Coyotes add goalie Wedgewood to help with depth
The Arizona Coyotes on Thursday brought back a familiar face to help with their goaltender depth.
Veteran Scott Wedgewood, 29, was claimed off waivers from the New Jersey Devils and will be added to the Coyotes roster. Wedgewood, who played in 20 games for the Coyotes in 2017-18, has an 0-2-1 record with a 3.19 goals against average and a .880 save percentage in three games with the Devils this season.
Mostly an American Hockey League goalie throughout his career, Wedgewood has four shutouts in 43 career NHL games.
Arizona’s goaltending situation needed addressing after Carter Hutton was placed on injured reserve with a lowerbody injury suffered at Florida on Oct. 25. The Coyotes brought up prospect Ivan Prosvetov from AHL Tucson, and Prosvetov played in one game on Oct. 28.
But the plan has been to develop the young Prosvetov in Tucson, where he can play more, and after obtaining Wedgewood, the Coyotes sent Prosvetov back to Tucson and called up forward Ben McCartney.
Wedgewood gives the Coyotes some experience to pair with Karel Vejmelka, who has been sharp in his last three games as the Coyotes’ No. 1 goalie.
It was Wedgewood who was in goal on Oct. 30, 2017, when the Coyotes put an end to their longest winless streak to open a season at 0-10-1. The Coyotes (09-1) will tie that mark if they lose at Anaheim (4-4-3) Friday night in the first of a back-to-back set of games.
McCartney, a seventh-round draft pick in 2020, has four goals in four games at Tucson. He showed a scorer’s touch at the team’s rookie development camp and in rookie prospect games in September.