as he made a call to the New York Rangers and got a new man in net.
Thursday morning saw the announcement of the Colorado Avalanche obtaining Alexandar Georgiev. The Rangers got two third-round picks from the 2022 and 2023 NHL Draft, along with a fifth-round selection from the 2022 Draft in exchange.
The Colorado Avalanche Hockey Club announced today that the team has acquired goaltender Alexandar Georgiev from the New York Rangers in exchange for Colorado’s third-round and fifth-round selections in the 2022 NHL Draft and a fifth-round pick in the 2023 NHL Draft.#GoAvsGo
— Colorado Avalanche (@Avalanche) July 7, 2022
Georgiev, 26, has spent the last five years as a Ranger at Madison Square Garden. Backing up Igor Shesterkin this season, he featured in 33 games this year with a 2.92 GAA and a .898 SV%. He also featured for the Rangers twice in their run to the Eastern Conference Finals, both in the first round against the Pittsburgh Penguins. In those two games, he had a 2.04 GAA and a .935 SV%.
Georgiev has a similar structure to that of Pavel Francouz, standing at 6’ 1”, 178 lbs. He has eight career shutouts, including two this past season. He is only going to get better as time goes on.
Alexandar Georgiev, traded to COL, has struggled in a backup role with the Rangers in the past two seasons. Played well in the two seasons before that. He's also a goalie. Lots of uncertainty but a cheap contract. #GoAvsGo pic.twitter.com/lBjryvnywM
— JFresh (@JFreshHockey) July 7, 2022
The new acquisition spells the end to the Darcy Kuemper experiment in Colorado. He will hit the market when free agency opens on Wednesday. Kuemper was solid at best but found ways to let the team down when it mattered most in the run to the Stanley Cup. His eye injury in the first round to the Nashville Predators did not help his cause either. He did get his Cup though, and good on him.
Sources also confirm Darcy Kuemper is out in Colorado. Pending UFA was too expensive to retain. He’s headed to market Wednesday. https://t.co/wu5gkcfWLv
— Pierre LeBrun (@PierreVLeBrun) July 7, 2022
That means that the goaltender partnership to be run next season is Georgiev and Francouz. It will be an interesting battle between the two during the preseason to see who ends up with the starting job, as it could go to either player.
At the end of the day, this move is great to save money at least. Georgiev’s current cap hit is at $2.4M per CapFriendly versus Kuemper’s $4.5M. A younger netminder that can be compared and work with Francouz instead of Kuemper benefits the Avs who are still looking to make other offers to guys like Valeri Nichushkin, Artturi Lehkonen, Darren Helm, and others.
What do we think about the new goaltender Joe Sakic has gotten this morning? Sound off in the comments below!
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