Value of: Mackenzie Blackwood

[Mattb124]

You’re making up an argument that doesn’t exist. Nobody is saying he hasn’t been admirable in his 8 starts for the Sharks this year.

An .893 sv% while playing behind one of the best teams in the league is not equivalent to an .892% behind what may be the worst hockey team in the modern era even though the numbers themselves are quantitatively equivalent.

As I said above, you can tell who has watched him play this season and those who are stat watching when they make that sort of simplistic analysis devoid of any context.

 

[Bleedred]

He’s been absolutely fantastic for SJ. He just gets peppered with shots and high quality chances.

He's been decent.

Him having an .892% behind this horrific of a team is better than him having an .892% behind better Devils teams, I would say.

Fantastic is more like how he played in the 19-20 season behind a bad (though not as bad as the 23-24 Sharks) Devils team. I figure his .915% behind that team is roughly a .905% behind the current Sharks. That was a BAD team, but not quite to this level of the 23-24 Sharks.

 

[Church Hill]

He's been decent.

This is very wrong. You need not look any further than the Sharks fans, announcers, coaches, and players who would all call his early season performance far better than "decent". Because they're actually watching him.

Like another poster said, it's obvious who watches the games and who just Googles the stats.

 

[Bleedred]

This is very wrong. You need not look any further than the Sharks fans, announcers, coaches, and players who would all call his early season performance far better than "decent". Because they're actually watching him.

Like another poster said, it's obvious who watches the games and who just Googles the stats.

I think you’re letting his play in those two games against Colorado and Philadelphia greatly skew things.

He hasn’t been terrible in many games (I was even at the game in Tampa), but he hasn’t been particularly great in many of the other games either.

 

[Gecklund]

He's been decent.

Him having an .892% behind this horrific of a team is better than him having an .892% behind better Devils teams, I would say.

Fantastic is more like how he played in the 19-20 season behind a bad (though not as bad as the 23-24 Sharks) Devils team. I figure his .915% behind that team is roughly a .905% behind the current Sharks. That was a BAD team, but not quite to this level of the 23-24 Sharks.

You clearly have not seen him play this year.

 

[Bleedred]

You clearly have not seen him play this year.

Wrong again. You're really shooting at a high percentage in this thread, about the average shooting percentage on Blackwood might I add.

I've clearly seen every game he's played this year, other than last night. I was even at the game in Tampa.

I think you just believe this is the worst team in the history of hockey (Ducks fans acted the same way when Eakins coached there and Gibson wasn't putting up elite numbers anymore) and a lot of fans do that, particularly when their goalies have poor numbers.

This is an extremely bad team and Blackwood's .892% on this team is clearly worth more than his .892% on the Devils. We'll agree on that for sure.

Blackwood is playing better than expected. Yes. you're gonna get blown out a lot behind this team (and he has), yes, you're gonna not be able to hold the team to below 3 goals on this team often (he's done that already), but you're acting like he's been amazing. I'm saying he's been....... Solid, how about that?

''NO! HE'S AMAZING! THE SHARKS ARE TERRIBLE! AN .892% ON THIS TEAM IS LIKE A VEZINA WIN ON A GOOD TEAM!!!!! ARRRRRRRRRRRrrrrrr!!!!!!!!!''.

 

[Gecklund]

Wrong again. You're really shooting at a high percentage in this thread, about the average shooting percentage on Blackwood might I add.

I've clearly seen every game he's played this year, other than last night. I was even at the game in Tampa.

I think you just believe this is the worst team in the history of hockey (Ducks fans acted the same way when Eakins coached there and Gibson wasn't putting up elite numbers anymore) and a lot of fans do that, particularly when their goalies have poor numbers.

This is an extremely bad team and Blackwood's .892% on this team is clearly worth more than his .892% on the Devils. We'll agree on that for sure.

Blackwood is playing better than expected. Yes. you're gonna get blown out a lot behind this team (and he has), yes, you're gonna not be able to hold the team to below 3 goals on this team often (he's done that already), but you're acting like he's been amazing. I'm saying he's been....... Solid, how about that?

