Colorado Avalanche
Avalanche should roll the dice with Fleury
With inconsistency from an overworked Alexandar Georgiev, and little faith in the backup netminder with Ivan Prosvetov being placed on waivers yesterday, it is clear the Colorado Avalanche need another goaltender.
Nick Wosika-USA TODAY Sports - Avalanche should roll the dice with FleuryVeteran goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury has won multiple awards over two decades in the NHL. The 39-year-old Canadian earned a Vezina Trophy in 2021 and a William M. Jennings Trophy — for the team with the fewest goals scored against — the same year. He is also a three-time Stanley Cup champion with the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2009, 2016 and 2017.
Avalanche netminder Alexandar Georgiev has been hot and cold this season, starting hot with a .915 save percentage in October, that went down to .883 in November, back up to .901 in December, and went downhill again last month to .895.
The Bulgaria native is also tremendously overworked, averaging almost 60 minutes a game all the way from October to January.
The Avs could only depend so much on their backup goalie Ivan Prosvetov, who was placed on waivers yesterday. He was not too bad overall, with a .895 SV% in 11 games played this season. Sadly though, Prosvetov had a .692 SV% in his last game played on Jan. 6, vs. the Florida Panthers, and a .792 SV% during his previous Dec. 16, 2023 game vs. the Winnipeg Jets.
To fill his place, the Avalanche recalled goaltender Justus Annunen from the AHL's Colorado Eagles. Annunen has done well — playing the most games of any Eagles netminder by far at 1,360 minutes in 23 games with a .908 SV%. He has only played five NHL games in total, so there is only so much faith one could reasonably put in him to be a good backup for Georgiev.
With Fleury's veteran status, a career goals against average of 2.59 and a career SV% of .912 — tied for the 12th-best in the NHL this season — he would be a good sidekick for Georgiev.
Very recently, Fleury has been decently hot, with a .906 SV% in January, which would put him close to top 20 in the NHL on average this season.
Fleury would provide Georgiev enough relief, while keeping the opposing forwards out, to be properly rested and perform at his best when he does stand between the pipes.
In terms of fixing individual problems, Fleury is even better than Georgiev on mid-range saves, averaging .881 versus Georgiev's below average .860.
Fleury's $3.5M cap hit would be expensive. But if he could provide relief to Georgiev that resulted in his individual goaltending improvement as well as the team's, it may be worth the investment.