So you’d really rather have guys Iike Mrazek, Petersen, Ned, Kahkonnen, Halak, Campbell, Jones, Stolarz?
I don’t even like Blackwood but he’s better than all of them
I'll go over all of these guys if you want
Mrazek - Good call. You're right, I think he's fair to rank below Blackwood. He's actually been a sorry ass goalie for the better part of 6-7 years now, but a couple of solid seasons in Carolina are the only thing he has going for him in that time period. And it even got him a 3 year deal from Kyle Dubas. But yeah, Carolina has made almost every goalie since Darling and Ward have been gone look better than they probably really are (including Ned, but I'll get to him soon) and he even had one poor year there.
So yeah, outside of his FLUKE years in Carolina, especially the second one, which got him his 3 year deal and was a very short sample size of games played, Mrazek has been a JOKE goalie for years now. I'll give you Mrazek.
Petersen - He pretty much is Blackwood. He's been bad a little less longer though. His 21-22 and 22-23 are probably as bad as Blackwood's, but he wasn't that bad in 20-21. The best I'll give you is that it's a wash.
Ned - Another guy that pretty much is Blackwood, only his 20-21 season and playoffs is better than anything Blackwood has ever done at the NHL level. But once again, there's the Carolina thing, they made Mrazek look good that same year. Nedeljkovic is approaching last 62 game Blackwood numbers over his last getting close to 50 games now, which only goes back to December of 2021. Nedejkovic also had the type of AHL season that Blackwood had in 2017-2018 in 2016-2017. He was an afterthought for years until he got a shot in 20-21, only after ending up unclaimed on waivers. I don't think Blackwood is better than him, but he may not be much worse.
Kahkonen - WOOF. Inflated numbers playing behind Minnesota. He's definitely approaching Blackwood territory, though not quite there yet. It looks like it's coming soon where we can say he's worse or at least as bad as Blackwood.
Halak - Even his last 3 years have been better than Blackwood's, but he's ancient at this point. If you really wanna rank Blackwood above him then go ahead. He certainly is pretty burnt cripsity and doesn't have much left.
Campbell - Not quite. He was WAYYYYYYY better in 20-21 than Blackwood and he was WAAAYYYYYY better than Blackwood at any point last year. But he's another one that since December of 2021, he's approaching 50 games on par with Blackwood's last 62 games. It's a little early to declare him as bad as Blackwood just yet, but we're definitely getting there.
Jones - I'll accept him being worse than Blackwood, as he's certainly been worse for MUCH LONGER. The one thing none of these other guys have in common is they've all had at least acceptable seasons in recent memory. Jones hasn't had an acceptable season since before Blackwood debuted in the NHL.
Stolarz - He wasn't bad before this year when he actually got NHL looks. The biggest knock I can give him is that his NHL games played for someone his age is still pretty limited. He's probably not all that good though.
The biggest difference between most of these guys and Blackwood is that most of them at least had better seasons more recently than Blackwood has. Other than Jones and maybe Halak. Halak's last solid season was Blackwood's last solid season. Even Mrazek had his last good season more recently than Blackwood did, but once again the Carolina factor and it was a smaller number of games played that season for him.
Everyone else has had more success in recent years than Blackwood, if not only by a single year.
So yeah, no better than bottom 4-5. Anybody else that's potentially worse hasn't been around long enough to really assess properly.
