Scott Wedgewood

When the Colorado Avalanche opened the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs, it was Scott Wedgewood — not the club's other goaltender — who started between the pipes. He won the first six games in a row, beginning with a sweep of the Los Angeles Kings, before the tandem rotation shifted during the second-round series against the Minnesota Wild. After partner MacKenzie Blackwood surrendered three goals on 13 shots in Game 5, Wedgewood returned, made seven saves, and the Avalanche won 4-3 in overtime to advance to the Western Conference Final ^[1]. It was a sequence that would have looked very different, Wedgewood has suggested, without work he did on his mental game years earlier.

Wedgewood was born in Brampton, Ontario, on August 14, 1992, and was selected by the New Jersey Devils in the third round — 24th pick of that round — of the 2010 NHL Draft. The path from that selection to NHL stability was a long one. His first NHL appearance came in 2015-16, when he went 2-1-1 with a 1.25 goals-against average and a .957 save percentage across four games with New Jersey, including a shutout — numbers that did not immediately translate into a regular role.

More than two years passed before his next NHL action. In 2017-18, Wedgewood appeared in 20 games for the Arizona Coyotes, going 5-9 with a 3.45 GAA and a .893 save percentage, with one shutout. The 2020-21 season brought a return to New Jersey, where he posted a 3-8 record in 16 games with a 3.11 GAA, a .900 save percentage, and two shutouts in the pandemic-shortened campaign.

The 2021-22 season became a turning point of a different kind. Wedgewood appeared in three games with the Devils before being waived on November 4 and claimed by the Coyotes, playing 28 games in Arizona before being traded on March 20 to the Dallas Stars, where he appeared in eight more NHL contests that year — finishing with a 3-1 record, a 3.04 GAA, and a .913 save percentage across those eight Stars games ^[1]. It was during his time in Arizona that Wedgewood made a decision he would later credit as significant to his career: he reached out to a mental performance coach, on a recommendation from fellow NHL goaltender Carter Hutton.

Wedgewood spoke about that decision on Episode 183 of the InGoal Radio Podcast in August 2022, describing the moment he raised it with his wife: "I haven't stuck yet. I've been in the NHL, I've played, I've done a lot of things. Let's go down a different path here. Say I can play four more years. Do I regret that I didn't call a mental coach and have a conversation?" ^[1]. A 2026 InGoal article by Colin Hodd traced how that mental shift — working on thought patterns around in-game anxiety and scenario-spinning — shaped what followed ^[1].

Dallas kept Wedgewood, and over the next three seasons with the Stars he built the most sustained NHL run of his career to that point. In 2022-23 he went 9-8 in 21 games with a 2.72 GAA and a .915 save percentage, adding a shutout. The following season, 2023-24, he appeared in 32 games, going 16-7 with a 2.85 GAA and a .899 save percentage. Those Stars seasons collectively showed him stepping into a heavier workload than any earlier stretch of his career.

InGoal Magazine has covered Scott Wedgewood in two podcast appearances, five Pro Reads, one drill breakdown, and three InGoal articles. The first podcast appearance, Episode 183 in August 2022 ^[2], preceded a run of five Pro Reads sessions with Kevin Woodley in which Wedgewood broke down his own game-time decision-making in video format — available to InGoal members ^{[3] [4] [5] [6] [7]}. A second podcast appearance followed on Episode 249 in March 2024 ^[8].

Those Pro Reads sessions ranged from reading Steven Stamkos on a power play to handling a 2-on-1 in overtime against the Carolina Hurricanes. In his debut session, Wedgewood explained his thinking on depth and rebound control against former Tampa Bay Lightning teammates, including a phrase that recurs across his video sessions: "Puck is in a dead area, there's no threat, take the scan while I can." ^[3]. In a session covering a backdoor sequence against Carolina, he described his recovery philosophy: "The biggest key is I got my feet back. … that's the only reason I get there." ^[5].

A March 2023 drill breakdown piece documented a workout session in Vancouver, where Wedgewood — then working back from a lower-body injury — trained with Stars goaltending coach Jeff Reese in a crease movement drill with physical contact layered in. Wedgewood described the purpose: "The contact is a heart rate workout but the way I play I'm going to get bumped. I've been bumped a bunch throughout my career and it wears you down." ^[9]. That full drill description, including how Reese positioned pucks to replicate power-play looks and how Wedgewood's work intervals were monitored, is available to InGoal members ^[9].

A 2024 InGoal article detailed a practice Wedgewood described on Episode 249 of InGoal Radio: counting the handedness of opposing skaters throughout a game, on every faceoff, every line change, and before games using the lineup board ^[10]. "I always check hands and that's a big thing for me," he explained. "Before games, the lineup board always has a count and if I know there's only three righties and two of them are defenseman, everything's coming from my left side." ^[10]. A November 2025 article by Colin Hodd, connected to Wedgewood's period as the NHL's wins leader that season, offered further insight into the approach behind his numbers ^[11] — available to InGoal members.

Wedgewood signed with Colorado and in 2024-25 went 13-4 in 19 games for the Avalanche with a 1.99 GAA and a .917 save percentage, adding two shutouts. In the 2025-26 season — the current campaign — he has appeared in 45 games, going 31-6-6 with a 2.02 GAA, a .921 save percentage, and four shutouts, facing 1,093 shots across 2,549:04 of ice time. His NHL career totals through the 2025-26 season stand at 199 games played, 93 wins, 60 losses, 30 overtime losses, a 2.68 GAA, a .909 save percentage, and 12 shutouts.

The mental work he described questioning whether to pursue — sitting in Arizona, wondering if he would regret not making the call — is the backdrop to where Wedgewood now finds himself. "I give myself credit just for answering that question," he said in 2022. "There's something you're leaving untapped there." ^[1]. That full conversation, and what it meant for the seasons that followed, is on Episode 183 of InGoal Radio ^[2], with Hodd's 2026 article connecting those threads to the 2025 playoffs ^[1].