Mackenzie Blackwood enters Year 2 of his $26.25 million contract with something to prove after Scott Wedgewood’s breakout season turned Colorado’s goaltending situation into one of the team’s biggest questions.
The Colorado Avalanche thought they had solved their goaltending problem when they signed Mackenzie Blackwood to a five-year, $26.25 million contract.
Then Scott Wedgewood went out and made the decision a whole lot harder.
What happened last season isn’t likely to happen again, at least not to the same extent. Wedgewood and Blackwood shared the net for much of the year, but the Avalanche now have a pretty clear idea of how they want things to look.
They want Blackwood to establish himself as the starter.
Head coach Jared Bednar made that clear Wednesday during Avalanche media day ahead of training camp, although he also made sure to emphasize that nothing is being handed to anyone.
“Clean slate, to be determined,” Bednar said Wednesday at the Michelob ULTRA Mountain House. “I think the offseason — injuries, surgery, missing training camp — that kinda set Mackenzie back a little bit last year, and he worked extremely hard to get back on top of his game. This year he had an incredible offseason. Our staff has been in touch with him through the summer and he put in a tremendous amount of work to come in the best shape of his life. He’s excited about the season and we’ll see where it all goes. But I’m excited for him and the season he has the potential to have.”
On the surface, the situation is pretty straightforward.
The Avalanche acquired Blackwood on Dec. 9, 2024, and after just four starts, they committed to him long-term, signing the goaltender to a five-year, $26.25 million extension carrying an average annual value of $5.25 million.
Wedgewood, meanwhile, has spent most of his career as a backup but has developed into one of the NHL’s more reliable goaltenders. He is making $2.5 million this season and is entering the final year of his contract.
That’s where things get complicated.
Colorado clearly envisioned Blackwood as its No. 1 goaltender for the foreseeable future. Otherwise, there would have been little reason to hand him a five-year extension so soon after acquiring him.
The problem is that nobody could have expected Wedgewood to play the way he did last season.
And he didn’t just play well. He forced the Avalanche to reconsider a decision they thought they had already made.
Wedgewood has spent eight seasons in the NHL, but the early part of his career was spent bouncing between the New Jersey Devils, Arizona Coyotes and Dallas Stars. During that stretch, his numbers looked more like those of a typical backup, with a goals-against average around 3.23.
That began to change during the 2022-23 season in Dallas, when Wedgewood posted the first sub-3.00 GAA of his career in a significant workload. He went 9-8-3 in 21 appearances with a .915 save percentage.
That started to change during the 2022-23 season in Dallas, when Wedgewood posted the first sub-3.00 GAA of his career in a significant workload. He went 9-8-3 in 21 appearances with a .915 save percentage.
He then played just five games for Nashville before arriving in Colorado, where the expectation was fairly straightforward: Wedgewood would be a dependable veteran backup who could give the Avalanche quality minutes when they needed them.
Instead, his two seasons in Colorado have been anything but ordinary.
Wedgewood has posted a 2.00 GAA and .919 save percentage during his time with the Avalanche. When Blackwood was unavailable to start last season, Wedgewood was given the opportunity to hold down the crease.
He did much more than that.
Wedgewood established himself as Colorado’s starter, making a career-high 45 starts and finishing with a 31-6-6 record. Along the way, there were countless highlight-reel saves and plenty of nights when he bailed the Avalanche out of trouble, stopping goals that very easily could have changed the outcome of games.
As outstanding as “The Woodshed” has been, though, all good things eventually come to an end.
Here’s the reality: The Avalanche didn’t invest $26.25 million in Blackwood for him to get outplayed — or, in this case, out-goalied — by a goaltender making roughly 110 percent less than him. Blackwood is also the younger of the two, turning 30 on Dec. 9, while Wedgewood turned 34 last month.
The Avalanche have made their investment in Blackwood, and now they need to see a return on it.
The Hockey News was told by someone close to Blackwood in recent months that he is in the best shape they have ever seen him in and is coming into the season determined to reclaim his spot.
Of course, there is a difference between saying it and doing it.
But when Blackwood’s own head coach is emphasizing how much work he put in over the summer, there could be something to it. And based on what we’ve seen during the optional skates, Blackwood has looked significantly better than he did at this time last year.
That’s encouraging for the Avalanche.
Because if Wedgewood once again outperforms Blackwood by anything close to the margin we saw last season, Colorado could eventually be forced into an uncomfortable decision.
One of them may have to go.
For now, however, the Avalanche are giving Blackwood every opportunity to prove that the contract they gave him was justified.
There’s no doubt about it: Colorado needs its money man to play like a money man this season.
