The San Jose Sharks brought in a handful of players this offseason whose long-term futures with the organization are murky at best.
Early indications are, though, that goalie Mackenzie Blackwood might be someone the Sharks can build around.
Blackwood was again solid on Thursday night, making 39 saves to help the Sharks earn a 3-2 win over the Edmonton Oilers, giving San Jose its second victory of the season after 11 straight losses. Blackwood had 38 saves in San Jose’s 2-1 win over the Philadelphia Flyers on Tuesday.
Against the Oilers, Blackwood was calm and collected as he covered up some mistakes by his teammates and helped kill off two third-period penalties as the Sharks won back-to-back games for the first time since late last season.
“He’s so confident,” San Jose center Tomas Hertl said of Blackwood. “It’s easy to play in front of him because if we make a mistake, he’s here for us. The games we lost, that wasn’t on him. He’s been right there from day one, and the last two games he’s been amazing.”
The Sharks are in full rebuild mode and general manager Mike Grier will have to decide whether it makes sense to sign some of his pending unrestricted free-agent forwards like Mike Hoffman and Anthony Duclair, who were both acquired this summer, or trade them for future assets.
Grier doesn’t have to make any such decision this season on Blackwood, who signed a two-year, $4.7 million deal with the Sharks on July 1, just days after he was acquired by the team from the New Jersey Devils for a 2023 sixth-round draft pick.
Blackwood turns 27 on Dec. 9 and is at an age when most goalies are in the prime of their careers. If he can continue his solid play, the Sharks might want him to stick around San Jose for a while — past the expiration of his current contract — considering what the organization has at the position.
Kaapo Kahkonen is slated to become an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season, and it’s unclear whether any of the goalies the Sharks have in the AHL can develop into full-time NHLers. Only one goalie, Mason Beaupit, is on the team’s reserve list.
For now, entering Friday, Blackwood was second among all NHL goalies with 303 saves in 10 games with a .899 save percentage. The Sharks have suffered some lopsided losses while he’s been in net — not all of it his fault — but he’s also given the Sharks a chance to win at least three other games. With a bit more run support, Blackwood’s record would be better than 2-6-1.
Blackwood was expected to get the night off Friday, with Kahkonen facing the Vegas Golden Knights, but could be back in net Sunday in Anaheim against the Ducks.
“Kaapo and Blackwood are going to have to be in their ‘A’ game if we want to have a chance to win,” Sharks center Nico Sturm said. “Kudos to them throughout this whole ordeal that we’ve gone through the first month. They’ve kind of just done their thing stayed and stayed confident even after we got blown out twice. I give them a lot of credit for that.”
“As long as we keep doing the right things, as long as we don’t stray from what we’re doing right now and just keep building off it,” Blackwood told the Sharks’ Audio Network after Thursday’s game, “I think that’s kind of the recipe for us.”
INJURY UPDATE: Sharks captain Logan Couture is still shut down with an unspecified lower-body injury and remains out indefinitely. At the moment, the Sharks and Couture are taking a much more cautious approach with his return after he had a second setback in his recovery late last month.
“He’s gotten better and he’s pushed it and then he’s had setbacks,” Sharks general manager Mike Grier said. “So we’ve got to let the doctors do their thing with the rehab, and hopefully he can get back out and help the group.
“We can’t say he’ll be back in a month or two months. When it’s healed, it’s healed. He can’t force it and it’s not something he can play through, either.”
The Sharks entered Friday with the lowest-scoring offense in the NHL at 1.31 goals per game, while also allowing a league-worst 4.38 goals. Couture would certainly be an asset to the Sharks in both areas if he was healthy.
“Not having him, it’s huge,” Grier said. “He’s someone that players look to when things aren’t going well because he’s got such a calm demeanor. He’s not somebody who’s going to be breaking sticks. He’s just going to go about his job and sometimes you need that when things aren’t going well. Somebody who’s just gonna go about his job and keep playing.”
DAD’S TRIP: The fathers of a handful of Sharks players started to filter into San Jose earlier this week and joined the team on its road trip through Las Vegas and Anaheim.
Sharks defenseman Mario Ferraro said his dad got into town prior to the Flyers’ game when the Sharks earned their first win.
“My girlfriend might not like this too much, but he might have to hang around a little bit longer,” Ferraro said of his dad, Robert. “He can’t leave until we lose. So we’ll see. We’ll see. They get along well. I might be the one hurting a little bit.”
