On Thursday, the Buffalo Sabres signed free agent goalie Alexandar Georgiev to a one-year deal. At the time, the move made a lot of sense and brought some veteran experience that was lacking a bit after Ukko-Pekka Luukonen and Alex Lyon.
However, recent reporting has made the move go from being a nice-to-have to a necessity and should have fans concerned about a position that already had plenty of questions entering the season. According to Matthew Fairburn with The Athletic, the Sabres, in part, made the move due to Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen showing up to camp with an injury that is described as a 'tweak'.
Fairburn notes that the severity of the injury is unknown and also indicates that a timetable for his return to 100% hasn't been determined.
Buffalo Sabres goalie position goes from bad to worse with Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen
Last season, Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen struggled in net for the Sabres and the hope was that he could bounce back. After signing him to a five-year extension last summer, that was the best the Sabres could do because they didn't really have any other options.
They did bring in Alex Lyon in free agency and started 69 games over the past two seasons with the Detroit Red Wings. He has had decent numbers over that stretch with a goals against average of 2.96 and a quality start percentage above 50%.
However, if UPL missed any extended time, they didn't have an experienced goalie to back up Lyon. The likely option would have been Devon Levi, but with the signing of Lyon, it seemed they were set on having Levi in the AHL to continue to develop.
The signing of Georgiev gives them a veteran option to back up Lyon but that changes expectations for the former All-Star goalie. At the time of the signing, assuming everyone was healthy, Georgiev was an upside signing but was more viewed as an opportunity for him to get a reset on his career in the AHL for a season.
Hopefully, the tweak that spurred the Sabres to sign Georgiev isn't serious, and he will be ready to start the season. However, if that doesn't happen then the pressure will be on Lyon and Georgiev to step up for Buffalo.