NEWARK, NJ – The Colorado Avalanche have made significant changes to their goaltending depth chart again.

Colorado traded starting goaltender Alexandar Georgiev, forward Nikolai Kovalenko, a 2026 second-round pick and a 2025 fifth-rounder to the San Jose Sharks on Monday for goaltender MacKenzie Blackwood, forward Givani Smith and a 2027 fifth-round pick, the club announced.

Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman first reported that the deal was in the works. Chris Johnston of The Athletic reported that the Avalanche are also keeping 14 percent of Georgiev’s salary.

Blackwood, who turned 28 on Monday, was a second-round pick of the New Jersey Devils in 2015. He is 6-9-3 with a 3.00 goals-against average and .909 save percentage for the Sharks this season.

This is Blackwood’s second season with the Sharks. New Jersey traded him to San Jose for a sixth-round pick in June 2023, and four days later he signed a two-year, $4.7 million contract with the Sharks. His cap hit for this season is $2.35 million and he will be an unrestricted free agent in July.

Blackwood’s best season was 2019-20, when he posted a .915 save percentage in 47 games and looked like the clear goaltender of the future for the Devils. He has struggled with injuries and inconsistency since then, but is having his best season compared to the league average since then in 2024-25.

This is the Avalanche’s second trade of a former Devils goaltender in 10 days. They sent backup goaltender Justus Annunen to the Nashville Predators for Scott Wedgewood on November 30th.

Wedgewood has stopped 77 of 81 shots in three appearances for the Avs, including the club’s first shutout of the season Sunday night in New Jersey against his former club.

The Avs have had to deal with the worst injury/availability situation in the NHL this season, but also have had to try to overcome inconsistent and often poor goaltending. Despite Wedgewood’s impressive start to his Avs’ tenure, Colorado ranks last in the NHL at .866, according to Natural Stat Trick. The second-worst team, Columbus, is at .875.