Grading the Mackenzie Blackwood trade: Avalanche get their man as Sharks stock picks

Anthony Trudeau
Anthony Trudeau(atrud00)
Grading the Mackenzie Blackwood trade: Avalanche get their man as Sharks stock picks
Credit: John Jones-Imagn Images

After a two-month wait for the first marquee trade of the season, the next domino fell just three days later when the Colorado Avalanche poached goaltender Mackenzie Blackwood from the San Jose Sharks on Monday.

No team’s goaltenders have torpedoed results quite like Colorado’s (league-worst .866 SV%) during the early season, so there was a feeling the Avs weren’t done shopping even after they acquired veteran Scott Wedgewood from the Nashville Predators.

They weren’t, and Joe Sakic and Chris MacFarland once again proved their commitment to building another Cup team around Nathan MacKinnon, Cale Makar, and Mikko Rantanen. 

For his part, San Jose Sharks GM Mike Grier once again proved his ability to identify midseason trade partners who will pay steeply for veteran talent.

There wasn’t a name brand in this trade on par with Jacob Trouba, but its playoff implications warrant the second edition of Daily Faceoff’s 2024-25 Trade Grades.

Colorado Avalanche

Receive:

G Mackenzie Blackwood, 28 – $2.35 million cap hit through 2025
F Givani Smith, 26 – $800,000 cap hit through 2025
2027 5th Rd Pick

That the Avalanche moved for another goalie this early was a minor surprise given Wedgewood’s brilliant start (2-1, 1.44 GAA, .951 SV%) with his new club, but erstwhile starter Alexandar Georgiev forced their hand.

If the plan was to see if Georgiev could find his footing alongside a more experienced battery mate, it quickly went awry when the Buffalo Sabres blitzed the Russian for four first-period goals to force Wedgwood into an unplanned debut on Dec. 3.

Finding a starting-caliber netminder on the trading block would be tough in a bear market, so landing Blackwood rather than a Ville Husso or a Chris Driedger already seems like a major coup for Colorado.

The 28-year-old posted respectable numbers (.899 SV% in 44 GP) in his first season behind a bereft Sharks’ D before a strong start to the 2024-25 campaign (.911 SV% in 19 GP) earned him some Team Canada buzz.

Blackwood’s greatest asset, his post-to-post mobility, should be especially useful to an Avalanche team whose run-and-gun style can leave it vulnerable to the odd-man rush (10th-most high-danger chances against at 5-on-5).

Nikolai Kovalenko wouldn’t have expected to become trade fodder so early into his NHL run, but a team as deep into its contention window as Colorado won’t fret over parting with a streaky 25-year-old (2 P in last 14 GP) or a second-round pick.

The bottom line is that the Avalanche got the best player available to fill their greatest need. It’s hard to expect more from a trade, let alone one this early in the season.

Grade: A

San Jose Sharks

Receive:

G Alexandar Georgiev, 28 – $2.92 million cap hit through 2025
F Nikolai Kovalenko, 25 – $925,000 cap hit through 2025

2026 2nd Rd Pick 
2025 5th Rd Pick

If it seemed like Blackwood’s agent wrote the Avalanche section, that’s because Blackwood’s shortcomings can better be used to explain that the Sharks also did well in this deal.

Yes, Colorado needed Blackwood and made the right move by getting him, but San Jose GM Mike Grier still did some shrewd business by trading a pending UFA at the height of his value.

Remember, Blackwood flamed out in New Jersey (3.19 GAA, .897 SV% from 2021-23) before the rebuilding Sharks acquired his RFA rights for a sixth-rounder. He’s never appeared in the postseason and hasn’t played this well since the abridged 2019-20 campaign. 

With Yaroslav Askarov slated to take over as San Jose’s No. 1 in the not-so-distant future, Grier was smart to flip Blackwood for draft capital and two NHL players, Kovalenko and Georgiev, before Blackwood had a chance to regress.

Kovalenko had little time to prove himself before Valeri Nichushkin and Arturri Lehkonen made their season debuts and pushed him to the bottom six, but the former KHL standout did post six points in his first 13 games when skating further up the lineup. 

If one team can afford to figure out what he is, it’s the Sharks. Fabian Zetterlund (33 G since 2023), himself a former trade throw-in, has proven that San Jose will give a fair shake to anyone who might be part of the solution.

A second-round pick and a handful of low-risk, high-reward fliers aren’t quite enough to earn an ‘A’ in any trade, but Grier said it best: “When someone calls you with an offer …[that] is going to help set you up for the future, you have to take it.”

Grade: B+

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