Confirmed Trade: [COL/SJS] Mackenzie Blackwood, Givani Smith, 2027 5th for Alexandar Georgiev (14% ret.), Nikolai Kovalenko, 2026 2nd, cond. 2025 4th

[dmcccdmn]

Fast forward to the 2025 NHL draft, and if/when the Sharks draft Schaefer/Martone/Hagens, Grier should be credited for pulling the trigger on this trade.

Bonus points if Sharks get to pick 1st overall and Grier trades down a couple of spot and still get 1 of those 3.

 

[weastern bias]

I like the work Grier has done; I really do—rooting for him and SJ.

With that said, you still need veteran talent to support the youth, especially in net. This team has a bottom-5 D; you need a goaltender who can, at the very least, provide stability so the youth doesn’t become disillusioned. Losing too much can mitigate player development.

We were losing plenty with Blackwood, he did nothing to save this team, 10 wins in 41 starts last year and 6 wins in 17 starts this year

As an expiring contract with trade value who wasn't going to re-sign at a bargain Grier had to trade him, especially given that they already have his replacement in the organization in Askarov

 

[Captain Controversy]

Is Blackwood the answer ? Stay tuned to find out.

 

[a mangy Meowth]

That might be the biggest fake news Ive seen on this site. Even if you want to rip Makar, which analytics show he is very good defensively still, you're completely ignoring Toews, who is up at the top of the list for balanced dman in the league and even more so ignoring Sam Girard, who as of typing this is the AVS (not Aves) most played defenseman 5v5. Toss in PP time, which obviously is little to no actual defense, then Makar takes the overall TOI.

Ouch, hook line and sinker on this one. @NOTENOUGHRYJOTHINGS

 

[Pinkfloyd]

I like the work Grier has done; I really do—rooting for him and SJ.

With that said, you still need veteran talent to support the youth, especially in net. This team has a bottom-5 D; you need a goaltender who can, at the very least, provide stability so the youth doesn’t become disillusioned. Losing too much can mitigate player development.

I don't think these kids you're talking about are that fragile. There's only three kids to worry about with this and two are in their rookie years. If they're mentally fragile enough to let a trade of similarly experienced and talented goalies make them disillusioned and mitigate player development, they only have themselves to blame and it would make building around them very questionable. They should already know they were going to a bad team. You don't get picked 1st, 4th, and 7th overall in most cases to go to anything but a bad team. They need to be tougher than that, show more patience than that, and show they're part of the answer moving forward.