Blackwood/Vanecek/We Really Need to Move On/Goalie Thread

[JrFischer54]

You know what?

Like I said the last time this was brought up, I was upset by this decision at the time too.

But that was only because I actually thought Marty wouldn't start all but 2 of the remaining 21 games that season after he came back from injury. I was naive enough to actually believe that they would take it easy on Marty through the remainder of that regular season and they certainly did not.

Weekes started two games the rest of that season after Marty came back. First game was right after Marty broke the all time wins record, which was literally 3.5 weeks after Marty came back. And then he got one more start after that, which was another 2.5 weeks later and the fifth to last game of the season. He wound up getting injured in that game and that was the last he ever played again in his career, and Marty would have to come in and finish that game and then Marty started the last 4 games of that season. And Weekes also played not even a full period of relief one other game after Marty came back.

So in the end, it really didn't matter, as Clemmensen would have started a whopping 2 more games in the NHL that year if he weren't sent back.


The first 5 games of that season literally raise his save percentage 5 points in that time. It's really .892% in his last 62 games played.

And while his first 5 games of that season were really good, they were also identical to Schmid's first however many games he played before Florida the other night.

no it was the right move you aren't going to jettison an nhl veteran (weekes) when you don't have to and can safely send clemmenson to the minors while you are going to the playoffs that is just absolutely crazy.

people posting his stats over the years when the team was absolutely horrible like that matters now. again i'm not defending him i'm not saying hes an allstar but i think from the few games this season he played nhl backup level and thats all we need him to be

 

[Nocashstyle]

Of 44 goalies that have played 60+ games over the past three seasons, Blackwood is sitting at #42 in save percentage. Only Martin Jones and Korpisalo are worse.

Of the 58 goalie that have played 30+ games over the past two seasons, Blackwood is sitting at #54. Petersen, Mrazek, Grubaurer, and Korpisalo are worse.

Of the 70 goalies that have played 7+ games this season, Blackwood is ranked #62 in save percentage.

So, maybe Blackwood has a very clearly established trend of not saving the puck at anywhere near an acceptable rate, and he has shown to be one of the worst goalies in the league over the past three years. So yeah, calling him a “competent” backup is flat out wrong.

 

[Nocashstyle]

no it was the right move you aren't going to jettison an nhl veteran (weekes) when you don't have to and can safely send clemmenson to the minors while you are going to the playoffs that is just absolutely crazy.

people posting his stats over the years when the team was absolutely horrible like that matters now. again i'm not defending him i'm not saying hes an allstar but i think from the few games this season he played nhl backup level and thats all we need him to be

Your save perctage shouldn’t suffer that much just because you’re on a bad team. It won’t be good, but is should be NHL goaltender level.

Somehow guys like Craig Anderson, Elvis Merzlikens, Carter Hart, hell, even Scott Wedgewood have better numbers than Blackwood over the past seasons. Odd, right?

 

[Bleedred]

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.

 

[Billdo]

Of 44 goalies that have played 60+ games over the past three seasons, Blackwood is sitting at #42 in save percentage. Only Martin Jones and Korpisalo are worse.

Of the 58 goalie that have played 30+ games over the past two seasons, Blackwood is sitting at #54. Petersen, Mrazek, Grubaurer, and Korpisalo are worse.

Of the 70 goalies that have played 7+ games this season, Blackwood is ranked #62 in save percentage.

So, maybe Blackwood has a very clearly established trend of not saving the puck at anywhere near an acceptable rate, and he has shown to be one of the worst goalies in the league over the past three years. So yeah, calling him a “competent” backup is flat out wrong.

But he's 4-2 this year!

 

[Devs3cups]

But he's 4-2 this year!

2.79 GAA - .880 SV%

 

[Bleedred]

no it was the right move you aren't going to jettison an nhl veteran (weekes) when you don't have to and can safely send clemmenson to the minors while you are going to the playoffs that is just absolutely crazy.

people posting his stats over the years when the team was absolutely horrible like that matters now. again i'm not defending him i'm not saying hes an allstar but i think from the few games this season he played nhl backup level and thats all we need him to be

Weekes was a good goalie at one point, but never after the lockout.

In fact, that one season was actually his only decent NHL showing since before the lockout and when he was in his 20's. He didn't play as many games as Clemmensen, but he performed just as well in much limited action. His first few games after Brodeur got injured is really what made Clemmensen a thing. And even he struggled in his first couple of starts, but they got some wins and kept him in there.

He wasn't a bad goalie for a few years there, but his peak wasn't very long and by the time we came back from losing a year to the lockout, he was 30 years old and already toast.

I'm pretty sure the Rangers signed him to be their starter in 05-06, which was before they could find out how bad he had become, as he was certainly not bad before the lockout.

But it wasn't long before some 23 year old European league goalie they had drafted over 5 years earlier quickly took that job.

 

[JrFischer54]

Your save perctage shouldn’t suffer that much just because you’re on a bad team. It won’t be good, but is should be NHL goaltender level.

