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Scott Wedgewood is not concerned with his omission as a Vezina Trophy finalist. Despite going 31-6-6, recording four shutouts, and leading the NHL both in goals against average (2.02) and save percentage (.921), the Colorado netminder is more interested in playoff success than he is in personal awards.
It’s also not the first time Wedgewood has gone through something like this since the season began.
“It’s kind of similar to Team Canada, right? I think I was in the conversation a little bit,” he said on Wednesday, speaking for the first time since the Avalanche returned from Los Angeles following a four-game, first-round sweep of the Kings. “Obviously, it would’ve been really cool.”
Wedgewood and his goalie tandem teammate, Mackenzie Blackwood, are the recipients of the 2025-26 William M. Jennings Trophy, awarded to the goalie (or tandem goalies) who plays for the team with the fewest goals against. The last time an Avalanche goalie received that honor was Patrick Roy in 2001-02. Roy finished as a runner-up for the Vezina Trophy that season behind Montreal’s Jose Theodore.
“As a group, we did a great job of keeping pucks out of our net as a whole,” Wedgewood said. “The team being awarded the William M. Jennings is really cool. Especially with Blacky and I getting our names on that, that’s pretty impressive.”
The finalists for the Vezina are Boston Bruins netminder Jeremy Swayman, Tampa Bay Lightning starter Andrei Vasilevskiy, and New York Islanders goalie Ilya Sorokin. The first two are in the midst of a playoff run for their respective clubs. The latter just missed the mark despite his remarkable play.
Sorokin and Swayman started 54 games each, while Vasilevskiy finished with 58 starts. Wedgewood collected the majority of Colorado’s starts this season — something that would’ve been hard to predict in October. But his 43 starts were well below the finalist.
If that matters.
Because of the consistent state of the Avalanche’s goaltending this season, any cold streak would’ve cost Wedgewood starts, given that Blackwood was also often playing well. Other netminders were probably afforded more of a chance to rebound.
“Great numbers in fewer games played is almost more of a chip on my shoulder,” Wedgewood said. “When you get more starts, you have a chance to make some mistakes, and games level out.”
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At 33 years old, this is far and away the most starts Wedgewood has had in any one season of his career. Colorado acquired him from the Nashville Predators 17 months ago. He came to the Avalanche with 49 career wins over nine years. With the Avalanche, he has 44. That doesn’t even include the four he got against the Kings in his first career starts in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Wedgewood started for Team Canada at the 2012 World Juniors. He was once a highly regarded Canadian goalie prospect before experiences in the big league led to him settling in as a backup. That was what he was labeled as, but not always the ceiling he thought he had.
“Throughout my career, I’ve been overlooked in a lot of different situations and continue to be,” Wedgewood said. “You put a chip on your shoulder in situations like that.”
The best way to overcome that? Winning it all: “The award would’ve been cool, but obviously not the main focus like the Stanley Cup is.”
The Avalanche’s last Vezina Trophy finalist was Philipp Grubauer in 2021. He finished third in voting. Before that, Semyon Varlamov was the 2013-14 runner-up to Tuukka Rask. Roy finished third in 1996-97 before his 2002 runner-up season.
No Avalanche goalie has ever won the Vezina Trophy.
The post Avalanche’s Scott Wedgewood Reacts To Vezina Finalist Snub appeared first on Colorado Hockey Now.
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