Rangers Free Agency: How much should Alexandar Georgiev get paid?

How much should the New York Rangers pay their young Bulgarian goaltender?

Alexandar Georgiev is an arbitration eligible Restricted Free Agent (RFA) and is due a raise on his Entry Level Contract salary of $700,000.   With bonuses, his pay was higher (at least $100k more), but after three professional seasons, he can count on an increase.  The New York Rangers saved $3 million in cap space when they bought out Henrik Lundqvist.  Will all of that money go to Alexandar Georgiev?

To put a value on Georgiev, it’s worth looking at what other goaltenders in the NHL are making.  To put it perspective,  the Average Annual Value (AAV) of Georgiev’s contract last season was $792,500.

When it comes to goalies, there is a stratosphere with a handful of netminders making north of $7 million AAV.  They include goalies like Sergei Bobrovsky, Carey Price, Marc-Andre Fleury, Tuukka Rask and until Wednesday, Henrik Lundqvist.

After that there are a number of goalies in the $4-6 million range.  Most are number one starters or veterans. Georgiev is neither.

Georgiev’s season

Alexandar Georgiev is 24, turning 25 in February.  He has been an NHL goalie ever since he was promoted from Hartford late in the 2017-18 season.   He has appeared in 77 games since that time.  In his first full season he was the full time back up to Henrik Lundqvist. This season he split duties with Lundqvist until Igor Shesterkin took the starting job in January.  Georgiev was the clear number two goalie from that point on.

In 34 games, Georgiev posted a 17-14-2 record with a 3.04 Goals Against Average (GAA) and a Save Percentage (Sv%) of .910.   Those numbers are similar to what he recorded in the previous two seasons.  Six times this season he had two game winning streaks.   Whenever he was presented with an opportunity to win a third game, he failed five times winning three in a row only once.

It was an inconsistent season for the young goalie. He posted two shutouts including a stellar road victory in Vegas, but he also allowed four or more goals 10 times in his 32 starts.

Ranger fans remember his amazing two wins over Toronto in 2018-19 when he stopped 99 of 101 shots.    Georgiev is at his best when he faces a lot of shots.  He faced 40 or more shots in a game seven times this season and won five times.

New signings

Three goalies were signed in the last few days and it is worth looking at their deals to see what the going price is for a netminder.

Brian Elliott, Philadelphia Flyers – The Flyers extended their veteran netminder for one more season at the cost of $1.5 million.  The 35 year old is set to be Carter Hart’s back up for another season.  This year he started 27 times, going 16-7-4.  He posted a 2.87 GAA and a  .899 Sv%.   His new deal is for one year and he took a half million pay cut from his salary last season.

Tristan Jarry, Pittsburgh Penguins – The Penguins have committed to Jarry over Matt Murray, inking him to  three year, $10.5 million contract with an AAV of $3.5 million.  Jarry is 25 years old and was a RFA with no arbitration rights.

Jarry had started 31 games with a 20-12-1 record, a 2.43 GAA and .921 Sv%.   He was coming off a standard RFA contract he signed two years ago for an AAV of $675k.

Laurent Brossoit, Winnipeg Jets – Brossoit is an interesting case and in many ways is most similar to Geoergiev.   He is 27 years old and just signed a one year extension as a UFA for $1.5 million.  This was a slight increase over the $1.22 million he made last season as an arbitration eligible RFA.

Brossoit will be the back up to Vezina Trophy winner Connor Hellebuyck.  Brossoit made 15 starts and finished with a 6-7-1 record, a 3.28 GAA and a .895 Sv%.   He is one year removed from a season when he finished with a 2.52 GAA and a .925 Sv%.