2025 Report Card: Colin Blackwell is no ham and egger.

Good enough for 82, and one great moment in 11 makes him an ace.

One sentence summary

Part fourth liner, part honey badger.

A few good stats

• Cap: $775,000 per year (Year 1 of 2)

• GP: 63

• Goals: 6

• Assists: 11

• Points: 17

• Postseason: 11 GP — 1 goal, 0 assists — 1 point

• xSPAR: 0.3 extra points in the standings (Rank on the team: 15th of 26)

Colin Blackwell is your standard-issued fourth liner. Solid defensive impacts, and offense that pops just enough to be a factor in limited minutes. What helps Blackwell’s bottom line is that he draws penalties too. If you’re only playing 11 minutes a night and able to put your team on the power play just through sheer hustle, that alone is worth the price of a modest contract.

Thematically appropriate highlight

There’s nothing thematically appropriate about this highlight. Again I’m cheating here. Blackwell only scored six goals in the entire regular season. A goal-scorer at this point in his career he is not. But what Stars fan doesn’t want to relive this moment?

Grade: A (strong) B+

What more could you ask for, here?

We’re past the point of condescending to fourth liners. Just look at players like Eric Robinson (32 points), Nicolas Roy (31), and Logan O’Connor (21). Or for that matter Dallas’ own Evgenii Dadonov (a whopping 40!). The day of the fourth liner keeping the ice warm for the stars, starting a superfluous fight, or chirping another team’s fourth liner as if it’ll make an ant’s whisker difference is over. The modern era — despite what maladjusted talking heads would have you believe about the super talented Panthers— is a skill game, and nowhere is that felt more than the depth roles that used to go to non-hockey players who were good for an exchange of brain damage and nothing else.

Blackwell is that modern fourth liner. He plays with a lot of energy, and a lot of skill for what he’s asked to do. And he’s done it all with a limited role in limited minutes, and always with the Healthy Scratch cloud hanging over him. Despite that, his game never faltered.

I think a B+ is fair. He’s well shy of that fourth line gold standard, isn’t much of a playdriver at this point in his career, but he’s just the right amount of skill and guts.

It helps that when he comes at the king, he doesn’t miss. (Although goalies don’t miss the ability to freeze the play either.)

It’ll be interesting to see what happens to Blackwell. Unlike the rest of Dallas’ bottom six, his game could easily translate into the top six in a pinch. I know, I know. “What are you, nuts?!” Probably. But unlike Sam Steel, Blackwell has a skillset that I think has potential for chemistry with his playmaking and speed. I don’t want to get lost in the allure of a mystery box. He’s an older player, and his game’s limitations are more likely to be exposed than liberated. See Jack Roslavic. Nonetheless, I wouldn’t bemoan this kind of roster Jenga if we see Glen Gulutzan try something like that. It helps that he can play all positions.

Despite looking like discount Evan Rodrigues, Blackwell has never really had that opportunity to play higher in the lineup throughout his career. Sure, he’s prone to bouts of invisibility, but there were also nights when he seemed like Dallas’ most disruptive forward with his bulldog approach. I don’t think it’s the worst idea in the world, for example, to experiment with him in the Marchment role next to Matt Duchene and Tyler Seguin. Just saying.

Blackwell won’t set the world on fire, but for now, he’s basically fourth line royalty.