Ex-New Jersey Devil Scott Wedgwood Found a Home in Dallas

For almost ten years Scott Wedgewood was a part of the New Jersey Devils organization. They drafted him back in 2010 (Rd. 3, 84th overall) and he worked his way through the minor leagues with stops in the ECHL and AHL before making his NHL debut on March 20, 2016 (a win vs. Columbus).

“Well, I mean it’s a place I consider home. Drafted in ’10, traded away in ’17, back again, waivered away,” Wedgewood said to the media after beating the Devils behind 35 saves on Dec. 13. “I spent a lot of time here, a lot of people I know and still talk to. Good friendships and (its) a place that is near and dear to my heart. It’s obviously a little fun, a little challenge (to come back here and play), and coming away with a win is a big part of it. It’s nice to be back (here).”

After only four games with New Jersey, he was back in the AHL for the better part of the next two seasons and had to recover from a torn labrum in his shoulder before he was traded (for a fifth-round pick in the 2018 NHL Draft) to the Arizona Coyotes. More on that return for the Devils in a bit. In maybe the easiest (or weirdest) travel for a player who had just been traded, Wedgewood simply had to walk down the hallway as he was acquired by a team that was in New Jersey to play the Devils.

“I’m not 100% sure, but I think when I was traded the first time (from New Jersey) the pick they got was (used to select) Akira (Schmid),” he said from the visiting locker room at Prudential Center.

Yeah, Scott, that was the pick.

“It was?” Yeah, so you’re welcome,” he said with a laugh. “No, he’s been playing great. I was with him in camp (in NJ)  and he’s a great kid, he’s shown it tonight. It could have been 2, 3, 4-1 in the second period. As a fan of goalies, (from the other end of the ice) you kind of shake your head and say: nice save. But it doesn’t change my mentality, I just stay calm and collected and give us whistles, keep the puck out of my net. Kudos to Akira, he played a helluva game.”

While he didn’t play that night against his old mates back in 2017, he did face them a few months later, making 27 saves and registering his second career shutout. At the 2018 trade deadline, he was traded to Los Angeles and sent to the AHL. Signed with Buffalo and Tampa in each of the next two summers and played for their AHL affiliates. He signed with New Jersey ahead of the covid-shortened 2020-21 season and after about a year was claimed by Arizona off waivers.

Five months later, Wedgewood was on the move again, traded to the Dallas Stars at the trade deadline. That’s a lot of moving and bouncing around and as I type this today the netminder has played in 90 games at the NHL level (79 starts) over seven seasons, but it appears he may have found a home and a team that believes in him. He’s not the starter for the Stars, that’s Jake Oettinger’s gig, but he’s provided their coaching staff with a reliable option for when they want to give their no. 1 netminder a rest or breather.

“We’ve talked about how that’s kind of the role I’ve been in, and there is a little bit of pride involved on my side to come in and maybe steal some games. Obviously, you’re not going to have it every night in back-to-backs,” said Wedgewood, “but you just want to keep the team in it as long as possible, give them a chance to maybe jump ahead. I thought I did that tonight. They were confident in me, and I was confident in myself.”

For the now 30-year-old netminder, no one would blame him if he was sour about how his time ended with the Devils – or any team that gave up on him over the past ten years. But that’s not how he is wired, or how he thinks. Which I guess is a good thing if you’re an NHL goalie where there are so many things working against you.

“I have a few teams now that I’ve played for that I’ve beaten. I think I got them all now,” he said with a sly smile. “It’s a little bit of a challenge. You talk to guys a little bit in between the whistles. The staff is great here, I love them. You walk away with a little chip on your shoulder, but there’s no F you or anything like that where you have to stick it to them; it’s just a nice battle.”

“I was talking to Hughesy, he stiffed me a few times when I was texting him looking for skates in the summer, so I gave it to him. But like I said, everyone there and I have mutual respect for one another and no hard feelings. I was talking to Woody a bit, glad to see he’s healthy. You’re happy for guys when they do well.”

The Devils are off to their best start in eons, and Wedgewood was teammates with most of the young players on the team with whom he was in the AHL. So what’s his assessment of how they are developing?

“They are a lot faster. Their D-zone was good. They have a lot of talent up front. Those guys were young when I was here too, and you saw the talent that was coming up, they’ve obviously matured in their games. I skate with Jack (Hughes) sometimes in the summer, so I know what kind of talent that kid can bring. They’re a good group, I like a lot of them over there and I’m friends with a lot of them. It’s nice to see that they’ve gotten off to a good start.”

Pucks & Pitchforks asked Wedgewood if anyone along his journey gave him any advice that really helped him stay afloat when he could’ve gotten down on himself or doubted that he’d be an NHL regular.

“Not really, it was just keep grinding. Trust yourself, trust your game because a lot of this is mental. Eventually, breaks are gonna come,” the Brampton, Ontario native told us. “We were looking at re-signing in Arizona and then the trade shows up and all of a sudden you have a two-year deal and you’re in the league. I think I always knew I was there (at that level) it was just a matter of right place, and the right time. That’s half the battle in goal.”

With 32 teams in the NHL, even I can do the math that there are only 64 spots for goaltenders. Sometimes, as Wedgewood said, it’s all about finding the right spot where you can develop, where someone believes in you, that makes all of the difference.

“I think the opportunity has been there, now it’s just a little bit of everyone knows I can do it. We struggled when I was here as a team, bottom or almost bottom of the league, and I walked away with a 3-goals-against average and a .900 save percentage on those teams.”

“I came to a team here last year where it was my first time playing on a team that wasn’t in the bottom third of the NHL standings. When you get behind a squad like this that can play, I think it obviously helps goaltenders, and it helps me. The Devils have grown, Arizona has grown, but for me, I was proud of what I did. It was a tough situation sometimes but I fought and stayed alive and got a deal here – kudos to myself, I’m proud of myself. Now it’s just proving it to everyone else.”

I don’t know about everyone else out there reading this, but Scott Wedgewood could play on my team any day, and it’s nice to see a good guy doing well after such a rollercoaster ride to get to Dallas.