Former Trenton goaltender eager to prove himself again with Devils
There was no way former Trenton Titans goaltender Scott Wedgewood could have envisioned what a roller coaster ride this season would be already.
After signing a one-year, $700,000 contract to re-sign with the New Jersey Devils, the 28-year-old was fully expecting to be serve as the organization’s third goaltender behind Corey Crawford and Mackenzie Blackwood.
But, when Crawford unexpectedly retired during training camp, Wedgewood, now eight seasons removed from his lone year between the pipes in the last year of professional hockey in the capital city, was elevated to a backup role. Or, so he thought.
The Devils have been active in on the waiver wire on the goaltender market. On Jan. 12, they claimed former Winnipeg Jets and Detroit Red Wings netminder Eric Comrie, and also added veteran Aaron Dell on Monday as well, clouding Wedgewood’s future with the team.
“It’s been interesting, but also kind of exciting at the same time,” Wedgewood told The Trentonian in a phone interview.
“Coming in as the three, I kind of knew my role, but I wasn’t sure at first if I’d be on the taxi squad or get in any NHL games with the shorter season and that amount of games in a short period of time. If that didn’t work out, maybe I’d rotate down to the American Hockey League to get some games if there were no injuries, so you were playing that ‘what if’ in your mind when you first come there. But then Crawford shut it down, and it opened up a door, and I was ready to go this year.”
A large part of that level of preparedness came from Wedgewood’s time in the bubble as the third goalie for the Tampa Bay Lightning during their run to the Stanley Cup. Wedgewood spent a lot of time with their goaltending coach, Frantz Jean, for the three months he was in there, and tuned up some things to where he feels like he’s now at the top of his game.
He’s just waiting for an opportunity to show it to the Devils once again — he last played for them at the highest level in a four-game stint in 2015-16 before he was eventually traded away to the Arizona Coyotes, with whom he got the bulk of his NHL experience, two seasons later — but knows that between Blackwood getting off to a hot start and other goalies being brought in, it may be a little while before he gets it.
“We don’t have any back-to-backs here, and early on Blackwood’s been playing amazing, so early on there’s been nothing to get into just yet,” Wedgewood said. “But, they were open with me, saying there were going to need another goalie regardless. It was just the situation, you have to have guys with the (league COVID) protocols, and taxi squad and everything that was going on. So, they grabbed Comrie and then a couple days ago, they grabbed Dell. … Goalies are getting scooped up left and right. So right now, it’s just taking it dayby-day. I’ve been waiting a long time to get back into the league and play, so to be here and be a part of the squad on a daily basis, it feels like home and it’s enjoyable.”
The climb back to the NHL has been a long one for Wedgewood, who was a thirdround pick by the Devils back in 2010. He spent the majority of his first pro season with the Titans in 2012-13 — he posted a 3.22 goals against average and .900 save percentage in 48 appearances in front of an often-patchwork team that year — and seemed destined to be a mainstay in Newark after solidifying himself as one of the top goaltending prospects in the game with a strong AHL run in Albany.
However, he was never able to get a consistent opportunity behind the tandem in Newark at the time of Cory Schneider and Keith Kinkaid, and was dealt to the Coyotes early in the 2017-18 season, where he saw his last playing time in the NHL, a 20game stint. He’s bounced around a bit since then; he was dealt later that season to the Los Angeles Kings organization, and has spent the last two years in the AHL with the Buffalo Sabres and Lightning, respectively.
Although he spent all of last season in the minors during an injury-riddled campaign with the Syracuse Crunch, he did
earn the opportunity to serve as Tampa Bay’s third goaltender during the Stanley Cup Playoffs, and was rewarded by getting to hoist the game’s ultimate prize over his head with his Lightning teammates when it was all said and done.
“We shut down, but the bubble came around, and I was able to get myself back to 100 percent to come down in July for the training camp before the bubble and I felt great,” said Wedgewood, who had previously suffered an MCL injury that had hobbled him.
“It was playing kind of a similar role to what I was almost preparing for this season, just being that three and practicing with the guys who need extra and be that guy in the room that is willing to do whatever for the guys to help them prepare. I was able to watch that team go for it and win it all, and it was an experience like no other. It was so enjoyable to see how hard they were working and see how close knit they were. … It was hard work in the sense of always going out there, I think I had maybe seven days off in the whole bubble in my position.”