The purpose of these reviews is to give fans an idea of the current Sharks roster, how they stacked up this past season and how they are expected to perform in the season to come. We focus on players who have played 20 games or more because it gives us a large enough sample size to work with and gain a more accurate picture of the player we’re evaluating. That said, goaltenders are a different category, and this season for the Sharks was a rarity because the goaltenders the team started the season with were not the goaltenders the team ended the season with.
How it started …
The season started with Mackenzie Blackwood and Vitek Vanecek sharing the net.
Blackwood quickly earned himself the 1A starter spot. His performance on a defensively bad team like the Sharks was enough to pique the interest of teams around the league, and on Dec. 9, 2024, the Sharks traded Blackwood to the Colorado Avalanche.
In return, the team received Alexandar Georgiev, who we’ll get to in a moment.
Blackwood finished his time with the Sharks having played 1058:33 in ice time. He had 53 goals against, a .909 save percentage and a 4.68 goals saved above average according to Natural Stat Trick.
Vanecek started the season healthy. He played 14 games for the Sharks and even had an impressive 49-save win over the Columbus Blue Jackets on Nov. 5, 2024. But an injury in mid-December knocked Vanecek out of the lineup for several weeks, and, just as he returned to backup duty, a rogue puck hit him in the face and put him back on the injured list.
While Vanecek came back from injury and played five more games for the Sharks, he was gone by the trade deadline.
Vanecek finished his time with the Sharks having played 972:58 in ice time. He allowed 63 goals, had a 0.882 save percentage and a minus 4.71 goals saved above average according to Natural Stat Trick.
How it ended …
With neither Blackwood nor Vanecek with the Sharks by the end of the season, the goaltending was much different. Georgiev took over a majority of the netminding duties, while rookies Yaroslav Askarov and Georgi Romanov served as backups.
| Player | Games Played | Goals Saved Above Expected | Save % | Goals Against Average (GAA) | Wins Above Replacement (WAR) |
| Yaroslav Askarov | 13 | 1.7 | 0.896 | 3.10 | 0.28 |
| Georgi Romanov | 8 | -5.5 | 0.877 | 3.89 | -0.91 |
| Alexandar Georgiev | 49 | -17.9 | 0.875 | 3.71 | -2.99 |
Unfortunately for the Sharks, or maybe fortunately if you’re looking at it from a development standpoint, it was Georgiev who took on the brunt of the punishment in the net. As you can see from the MoneyPuck stats above, Georgiev was the worst of the three goaltenders in save percentage, wins above replacement and goals saved above expected.
Georgiev still performed better than the team
Still, goaltenders can become the victims of the teams in front of them and that was certainly the case with Georgiev, who was dealing with shaky team defense.
According to the Evolving-Hockey stats, the team in front of Georgiev at even-strength was worse than Georgiev’s performance. Even though he underperformed, it could have been a lot worse.
That said, Georgiev also wasn’t the old reliable that Blackwood had been for the Sharks. There were some stinkers he let in that took the Sharks out of key games. While the Sharks let Georgiev down at times, the netminder also let the team down at times.
Romanov received the most help?
On the flip side, the stats show that the Sharks played better defense in front of Romanov, and therefore, Romanov’s performance in the net could be considered the poorest of the three. If given the same amount of time as Georgiev, Romanov likely would have had much worse numbers than Georgiev.
Of course, you also have to consider all of the situations that Romanov was thrown into. In two of the eight games that Romanov played last season, he played in relief. That’s when the game was out of hand already, and the other team had let its foot off the gas. In those instances, team defense might have just seemed better, even if it wasn’t.
Askarov’s injuries prevented him from taking over the net
Things might have been a little different, specifically, Askarov might have played a few more games for the Sharks if he had not been injured in the spring. Of the three goaltenders, he performed the best for the Sharks.
Askarov outperformed the defense in front of him and managed to be the only one of the three netminders with a positive goals saved above expected.
What’s next for the Sharks’ goaltenders?
Georgiev was already told that he will not be returning to the Sharks next season, which means San Jose will need to look for another goaltender to share the net at the NHL level. We expect that Askarov will get his chance to take over as the number one netminder next season. For those of you wondering about potential Calder implications, Askarov would still be considered a rookie even though he played 13 games for the Sharks last season.
We expect that the Sharks will sign a free agent in the summer to share the net with Askarov and return Romanov to the Barracuda for some more seasoning. Romanov could be the first call up if someone gets injured at the NHL level, but don’t count out Gabriel Carriere, who performed well for the Barracuda and even found himself in the NHL when the injuries piled up last season.
After the college season, the Sharks signed Matt Davis out of the University of Denver in the NCAA, which means there’s another piece added to the team’s depth. San Jose appears to be set in goal with some good young talent and will just need to add a few veteran pieces around that to shore up the net.
Editor’s Note: Over the next few weeks, we will be rolling out the player reviews for the San Jose Sharks. We realize there were a lot of guys rotating into and out of the lineup and some of the key depth players were traded. As a result, Fear the Fin plans to focus on the players who are 1) still with the Sharks even if they are not under contract at the moment and 2) played 20 or more games for San Jose this season.
