The New Jersey Devils likely have their goalie of the future in Mackenzie Blackwood. Based on his skill set, he should be able to carry the team starting next season.
Going into the 2018-19 season, the biggest question mark surrounding the New Jersey Devils was goldtending. Cory Schneider was coming off major surgery. Keith Kinkaid had one season of starter-worthy play, and could not replicate that play in the postseason. They were both back with the club to start the year, so the Devils were hoping this year was status quo.
Eddie Lack also returned after the Devils traded Dalton Prout for him the season prior, and he would become Schneider insurance if Cory took more time than we thought to return. Lack ended up missing most of the season with a torn labrum in his hip. That severely hurt the team’s depth with mostly question marks behind him.
As far as the goalie of the future went, that was a question we didn’t want to answer. Mackenzie Blackwood was coming off a terrible season in the AHL, one in which he was actually demoted to the ECHL at one point. Cam Johnson was a pleasant surprise, but still a mostly unfinished product out of the University of North Dakota.
Evan Cormier, Akira Schmid and Gilles Senn were all too early in their development to tell if they had any chance of working out. The future in net for the Devils was one gigantic question mark.
That is, until Blackwood was given a shot in the NHL. Blackwood was nothing short of amazing in his first stint with the New Jersey Devils. He posted two straight shutouts against the Carolina Hurricanes and Vancouver Canucks to end 2018. He allowed six goals in six appearances, including four starts. He left his first month in the NHL with a .963 save percentage.
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Blackwood has some of the best athleticism you’ll see from a goalie. That’s why he was ranked as the best North American goalie in the 2015 NHL Draft class. He could be the pick that makes up for Pavel Zacha not living up to our lofty expectations.
None of what we saw last season was a fluke. Blackwood was clearly taking some time to get used to the speed of the professional game, and also getting used to playing behind bad defenses.
Blackwood ended the season with a .918 save percentage and a 2.61 goals against average. If he qualified, they both would have been good for top twenty in the league. With an offense that’s going to be led by Taylor Hall, Nico Hischier and Jack Hughes, they might be able to survive with top-20 goaltending.
We expect Blackwood to be even better next season. He got 20 decisions under his belt in 2018-19, and now he goes into the season knowing his role. He’s going to share starts with Schneider, and he can eventually take the starter’s net from him for good this season. His ridiculous ability to move side to side will help him on the unusually high number of 2-on-1s he will have to face. He gets across the crease as well as some of the best we’ve seen.
We should feel the utmost confidence that Blackwood is our goalie. He has some time until he’s considered one of the top-tier goalies in all of the NHL, but he’s well on his way. We’re seeing the talent and the results that show he can hold the Devils net down for the better part of two decades. Oh, and he’s just 22 years old.