This article is part of our The Goalie Report series.
We begin this week's analysis with the new goalie pairing in Colorado, as the Avalanche management team identified a pair of netminders who are likely to be a significant upgrade over their original options. Then we dive into our weekly look at who's hot and who's not.
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Mile High Makeover
In recent years, the Avalanche roster has been most well-known for several excellent offensive pieces. This season, that luxury has been obscured by a subpar goaltending effort from the recently departed pairing of Alexandar Georgiev and Justus Annunen. Last week, the Avalanche front office replaced both of them in trades with Nashville (Scott Wedgewood) and San Jose (Mackenzie Blackwood). Wedgewood had put together a pair of solid seasons in Dallas as the backup to undisputed top dog Jake Oettinger before signing as a free agent in Nashville to start this season. When he stumbled in five appearances with the Predators, he became expendable as the Avs offered a younger Annunen to replace him. This may have been a quick decision to dump a player who didn't immediately fit in with the struggling Predators. Wedgewood has an excellent chance to right himself in Colorado as he will be insulated by a much better team. Meanwhile, Blackwood was playing quite well and edging ahead in the goalie share for a San Jose club that appears destined to once again be in the bottom tier of the NHL. To underscore that point, it's also worth
We begin this week's analysis with the new goalie pairing in Colorado, as the Avalanche management team identified a pair of netminders who are likely to be a significant upgrade over their original options. Then we dive into our weekly look at who's hot and who's not.
Trending Up
Mile High Makeover
In recent years, the Avalanche roster has been most well-known for several excellent offensive pieces. This season, that luxury has been obscured by a subpar goaltending effort from the recently departed pairing of Alexandar Georgiev and Justus Annunen. Last week, the Avalanche front office replaced both of them in trades with Nashville (Scott Wedgewood) and San Jose (Mackenzie Blackwood). Wedgewood had put together a pair of solid seasons in Dallas as the backup to undisputed top dog Jake Oettinger before signing as a free agent in Nashville to start this season. When he stumbled in five appearances with the Predators, he became expendable as the Avs offered a younger Annunen to replace him. This may have been a quick decision to dump a player who didn't immediately fit in with the struggling Predators. Wedgewood has an excellent chance to right himself in Colorado as he will be insulated by a much better team. Meanwhile, Blackwood was playing quite well and edging ahead in the goalie share for a San Jose club that appears destined to once again be in the bottom tier of the NHL. To underscore that point, it's also worth noting that Blackwood (3.00 GAA, .897 Save Percentage) has produced better numbers, so far this season than Georgiev (3.38 GAA, .874 Save Percentage) for their original teams. He has every opportunity to even grab the top role here as he has been a top goalie in two prior stops in his career.
Sam Montembeault (1.97 GAA, .935 Save Percentage)
In his fourth season with Montreal, Montembeault has firmly established himself as the undisputed top option in goal for the Canadiens. He was recently recognized for his emergence with a selection to Canada's roster in the upcoming 4 Nations Face-Off tournament scheduled for February 2024. It's quite telling he's excelled behind a young Montreal blueline and an overall team structure that has not yet evolved into a sound defensive structure. This season, he's turned in many outstanding efforts that have obscured these teamwide inefficiencies. While he probably won't make anyone forget about Carey Price anytime soon, he is currently providing the Canadiens with a stabilizing presence in this key position.
Linus Ullmark (1.00 GAA, .965 Save Percentage)
Ullmark has gone through good and bad stretches early in his first season with the Senators. Last week, he added to a string of recent successes that accounts for his best segment of the season. The truth is that he's finding out that the structure of this Senators team is vastly different. He was insulated by a Boston team that was among the very best in the league in minimizing shots on goal. That's just not a part of Ottawa's DNA at this time. He is likely to continue to face more high-danger shots from Ottawa's opponents than he was used to in Boston. It's largely on him to rise to that challenge and show his mettle as a former Vezina Trophy winner. That performance is going to be key to any postseason hopes for Ottawa this season.
Ilya Sorokin (2.35 GAA, .923 Save Percentage)
Following the unavailability of his tandem partner, Semyon Varlamov, who has been sidelined by a lower-body injury, Sorokin has responded very favorably with six quality starts in a string of seven consecutive assignments. Even though Varlamov is expected to return to the active roster soon, Sorokin may have done enough to expect a larger share of the goalie starts moving forward. He is coming off the poorest season of his young career where his goals against average (3.01) soared much higher than his first three seasons on Long Island. With his efforts so far this season, there is a growing sense he has rediscovered his best form.
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Floundering in Philadelphia
Last week, the duo of Aleksei Kolosov (4.71 GAA, .843 Save percentage) and Samuel Ersson (3.585 GAA, .837 Save Percentage) continued a long and unimpressive trend of less-than-ordinary goaltending in Philadelphia. The ongoing struggle of Flyers goalkeepers has been a long and repetitive theme over the past 10 years. The Flyers just can't seem to find someone capable of putting up solid numbers and staying healthy for an extended period. This uneven performance offsets a dynamic young offense that is producing more goals per game than several contending teams.
Dan Vladar (3.47 GAA, .841 Save Percentage)
Vladar has taken a back seat to the exploits of his partner in Calgary's goalie ranks, while Dustin Wolf has taken a big step forward in his growth as a confident and competent netminder. In the last couple of weeks, Vladar has stumbled in his attempts to keep up. While the hype around Wolf is at its peak, we have yet to reach the midpoint of the season, so there's a lot of time for Vladar to rebound and make his case for more playing time.
Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen (4.27 GAA, .870 Save Percentage)
The Sabres are in a collective swoon over a current seven-game winless streak. Luukkonen has to share some of the blame as he started five of those games. Things are getting a little ugly in Buffalo, and it doesn't help matters when the GM states Buffalo is currently not a 'destination city' in the NHL. A resurgence by their top goalie would go a long way toward changing that narrative, but he needs a lot of help from his teammates, too.
Elvis Merzlikins (3.35 GAA, 846 Save Percentage)
Similar to recent troubles in Buffalo, the Blue Jackets have lost four of their last five games, wiping out the positive vibes that resulted from five wins in the previous six games that preceded the current fade. Merzlikins had been performing admirably through much of this season but has to be disappointed by last week's performance. At least he can point to the fact the Blue Jackets rank in the top third of the league in shots allowed. This is an indication a sound defensive focus is in his favor. His current 3.06 goals against average for the season to date is better than any of his last three seasons. He may be down at the moment, but he's not out.
