From Backup To Backbone: Scott Wedgewood Delivers When It Matters Most

TL;DR

Scott Wedgewood has consistently excelled as a goaltender since joining the Denver team, dispelling doubts about his performance. At 33, he continues to redefine expectations with steady and calm gameplay.

Key points

Scott Wedgewood has excelled as a goaltender since joining Denver.
He has a record of 13-4-1 with a 1.99 goals-against average.
Wedgewood's performance has dispelled early-season skepticism.
He was traded to Denver in exchange for Justus Annunen.
Critics question his abilities due to a limited sample size.

Mentioned in this story

NashvilleDenver

Scott WedgewoodJustus Annunen

**DENVER —**The moment never seems to arrive.

Every few weeks, there’s a sense that Scott Wedgewood is about to come back to earth—that the run will cool, that the numbers will level out, that the story will correct itself. It hasn’t happened yet. And at this point, it’s fair to wonder if it ever will.

Since landing in Denver in the deal that sent Justus Annunen to Nashville, Wedgewood has done little more than dismantle whatever doubt followed him in. Not loudly, not with theatrics—just with a steady, almost stubborn consistency. At 33, when most goaltenders have already been defined, he’s still rewriting the outline. There’s a calm to his game now, a kind of quiet authority that shows up in the way he tracks pucks and in the way he refuses to chase saves he doesn’t need to make.

Still, the skepticism never really left. It just evolved.

Early in the season, the pushback was predictable. The numbers from the year before—13-4-1, a 1.99 goals-against average, a .917 save percentage—came in just 19 games. Too small a window, critics said. A hot stretch, nothing more. He’s a backup. Let’s see what happens when the starts double, when the workload becomes real.

So the workload became real.

And the performance didn’t blink.

If anything, it sharpened. With 26 more starts than the previous season, Wedgewood didn’t just maintain his level—he elevated it. A 31-6-3 record. A 2.02 goals-against average. A .921 save percentage. Those aren’t numbers you explain away. They’re the kind that end arguments.

So the word “fluke” quietly disappeared.

Naturally, something else took its place.

For all the regular-season success, there was still one easy qualifier left. Wedgewood had never started a Stanley Cup Playoff game. Until he did, that question lingered beneath everything else.

He wasn’t selected for Team Canada, either—another slight, another reason for some to wonder if the run had a ceiling.

If anything, it only sharpened the edge.

The Proof Arrives, Quietly and Without Apology

On Sunday at Ball Arena, that question finally had to stand on its own.

Wedgewood turned aside 24 of 25 shots in a composed, unbothered 2–1 win over the Los Angeles Kings in Game 1 of the first-round series. No chaos, no scrambling—just control. The kind of performance that didn’t feel like a breakthrough so much as a continuation.