Boston Bruins: Would it be worth enquiring on NY Rangers’ goalie?

The Boston Bruins will soon be in need of a new second-choice goaltender; could they swing a deal for the New York Rangers’ Bulgarian backup, Alexandar Georgiev?

With Jaroslav Halak‘s deal ending at the completion of this season and Tuukka Rask only under contract with the Boston Bruins for one more year; Alexandar Georgiev would form part of the succession plan, if they could snatch him away from New York.

Therein lies the challenge; the New York Rangers have their own ageing goalie on an expensive contract in Henrik Lundqvist and likely want to maintain control in terms of his eventual step down from the number one spot.

Granted, the goaltender they’re grooming as their future number one appears to be 24 year-old Russian, Igor Shesterkin but we have seen more and more that you need a reliable number two in this league.

More from Rumors

• Report: Bruins reportedly interested in young Ottawa center
• 3 players the Bruins can, 3 players could trade, 3 players they shouldn’t trade
• NHL Network lists Ullmark as sixth-best goalie in the league
• Bruins potentially interested in these veteran forwards
• Bruins Potential Trade Targets: Who They Would, Should and Could Target

Would the New York Rangers hang onto Lundqvist in that spot and allow the much younger Georgiev to leave the organisation or would you force Lundqvist out after standing true to the team for a decade and a half?

The Boston Bruins are in a similar spot, albeit without any clear-cut future franchise goaltender coming through the ranks.

Tuukka Rask isn’t getting any younger and Jaroslav Halak is a very able second-choice but will likely seek more many at the end of this season as a result of said reliability. You can’t begrudge him seeking a pay-day.

Beyond them, the Boston Bruins have options in Maxime Lagace, Dan Vladar and Kyle Keyser, though none scream out NHL quality right now. Reasonably, you’d expect they could step up for the odd game here and there, but not the amount of games you need to keep Rask ready for the post-season.

As such, we come to Alexander Georgiev, who finds himself the third-string goaltender in New York, despite being a 23 year-old that has shown enough to be at the very least a reliable future backup option.

Last season, he played in 33 games and managed a 0.914 save percentage and goals against average of 2.91, which are really impressive numbers considering the team was bottoming out in the hopes of nabbing Jack Hughes.

Likewise, this season he’s made 20 appearances and whilst he’s conceding at a higher rate of 3.17 average goals against, he still has a 0.909 save percentage that represents the 32nd best in the league this year.

Enquiring on him would be an incredibly wise think for the Boston Bruins to do. Given that we appear to be interested in Chris Kreider as well, perhaps there’s a deal to be done there.

In fact, Jaroslav Halak’s expiring deal could even be used as a sweetener for the New York Rangers. They seem like they could be a small chance at the play-offs; perhaps a rental on Halak gets them into that wild-card spot.

Put quite simply, there’s far worse players we could go after. Georgiev might not be the most known name for Boston Bruins fans, but he is one that has age on his side. A deal for him would be a win for the present and future roster!