Avalanche’s Scott Wedgewood Reacts To Vezina Finalist Snub

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.

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