''NO! HE'S AMAZING! THE SHARKS ARE TERRIBLE! AN .892% ON THIS TEAM IS LIKE A VEZINA WIN ON A GOOD TEAM!!!!! ARRRRRRRRRRRrrrrrr!!!!!!!!!''.

Blackwood has faced the most shots per 60 and gotten the least scoring help. Him having even close to .900 is a feat in itself. But no go off. Keep comparing him to Gibson and other irrelevant situations.

 

[Bizz]

The Devils fans are just mad because they haven't had a goalie worth a damn since Brodeur and ruined perfectly good goalies like Schneider & Kinkaid over the years and now one of their former goalies is actually doing a decent enough job on another team.

 

[Bleedred]

The Devils fans are just mad because they haven't had a goalie worth a damn since Brodeur and ruined perfectly good goalies like Schneider & Kinkaid over the years and now one of their former goalies is actually doing a decent enough job on another team.

Woah......

Kinkaid was not a perfectly good goalie, goalies of Kinkaid's ability usually don't have a long shelf life and that's what happened to Kinkaid. The shelf life of a Kinkaid type of goalie is usually around age 30, give or take a year. Look at other goalies of his caliber. They don't play in the league long. They're relegated to third stringers/AHL goalies/call ups after so many years.

Making Kinkaid the starter/1a goalie for two years in a row may have cut his full time NHL career short a year or two though, as he may have played better that last year as a clear cut backup.

Schneider was amazing with the Devils (behind BAD teams) until his hip went bad at 30 years old. Seems a lot of the goalies of that era started to decline early due to injuries. Just look at Price, Holtby (didn't even have a good season after like 28), Rask (didn't decline so much, but was done playing hockey by 35 due to a bad hip), etc.

I think that's correct that he's actually doing a decent enough job this year. It's just that some are acting like he's putting in an elite performance though.

 

[Bizz]

I dunno about elite, but he's probably one of the best Goalies that's realistically available for a trade at the moment, that alone bumps his value up.

Also Vegas proved last season that you can ride a mediocre goaltender all the way to the Cup Finals and win.

 

[KovalchukFistPump]

I dunno about elite, but he's probably one of the best Goalies that's realistically available for a trade at the moment, that alone bumps his value up.

Also Vegas proved last season that you can ride a mediocre goaltender all the way to the Cup Finals and win.

I highly reccomend to teams to not pencil in starting Blackwood for any playoff games. Regular season stopgap while your starter is injured, sure. Maybe Blackwood can revive his career as a Scott Wedgewood.

Hell, Devils are lucky that Blackwood had a horrible last game of the season which sealed the deal in putting Schmid on the playoff roster.

 

[KapG]

I think teams would probably want to see him stay healthy and play at this level for a good chunk of the season before committing anything of value for him.

 

[Mr Bojanglez]

He has had 1-2 good to very good stretches in New Jersey. Then he's had a couple of great games mixed in with mostly below average games.

I personally will admit I haven't seen him in SJ yet (8 starts). But the NJ fanbase has a sample size of 150 starts.... you can't dismiss what amounts to the majority of his career so far either.

He's talented and inconsistent. And misses a moderate amount of time.


I mean its 8 games out of 160 (5%)... so even then if he is passing the eye test (I wouldn't know), that's a small sample size and he's certainly not passing the stat test.

As for the question - idk maybe a 4th right now?

 

[AfroThunder396]

The problem with Blackwood has never been the talent, the talent has always been there. We know he is capable of having some excellent performances. His issue has always been consistency, and that label isn't going to be shaken off by a handful of "good" (and that's an extremely generous word) games in October and November.

The fact that he was never even considered in the Devils rotation last playoff when Vanecek went into nuclear meltdown mode and Schmid started drowning should tell you how much confidence that coaching staff had about him. He was given every opportunity in NJ to be the starter, the team was DESPERATE for him to be the starter, and he choked every single time.

If he's truly gotten healthy, improved his mental game, and is able to get some quality starts together - good for him. If Sharks fans are happy with his level of play - good for them. Me, I'll believe it when I see it. Call me when if he's still doing this in February, otherwise I've seen this movie before and I know how it ends.

