Your San Jose Sharks have made a trade. Goaltender Mackenzie Blackwood deserves a better fate for his success in the Sharks season, and he'll get that as the Sharks have sent the netminder to the Colorado Avalanche for Alexandar Georgiev. The full trade is a little more complex, but those are the main pieces, accompanying a second-round pick for the downgrade for Team Teal as the Sharks continue to build for the future. San Jose is still rebuilding despite the good start.
There's no denying it's a painful trade, seeing someone who has performed so admirably for the Sharks despite the rebuild departs, and he'll be looking to add a Stanley Cup ring to his resume as we wish him all the best in Denver. It's a painful trade, but the new faces in town will look to make their mark on Team Teal, as both could find themselves on another team before the trade deadline if they start to turn it around.
Alexandar Georgiev is a Bulgarian-born Russian netminder with one of the NHL's worst save percentages. He will help the Sharks return to the Hagens sweepstakes, but he'll be looking to have the high shot volume allowed turn his stats around. He's in the final year of his contract, so he can be waived and sent down if the Sharks want to get Askarov up with the NHL roster. He'll be playing to return to contention.
Nikolai Kovalenko is the son of Andrei Kovalenko, who played in the NHL for over a decade. He's 25 and spent most of his early hockey career in the KHL, but he is in his rookie NHL season. As the Sharks continue to add youth to their roster, they'll look to get him in to replace some of the departing free agents, and they will trade away at the deadline.
The pick swap helps the Sharks gather a few more future assets they can use to either trade up and get a better prospect, trade down and get more prospects, or just use. They could also flip that pick for more assets down the line as other young players seem to become available every year. We saw how the Sharks ended with Askarov, so we'll see where this goes. It improves the future for the Sharks, but it hurts at the moment.