The San Jose Sharks didn’t wait till the NHL commerce deadline to deal one among their extra prized pending unrestricted free brokers to a contending group, sending goalie Mackenzie Blackwood to the Colorado Avalanche on Monday in a multi-player swap that included three draft picks.
The Sharks traded Blackwood, their No. 1 netminder, seldom-used ahead Givani Smith, and their very own 2027 fifth-round decide to the Avalanche for struggling goaltender Alexandar Georgiev, ahead Nikolai Kovalenko, Colorado’s 2026 second-round choice, and a conditional fifth-round draft decide in 2025.
Blackwood, who had his twenty eighth birthday Monday, had been the Sharks’ prime goalie since he was acquired from the New Jersey Devils in June 2023 for a sixth-rounder in that 12 months’s draft. In 63 video games with the rebuilding Sharks, Blackwood had a report of 16-34-7 and a .902 save proportion.
This season, after starting the 12 months with a 0-2-2 report, Blackwood had a stable 6-6-1 report and a .916 save proportion in his final 14 appearances. That included a stellar 50-save efficiency on Saturday within the Sharks’ 3-1 loss to the Florida Panthers.
Georgiev and Kovalenko are anticipated to affix the Sharks in Raleigh, N.C. and be out there for his or her recreation in opposition to the Carolina Hurricanes on Tuesday. The Sharks (10-15-5) entered Monday in 14th place within the Western Conference standings with 25 factors, seven behind the Avalanche (16-13-0).
Colorado holds the second and closing wild-card spot within the West and has now overhauled its goaltending duo in lower than two weeks. On Nov. 30, the Avalanche acquired goalie Scott Wedgewood in a commerce with the Nashville Predators for goalie Justus Annunen.
The 28-year-old Georgiev, additionally a pending UFA, had an 8-7-0 report in 18 video games with Colorado this season but in addition had a mediocre .874 save proportion and one of many worst marks within the NHL in targets saved above anticipated.
Of the 50 NHL goalies who’ve performed not less than 10 video games this season, Georgiev, per moneypuck.com, is forty ninth in targets saved above anticipated (-9.4) and forty seventh in targets saved above anticipated per 60 minutes (-0.599).
By comparability, Blackwood is seventeenth in targets saved above anticipated (3.9) and nineteenth in targets saved above anticipated per 60 minutes (0.221).
Georgiev is within the closing 12 months of a three-year, $10.2 million contract with a $3.4 million cap hit. As a part of the deal, Colorado will retain 14% of Georgiev’s contract, so the cap hit for San Jose is $2.924 million.
For now, the Sharks will likely be carrying Georgiev and Vitek Vanecek. From all indications, prime goalie prospect Yaroslav Askarov will stay within the AHL with the Barracuda for not less than the time being.
Kovalenko, 25, had eight factors in 28 video games for the Avalanche this 12 months, averaging 12 minutes of ice time per recreation in his first NHL season. Kovalenko, whose dad, Andrei, was a longtime winger within the NHL, is within the closing 12 months of a two-year, entry-level contract and can develop into a restricted free agent subsequent summer time.
A sixth-round draft decide by the Avalanche in 2018, Kovalenko spent seven years within the KHL — with 141 factors in 257 common season video games — earlier than he got here to North America in April. After he joined the Colorado Eagles of the AHL, he had three factors in 4 common season video games and one purpose in two playoff video games.
The Sharks positioned Smith on waivers on Sunday as he had zero factors in simply six video games with the group this season. Smith’s final recreation got here on Nov. 25, when he had 6:42 of ice time in opposition to the Los Angeles Kings.
Smith, 26, is within the second and closing 12 months of a $1.6 million contract he signed with the Sharks in 2023. He has performed in 151 profession regular-season video games within the AHL, the final of which was with the Charlotte Checkers on Dec. 31, 2022.
With Colorado’s 2026 second-rounder in hand, the Sharks now have three picks within the first two rounds of that 12 months’s draft.
The situations for Colorado’s 2025 fifth-round choice are that the Avalanche will as a substitute switch the more severe of their present fourth-round alternatives in 2025 (Colorado’s personal or Vancouver’s choice) if not less than two of those situations are met:
Colorado advances to the third spherical of the 2024-25 playoffs, Blackwood wins 25 common season video games from the commerce date to the top of this season and/or Blackwood begins 30 NHL common season video games from the commerce date to the top of the 2024-25 common season.
The Avalanche, at 16-13-0, have 53 video games remaining.
The Sharks have six different pending UFA’s on their roster, beginning with main scorer Mikael Granlund and top-pair defenseman Cody Ceci. Others embrace forwards Luke Kunin, Nico Sturm, defenseman Jan Rutta and Vanecek. This season’s commerce deadline is on March 7.
Originally Published:
