Well, that didn’t take very long. Just a couple of days after the Colorado Avalanche sent goaltender Mackenzie Blackwood down to the Colorado Eagles on a conditioning stint, the team has announced on Friday that they terminated his contract with the Eagles, and he will be rejoining the Avalanche.
Blackwood missed the first five games of the season with a lower-body injury that required surgery.
We saw a similar process go down with Gabriel Landeskog shortly prior to his return to the Avalanche during the 2024-25 playoffs: He was sent down to the Eagles for a conditioning stint. However, Landeskog played in a couple of games for the Eagles, while Blackwood only participated in practice with them.
As I wrote earlier today, Scott Wedgewood has been holding down the fort for the Avalanche in Blackwood’s absence, leading them to a 4-0-1 record. I’m not sure if Blackwood is going to get an immediate start, but the Avalanche’s next game is at home against the Boston Bruins.
My guess is that Blackwood is ready to go—otherwise, why go through this process at this exact time? If Wedgewood got the start on Saturday, Blackwood’s first chance at playing time would be on Tuesday in Utah against the Mammoth.
Blackwood has yet to see any action this season and couldn’t play in the preseason, so it stands to reason that there’s a chance he could look a bit rusty. Depending on what the injury to Blackwood was, that could also be an issue with his performance. However, we’ll let him prove whether or not he’s ready and in game shape.
I’ve been a huge fan of Wedgewood since he started playing for the Avalanche last season and don’t have an issue if he had to start in more games to give Blackwood some games off if he needed. The Avalanche seem to be very confident in their goalie situation, and it’s a nice breath of fresh air considering what the team went through post-Darcy Kuemper.