I'm trying to find a bright side here, but this trade just stinks on first viewing... Annunen may be struggling, but he's still at less than 30 games of NHL experience and has enjoyed some ups along with his downs in that limited time. If they didn't trade Georgiev for a song after his catastrophic start to the season, why dump Annunen for a middling backup at the first whiff of trouble? Especially after the Avs have spent so long putting all their eggs in the Annunen basket by not drafting a single other goalie with a top 3 round pick until just last spring?
The biggest loss though is that amazing contract he has. That was going to be massive for our cap flexibility for the next two seasons to have a backup goalie for basically minimum wage. You won't find a better warm body for that position on the open market.
And this also means that we are now locked in on the Georgiev track. He is the guy no matter what, apparently management feels good going with him for the rest of the season, and frankly probably beyond, too. Nabokov isn't going to come in next season and be a starter, even if he could make it to that level one day. The only way to get a better/cheaper goalie option for next year would be to put Ritchie on the block.