This is the 2025-26 edition — an archived read. Read the 2026-27 report →

Mackenzie Blackwood

A .9116 across 56 games at 28, in his first season on a team that was actually good.

Season	Team	GP	W	L	OTL	GA	GAA	SO	SA	SV%

2018-19	NJD	23	10	10	0	55	2.61	2	669	.918
2019-20	NJD	47	22	14	8	124	2.77	3	1452	.915
2020-21	NJD	35	14	17	4	106	3.04	1	1081	.902
2021-22	NJD	25	9	10	4	79	3.39	2	731	.892
2022-23	NJD	22	10	6	2	60	3.20	0	563	.893
2023-24	SJS	44	10	25	4	140	3.45	2	1383	.899
2024-25	SJS/COL	56	28	21	6	137	2.55	4	1549	.912
2025-26 so far	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
Career	—	252	103	103	28	701	2.96	14	7428	.906

This Season So Far

The 2025-26 season has not started. The empty row above is his, and both it and this paragraph fill in on their own from the morning after he first plays: what he has done, what it is worth against his own last season, and the run he is on when the two disagree.

Last Season

28-21-6 in 56 games between San Jose and Colorado, .9116 with a 2.55 average and 4 shutouts on 1,549 shots.

The split is the story. He arrived in December from a club that was conceding 40 chances a night and became the starter on one of the best defensive teams in the league, and the save percentage barely moved — which is either a compliment or a warning depending on which half you believe.

The Physical Game

6-4 and 225, and he looks immovable when he is on. He takes up the net, he is square more often than not, and he does not have to be spectacular to make an ordinary save.

The lateral quickness is the specific thing separating him from a genuine starter. He is not fast side to side for his size, so a puck moved across the royal road finds him a beat late, and the rebound control is ordinary — he stops pucks and does not always finish the job.

The Mental Game

The consistency has always been the issue rather than the technique. He is prone to stretches where the tracking goes and pucks he normally absorbs get past him, and they have arrived without warning in every season he has played.

What is to his credit is that he spent his best years facing 40 shots a night for rebuilding clubs and never visibly stopped competing. There is no evidence of a goaltender who gives up on a night.

The Intangibles

The first genuine chance of his career, at 28, behind a team that concedes the fewest chances in hockey. Almost any goaltender looks better in that job, and the club needs to be honest with itself about how much of a .9116 is him.

The question that decides Colorado’s season is not the regular one. It is what happens in a series where every save matters and the other club has had six days to find the hole on his glove side.

What kind of player

The searchable half of the report. The first group is computed from the season's own data; the rest are read out of the prose above, and each one carries the sentence that produced it. A subject the report never raised is simply absent.

a strengthread out of the prose, and claimed
ordinaryraised, and called ordinary
he lacks itraised, and he does not have it

Each computed tag also says how well its measure holds up from one season to the next, because a tag describes a season that has finished and a reader will assume it predicts the one coming. Some do and some do not, and the gap is wide: five-on-five workload repeats well, scoring late does not repeat at all.

plays-deepa strength· takes the net away by occupying it
“He takes up the net, he is square more often than not, and he does not have to be spectacular to make an ordinary save.”
lateral-recoveryhe lacks it· post-to-post, and across the slot
“He is not fast side to side for his size, so a puck moved across the royal road finds him a beat late”
rebound-controlpresent and ordinary· where the second chance ends up
“the rebound control is ordinary — he stops pucks and does not always finish the job”