New York Rangers: Colin Blackwell making the most of his opportunity

When the New York Rangers called up forward Colin Blackwell from the taxi squad to replace Brendan Lemieux, they were looking for a spark to ignite a struggling group of forwards. And so far, albeit only two games, it looks as though coach David Quinn made a great decision – a rarity for the Rangers’ head coach. In each of his first two games with the team, Blackwell has tallied a point. He scored his fourth career goal this past Sunday against the Pittsburgh Penguins and notched an assist in Tuesday night’s loss at Buffalo. Though a very small sample size, the Harvard-graduate has been exceptional.

Colin Blackwell is Making the Most of His Opportunity:

How He Got to Broadway:

When drafted by the San Jose Sharks in the 2011 NHL Entry Draft No. 194 overall, the odds were against Blackwell. On average, a draft class produces around 60 NHL players, with the majority of them being drafted in rounds one or two. The difficult road to the big-leagues was no exception for Blackwell, who didn’t play his first games in the NHL until 2019 when the Nashville Predators called him up for six games.

The next year, he spent the first half of the 2019-2020 season with Nashville’s AHL team, the Milwaukee Admirals. While in Milwaukee, Blackwell impressed the organization by tallying 23 points in 26 games and earned another shot at the NHL. In 27 games with the Predators in 2019-2020, he accounted for a modest 10 points. Those 10 points weren’t enough to earn a contract extension, though, and he entered the 2020 offseason as an unrestricted free agent. Over the course of the offseason, Blackwell garnered the interest of multiple teams and eventually chose to sign a two-year deal for $1.475 million with the Rangers.

His Rangers Career:

Blackwell knew he had an outside chance of making the roster out of training camp when he signed, but a little adversity was obviously nothing new to him. He took the challenge head-on and fought for a roster spot during training camp. Despite a strong showing in camp, the large number of skilled forwards on the Rangers’ roster left Blackwell on the outside looking in – again. He was placed on the taxi squad and stayed there for the first four games of the season.

Game Number One

After a slow start to the season for the Blueshirts, the stars aligned, and the Harvard-alum was granted an opportunity to make his mark. Blackwell wasted no time to make said mark, scoring a goal on one of his first shifts with the Rangers.

To score a goal in your first game with a new team is impressive in its own right, but to get it via tip-in off a slap shot is extraordinary. The concentration and hand-eye coordination that is required to perform a tip-in successfully is remarkable.

Game Number Two

Heading into the next game, expectations were conservative for Blackwell. Very few believed he’d be able to make a big contribution for a second consecutive game. But all odds were defied once again, as he assisted on the first goal of K’Andre Miller’s career.

While his second point with the Rangers wasn’t as impressive, it’s still worth recognizing. Blackwell does exactly what he needs to do to give Miller a chance. He locates the open man, slides the puck over softly, and lets the rookie do the rest of the work. Exactly how you draw it up.

No one expected Colin Blackwell to be making contributions for the Rangers when he signed with the team a few months ago. Most viewed him as a depth-piece with a bit of upside. But here we are, watching a player make the most of his opportunity.