On his 28th birthday, goaltender Mackenzie Blackwood was traded to the Colorado Avalanche, along with some simple advice.
“Just stop the puck,” said Avalanche general manager Chris MacFarland. “That’s what we’re looking for from him.”
While it sounds simple, the Avalanche made the trade after the team struggled with goaltending consistency. Colorado sent goaltender Alexandar Georgiev to the San Jose Sharks in exchange for Blackwood.
Along with Blackwood, Colorado also got forward Givani Smith and a fifth-round pick from San Jose in 2027. The Sharks received forward Nikolai Kovalenko and two draft picks: one in the fifth round in 2025 and another in the second round in 2026.
The Avalanche will keep 14% of Georgiev’s contract, which is about $476,000. Georgiev was in the final year of his three-year, $10.2 million deal.
“We paid a steep price,” MacFarland said in a Zoom call. “At the end of the day, I didn’t want to wait and be in a position where we had to do something. We just felt this made a lot of sense for us right now.”
Earlier in November, Colorado made another move, sending backup goaltender Justus Annunen to Nashville in exchange for Scott Wedgewood.
The Avalanche have allowed 3.55 goals per game this season, so they decided to make a bigger change at goaltender. Georgiev, 28, had a rough start to the season and even spent some time on the bench. His record stands at 8-7 with a 3.38 goals-against average and a .874 save percentage.
“We felt we needed an upgrade a few weeks ago and started kicking the tires,” MacFarland said. “But it’s not easy to make goaltending trades. People think it’s just pick up the phone and make an offer — teams don’t trade starting goaltenders in this league easily. So for us to make these two deals, it was a challenge.”
Georgiev had been acquired by Colorado from the New York Rangers on July 7, 2022. He made the NHL All-Star Game last year after finishing with 38 wins, the most in the league. He ended up with a record of 86-41-11 as a member of the Avalanche.
Blackwood also started the season slowly, with a 0-2-2 record, but he has since improved, posting a 2.72 goals-against average and a .916 save percentage in his last 14 games. On Oct. 22, he stopped 37 of 39 shots in a 3-1 loss to Anaheim to mark his 200th career game.
“We believe there’s some untapped, still potential in him as he’s growing as a goaltender,” MacFarland said. “We think he’s stylistically going to fit really well with how we play.”
MacFarland mentioned that Blackwood was sick and would not travel to Pittsburgh for Colorado’s game on Tuesday. Instead, he will head to Denver.
“I chatted with him briefly, he’s super excited — as are we,” MacFarland said. “He knows the opportunity in front of him.”
The Sharks had acquired Blackwood from the New Jersey Devils in 2023 for a sixth-round pick. By trading him to Colorado, the Sharks were able to get Kovalenko and additional draft picks.
Kovalenko, a rookie this season, has four goals and four assists in 28 games, ranking ninth in goals among first-year players. He made his NHL debut during Game 4 of Colorado’s first-round playoff series last season, becoming the sixth player in Avalanche/Nordiques history to debut in the playoffs.
“You’ve got to give to get. The goalie market, it’s a bear,” MacFarland said of including Kovalenko in the deal. “That was the cost of doing business. … We had to swallow hard and include him in the deal. We wish him nothing but the best.”
Smith, the 26-year-old forward, has played in six games for San Jose this season. He was originally selected by Detroit in the second round of the 2016 draft.
