The San Jose Sharks have reportedly acquired goaltender Mackenzie Blackwood from the New Jersey Devils, per Kevin Weekes of ESPN. The Sharks are sending a sixth-round pick in an undisclosed year to the Devils for the netminder, which checks an item off the Devils’ long offseason checklist.
Once a highly-regarded up-and-comer, things have gone spectacularly off the rails for Blackwood in recent seasons, mainly due to injury troubles. Selected 42nd overall in 2015, Blackwood posted a 22-14-8 record in 43 starts during his rookie season in 2019-20 and finished sixth in Calder Trophy voting. He’s started just 79 games in the three seasons since then, achieving just a .897 save percentage and a 33-33-10 record. For a team looking to contend for the Cup next season, it’s simply not good enough – especially for the $3.36MM qualifying offer he was due as a pending restricted free agent.
The Sharks, who are in desperate need of a netminder, get their fix with another reclamation project. They’ll have no issue accommodating whatever they’ll end up signing Blackwood to, entering the offseason with over $14MM in projected cap space (CapFriendly).
For now, he’ll form a tandem in the Bay Area with Kaapo Kahkonen, who’s under contract at a $2.75MM cap hit in 2023-24 and posted similarly poor numbers this past season. Both are 26 years old, and the Sharks will need to work with both closely to restore their career trajectories.
Blackwood’s still a netminder with plenty of NHL experience, though, and a sixth-round pick is certainly worth the gamble on the netminder. With his play sharply declining, though, there didn’t seem to be a ton of interest on the trade market, so New Jersey had to settle.
Alot of players have been moved in an out of San Jose since last summer but is the team any better? Grier has to knock one out of the park on the Karlsson trade.
Grier doesn’t have to make the team better, any time soon. He’s in it for the long haul. Tanking this year isn’t a bad idea. The next Karlsson, or Miro Heiskanen, is coming out of Finland, name of Aron Kiviharju. This kid dominated a men’s league at age 16. If all goes well for them, they might have their franchise defenseman for the next 15 years.
Blackwood for a 6th is a fantastic trade for the Sharks. Blackwood is not quite on track for development where many would have expected him to be, but a change of scenery might benefit him, and it’s unlikely you’d draft a player of his quality in the 6th anyway. Love this trade.
Good for Blackwood. If he stays healthy, the Sharks get a good goalie. It is worth the gamble. Good luck to him and the Sharks.
This trade makes Briere look even worse
As a fan of both teams, I like this deal heavily for SJS. As bad as Blackwood has been, his stock is worth way more than a 6th so it’s a whiff for Fitzy. That being said, he’s probably only worth a 4th so it’s not a huge miss. Blackwood is probably currently a fair backup who could still be a starter down the road so it’s a nice gamble for Grier for the price. The contract on the other hand… I guess they take him to arbitration to get a lower AAV than the current qualifying offer. This is likely what drove the price down to a 6th.