 

[Zajacs Bowl Cut]

I absolutely love the Sharks fans who have had MacBlack for a month are lecturing the Devils fans who have seen him for the last 5 years lmao

we know who this guy is. He has stretches where he looks like the best goalie in the world and then he will look like he can't stop a beach ball. This is who he is. He can't track a puck to save his life and his lateral movement is horrendous. He also cannot stay healthy for any long stretch.

The Devils fans are just mad because they haven't had a goalie worth a damn since Brodeur and ruined perfectly good goalies like Schneider & Kinkaid over the years and now one of their former goalies is actually doing a decent enough job on another team.

the Devils have 2 goalies better than Blackwood but thank you for your concern!

I also would love to know how the Devils "ruined" Schneider. and Kinkaid was never good aside from like 2 months in 17-18.

 

[Gecklund]

I absolutely love the Sharks fans who have had MacBlack for a month are lecturing the Devils fans who have seen him for the last 5 years lmao

we know who this guy is. He has stretches where he looks like the best goalie in the world and then he will look like he can't stop a beach ball. This is who he is. He can't track a puck to save his life and his lateral movement is horrendous. He also cannot stay healthy for any long stretch.



the Devils have 2 goalies better than Blackwood but thank you for your concern!

I also would love to know how the Devils "ruined" Schneider. and Kinkaid was never good aside from like 2 months in 17-18.

I absolutely love devils fans coming in here lecturing sharks fans on Blackwood like they haven’t been watching him all year.

Thought we freed ourselves from yall after the Timo trade.

 

[Zajacs Bowl Cut]

I absolutely love devils fans coming in here lecturing sharks fans on Blackwood like they haven’t been watching him all year.

Thought we freed ourselves from yall after the Timo trade.

Now, do you think that 9 games or 152 games are a better indicator of who a player really is?

 

[Gecklund]

Now, do you think that 9 games or 152 games are a better indicator of who a player really is?

Some players need a fresh start. There isn’t a single person here claiming that he’s the next coming. People here are claiming he’s been better than the numbers suggest and we aren’t interested in moving him.

 

[Patty Ice]

I think teams would probably want to see him stay healthy and play at this level for a good chunk of the season before committing anything of value for him.

The most reasonable take in this thread.

 

[McSuper]

Edmonton is desperate. They'll overpay.

I wanted the Oilers to trade for him before they signed Campbell. People point at his last 2 years but he had injuries.

The question is what would Edmonton have to give up to include Campbell. We don't have the cap space to add a 2 million player and we are already playing with a short roster.

Holloway + Broberg + Campbell +1st ?

 

[Church Hill]

I wanted the Oilers to trade for him before they signed Campbell. People point at his last 2 years but he had injuries.

The question is what would Edmonton have to give up to include Campbell. We don't have the cap space to add a 2 million player and we are already playing with a short roster.

Holloway + Broberg + Campbell +1st ?

The price of JUST taking Campbell is already a 1st, in my mind.

 

[Smitty426]

I dunno about elite, but he's probably one of the best Goalies that's realistically available for a trade at the moment, that alone bumps his value up.

Also Vegas proved last season that you can ride a mediocre goaltender all the way to the Cup Finals and win.

A+ for the effort

 

[Bizz]

I absolutely love the Sharks fans who have had MacBlack for a month are lecturing the Devils fans who have seen him for the last 5 years lmao

we know who this guy is. He has stretches where he looks like the best goalie in the world and then he will look like he can't stop a beach ball. This is who he is. He can't track a puck to save his life and his lateral movement is horrendous. He also cannot stay healthy for any long stretch.

Yeah and us Sharks fans have seen 4 years of Antti f***ing Niemi followed by 5 years of Martin f***ing Jones (although he was great for a year and a half of those). We know bad goaltending when we see it, and Blackwood, from what we've seen, has been good.

 

[ZachaFlockaFlame]

Mackenzie Blackwood is terrible, what are we doing here? Lmao

 

[ZachaFlockaFlame]

You clearly have not seen him play this year.

We've seen Blackwood at his highest form in the 19-20 but yes go on on gatekeep and tell us about Blackwood's play. He'll have a game or two where he'll look fantastic and then games where he can't stop a beach ball. Look at the Devils game v Seattle in early February last year and then the last Caps game of the year where he lost his job to Akira Schmid and arguably saved the Devils season because Blackwood is not winning the Rangers series.