Somehow guys like Craig Anderson, Elvis Merzlikens, Carter Hart, hell, even Scott Wedgewood have better numbers than Blackwood over the past seasons. Odd, right?

dude i'm not defending the guy i'm just saying this is the best option right now for the devils and i can see why they went this way. i think he can be bare minimum useful you don't guess we will have to see.

 

[Bleedred]

But he's 4-2 this year!

It's funny, because for quite a while there he literally had 2/3rds of our total regulation losses. And then there was still a stretch before 1.5 weeks ago where he had half of our regulation losses on the season, despite only getting about a quarter of the decisions to that point.

 

[Nocashstyle]

dude i'm not defending the guy i'm just saying this is the best option right now for the devils and i can see why they went this way. i think he can be bare minimum useful you don't guess we will have to see.

It’s not though, that’s the point. Schmid is the better option. Blackwood holds no value. If he got claimed, so be it. No one will miss him.

 

[Bleedred]

To put it as briefly as possible, he's a huge liability and plays too important of a position to really be excited over his return.

That's why I said we needed to wait for his return to burn up most of our margin for error, which unfortunately we've already burned through most of.

 

[Billdo]

dude i'm not defending the guy i'm just saying this is the best option right now for the devils and i can see why they went this way. i think he can be bare minimum useful you don't guess we will have to see.

You really think he's better than Schmid?

 

[Bleedred]

Even if Schmid sucks and laid 2 or 3 eggs in the next couple of weeks, he'd be no worse than Blackwood.

Blackwood is a gigantic liability.

 

[Poppy Whoa Sonnet]

Thinking about it, waiving Blackwood now only makes sense if you really want him to be claimed for cap reasons. I think he gets claimed if he's waived today without an NHL stint. But if he is complete trash two NHL games in a row he might not be.

 

[JrFischer54]

You really think he's better than Schmid?

sample size is too small on schmid. you just dont know what you would get after his hot start cools off same with vv whos coming back to reality a little every week. like someone said above blackwood will be great some games bad some games and decent in some games it will all average out.

 

[glenwo2]

I’m not sure why the organization is still so invested in him. Everyone involved with drafting and developing him has been fired.

It's crazy, isn't it?

The "legacy" of their failure still remains like a bad rash.

 

[JrFischer54]

I’m not sure why the organization is still so invested in him. Everyone involved with drafting and developing him has been fired.

everyone on here makes it seem like they just inked him to a 5 year contract extension i dont get it the guy is gone in the summer they aren't bringing him back. hes not good and i really dont think the devils think hes good there just aren't many better options. sure schmid played great in limited role limited exposure thats asking a lot for a rookie to help carry the team to the playoffs. time will tell what happens.

 

[Blender]

Schmid is a 22 year old goalie that has looked mostly great this season. There's a lot more promise of future development there than with Blackwood who is 26 and has stunk for years while also injured half the time. Move the f*** on.

 

[Richer's Ghost]

Utica gonna go on a long win streak now.

I thought they pretty much stink regardless of goaltending.

 

[MadDevil]

Thinking about it, waiving Blackwood now only makes sense if you really want him to be claimed for cap reasons. I think he gets claimed if he's waived today without an NHL stint. But if he is complete trash two NHL games in a row he might not be.

Also, this is a team that just had multiple goalie injuries last year. They probably don't want to lose one, even if he's not very good, for nothing.

 

[Richer's Ghost]

 

[Satans Hockey]

Perfect...

 

[Billdo]

sample size is too small on schmid. you just dont know what you would get after his hot start cools off same with vv whos coming back to reality a little every week. like someone said above blackwood will be great some games bad some games and decent in some games it will all average out.

But it isn't averaging out, he's mostly been bad

 

[Bleedred]

But it isn't averaging out, he's mostly been bad

Some people don't wanna acknowledge or just don't stop to think about that even the BAD players aren't bad EVERY single game. Or even every month.

Cam Janssen once scored 3 goals in like 15 games or something at one point. Those were exactly half of his total NHL goals in his career and he played in 336 games in the league.

McLeod scored all those goals back in 20-21, at least by his standards that was A LOT of goals, especially in a short season.

Blackwood even has 3 shutouts over his 62 games of suckage. One of them was like a 40-something save shutout against the Islanders last year.

 

[Billdo]

Some people don't wanna acknowledge or just don't stop to think about that even the BAD players aren't bad EVERY single game. Or even every month.

Cam Janssen once scored 3 goals in like 15 games or something at one point. Those were exactly half of his total NHL goals in his career and he played in 336 games in the league.

McLeod scored all those goals back in 20-21, at least by his standards that was A LOT of goals, especially in a short season.

Blackwood even has 3 shutouts over his 62 games of suckage. One of them was like a 40-something save shutout against the Islanders last year.

I get it, I think people, myself included sometimes, remember his rookie and sophomore seasons and think that's what he can be. It's not impossible, but at this stage in the game I think it's unlikely. Especially bc he seems to have issues staying healthy.