In need of a second goaltender, the San Jose Sharks traded for one Tuesday when they got Mackenzie Blackwood in a deal with the New Jersey Devils.
The Sharks parted with a 2023 sixth-round pick to land Blackwood -- a pending restricted free agent in need of a new contract.
Getting Blackwood now provides the Sharks with a sense of stability when it comes to how they could look in net ahead of next season. Initially, Kaapo Kahkonen was the only NHL goaltender that the Sharks had under contract for next year with James Reimer set to hit the open market as a pending unrestricted free agent.
Blackwood's arrival gives the Sharks someone they can partner with Kahkonen at a time in which more teams throughout the NHL are turning to a tandem approach. Together, they will look to provide some improvement for a Sharks squad that finished with the worst team save percentage in the NHL in 5-on-5 play.
The 26-year-old Blackwood was part of a what became a three-goaltender dynamic last season upon going 10-6-2 with a 3.20 goals-against average and a .893 save percentage.
Entering the offseason, Blackwood's future with the Devils had been in question. The Devils watched Vitek Vanecek win 33 games in the regular season while prospect Akira Schmid found the consistency that allowed him to help the Devils come back to beat the rival, New York Rangers, in the first round before they were eventually eliminated in the second round.
Then there's the fact that a Schmid and Vanecek tandem would only cost the Devils a grand total of $4.25 million in cap space as they look to re-sign players such as Timo Meier, who they also acquired from the Sharks.