That happened quickly.

Mackenzie Blackwood signed a five-year, $26.25 million ($5.25 million AAV) contract extension with the Colorado Avalanche on Friday after resigning from the San Jose Sharks organization on Dec. 9.

“When we acquired Mackenzie a few weeks ago, our plan was to have him come to Denver, get acclimated to his new team and his new city, and then reach out to him and his representatives when the time came,” said General Chris MacFarland Avalanche managers said in a team statement. “We are delighted to complete this deal now and have Mackenzie under contract for the next six years.”

Blackwood has three wins with a .931 save percentage in his first four games with the Avalanche. His new contract begins after the contract the San Jose Sharks gave him back in 2023 – two years at an AAV of $2,350,000 million – expires at the end of this season.

This also makes Blackwood the Avalanche’s clear No. 1 goaltender for the coming years, along with backup Scott Wedgewood’s AAV of $1,500,000 million over the next two years.

“As I said when we acquired him, we feel like Mackenzie has gotten better every year and he’s done a great job with us in his first few appearances,” MacFarland said. “He is a strong, athletic goalkeeper who is still young and still developing as a goalkeeper. Stylistically, he fits our style of play very well and also fit perfectly into our dressing room.”

After the trade, San Jose Sharks GM Mike Grier revealed that he considered keeping Blackwood, but concluded: “He probably played out of what we wanted, especially because he had a certain want to have a term in office.”

It looks like Grier made the right decision. The San Jose net likely belongs to rising star Yaroslav Askarov in the coming years, and while Askarov only has an AAV of $2 million over the next two years after this season, he could be a very expensive RFA in the summer of 2027, if… He’s as good as the Sharks project.

“My job is also to look into the future,” emphasized Grier, “and how much money do you want to have online?”

While the vibe of an Askarov-Blackwood duo might be out of control — “He’s a beauty,” Yaroslav Askarov told SJHN — this is, first and foremost, a salary cap league.