Breaking Trade: Mackenzie Blackwood on the move from the Sharks

The San Jose Sharks have made a long-anticipated move to trade goaltender Mackenzie Blackwood, who now lands with the Colorado Avalanche.

Full trade:

To COL:
G Mackenzie Blackwood
F Givani Smith
2027 fifth-round pick

To SJ:
G Alexandar Georgiev
F Nikolai Kovalenko
2025 fifth-round pick
2026 second-round pick
— David Pagnotta (@TheFourthPeriod) December 9, 2024

Insider Elliotte Friedman was the first to report that the netminder is headed to Colorado, who have been searching for goaltending help since the start of the season.

Struggling goalie Alexandar Georgiev and forward Nikolai Kovalenko and two picks—a 5th in 2025 and a second-rounder in 2026—are the return going to San Jose. Givani Smith is also heading to Colorado as is a Sharks 2027 5th-round draft pick.

In addition, the Avalanche are retaining 14% of Georgiev's $3.4M cap hit.

Blackwood offers a very nice boost for the Avs between the pipes, who are 29th in the league in goals against at 3.55 and tied for dead last in save percentage at .880. To say the team has had trouble finding an answer in the crease is an understatement, as they’ve tried five different netminders to this point.

Mackenzie Blackwood will be the sixth different goalie used by Colorado this season. The others...

Alexandar Georgiev
Justus Annunen
Scott Wedgewood
Kaapo Kahkonen
Trent Miner
— NHL Rosters (@NHL_Rosters) December 9, 2024

Georgiev leaves Denver with a dreadful .874 Sv% this season. Blackwood has a .909 Sv% this season with a 3.00 GAA, and has a career .904 Sv% and 3.07 GAA.

And this move to a Stanley Cup contender turns out to be a pretty nice birthday gift for Blackwood, who turned 28 today.