Avalanche sign veteran goaltender to one-year extension

The Colorado Avalanche announced they’ve signed goaltender Scott Wedgewood to a one-year extension. The deal is worth $2.5M, Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet reports. He was ticketed for unrestricted free agency next July, but now delays that by another 12 months.

A career backup, Wedgewood has been forced into the starter’s role for Colorado to begin the year with Mackenzie Blackwood missing most of October with a lower-body injury. The 33-year-old has made it hard to justify giving the lion’s share of starts to Blackwood upon his return, though. He’s put together a league-best 10-1-2 record through 14 starts, accompanying that with a .913 SV% and 2.26 GAA. Even behind Colorado’s top-five defense, that’s good for six goals saved above expected to rank 14th in the league, per MoneyPuck.

It’s all the more impressive that his performance has come amid the most taxing workload of his eight-year NHL career by a significant margin. He’s started 14 of 17 games for the Avs, including five of seven since Blackwood was reinstated. He obviously won’t hit the 68 starts he’s on pace for, but he’ll still undoubtedly pass his previous career high of 32 starts and 37 appearances at this rate.

They aren’t expecting the veteran to be a long-term solution, particularly with Blackwood coming off a career year and him being signed through 2029-30 at a cap hit of $5.25M. It’s still a worthy reward for one of the league’s more unheralded breakouts through the first several weeks. While Colorado’s elite two-way play so far has done most of the heavy lifting, Wedgewood has still given them significantly above-average netminding that’s likely helped them back a few extra points as they’ve rocketed off to an 11-1-5 start, the best in the league.

Colorado acquired Wedgewood from the Predators early last season in exchange for the promising but struggling Justus Annunen, as the Avs swapped out both of their opening-night goalies in separate deals before Christmas. He only got 18 starts behind Blackwood after the move but was exceptional with a 13-4-1 record, .917 SV%, and 1.99 GAA. The late bloomer is now on pace to post above-average save percentages in four of the last five seasons.

A third-round pick by the Devils back in 2010, Wedgewood debuted for them in the 2015-16 season but didn’t see NHL action again until a 20-game run with the Coyotes in 2017-18. He spent two more full seasons in the minors after that before working his way back into the bigs with New Jersey in 2020-21. He hasn’t seen the minors since, aside from a conditioning stint while he was Jake Oettinger’s backup in Dallas in 2022-23. His career numbers now read as a 72-55-26 record with eight shutouts, a 2.82 GAA, and a .907 SV% in 168 appearances.

It’s a $1M raise over Wedgewood’s current $1.5M cap hit, as he’s now in the back half of the two-year deal he signed with Nashville in free agency in 2024. He and Blackwood were already one of the more cost-effective goalie duos in the league this season at a combined price tag of $6.75M, and $7.75M for next season isn’t too bad, either. Colorado now has $91.25M in commitments for 2026-27, affording them $12.75M in projected cap space assuming a $104M upper limit with seven roster spots to fill, per MoneyPuck.