The Colorado Avalanche have resolved their Scott Wedgewood question the simplest way available: by giving Mackenzie Blackwood the net night after night. The upcoming schedule is about to make that solution much harder to sustain.
Wedgewood has not appeared since Nov. 3, when the Columbus Blue Jackets pulled him after he surrendered four goals on nine shots in a 7-2 defeat. Colorado owns a 10-3-1 record when Blackwood earns the decision and just 1-3-1 when Wedgewood does, which makes head coach Jared Bednar’s recent choices straightforward to follow.
The next several weeks will reveal how heavily a team can rely on a single goaltender. Colorado has to weigh whether Wedgewood deserves a fairer opportunity to work through his slump or whether one of the netminders developing in Loveland has already earned that look.
Wedgewood’s Skid Masks a Genuine Breakout Effort
Wedgewood has dropped three consecutive starts, but labeling all three as identical collapses overlooks the strongest outing of his season. He turned aside 37 of 40 shots at New Jersey on Oct. 20, and Colorado still fell 4-3, roughly the ceiling anyone could expect from a backup playing on the road.
The two appearances that followed painted a different picture. Columbus and Nashville were punishing enough to drag his save percentage across the losing stretch down to .845, even with the New Jersey performance propping the number up. The outcomes warrant a closer look, yet the game log demands more context than a simple tally of defeats.
His full-season line of an .867 save percentage and a 4.02 goals-against average would raise eyebrows for any contender. In his favor, the body of work behind those figures suggests a higher baseline. PuckPedia’s model credited him with 23.12 goals saved above expected last season, a measure of the pucks he prevented beyond what the quality of the shots against him would project.
A season of that caliber earns him some patience, though it cannot buy an indefinite exemption. Colorado needs confirmation that the goaltender from last season is still available, and he cannot offer that proof while stationed at the far end of the bench.
Bednar Should Give Wedgewood a Realistic Chance
Four of Wedgewood’s five starts have fallen on the second leg of a back-to-back, including road dates in Calgary, New Jersey, and Columbus. Fatigue does not account for every goal against him, but it does place an asterisk beside any head-to-head comparison with Blackwood.
The offense has offered little support, either. Colorado has scored 78 goals across 19 games, and only nine of those arrived during Wedgewood’s past four starts, a slim margin for a goaltender attempting to escape a slump.
To be fair, the tired-legs argument has a flaw. His lone well-rested start produced the difficult night in Nashville on Oct. 25, when he allowed six goals on 35 shots. A more forgiving schedule would provide a fairer assessment without guaranteeing a solution.
Meanwhile, Blackwood has taken the net in 14 of Colorado’s opening 19 games. Extend that workload across the NHL’s new 84-game calendar, and he projects to roughly 62 starts, a demanding burden even under the assumption that he stays healthy.
The wiser approach is to grant Wedgewood a rested start before enacting any lasting change. Bednar would gain more insight from that outing than from another night spent behind a lineup running on empty, and Blackwood would receive a scheduled respite.
Nabokov and Miner Offer Colorado Depth in Loveland
Ilya Nabokov staked his own claim on the same evening the Avalanche prevailed in Toronto. The 23-year-old denied all three Abbotsford shooters in the shootout as the Eagles won 4-3 on Nov. 10, and he reached North America with a Gagarin Cup and a Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) playoff MVP award to his name.
His .927 save percentage across nine American Hockey League (AHL) appearances reinforces the argument for a closer examination. Even so, AHL production does not confirm he can manage NHL shooters, and Colorado must balance consistent developmental starts in Loveland against the occasional backup role in Denver. Any call-up requires a genuine plan for playing time, or he would spend most nights simply watching Blackwood perform.
Trent Miner deserves a place in the discussion as well. He recorded a .933 save percentage over four NHL appearances last season before helping the Eagles advance to the Western Conference Final, a modest sample but a viable second internal option nonetheless.
Turning inward makes sense after Colorado dealt conditional first- and fifth-round picks to Toronto for Nicolas Roy. Wedgewood’s $2.5 million contract also expires at the end of this season, so the Avalanche can resolve the backup role without committing to another long-term acquisition.
The back-to-backs on Nov. 18-19 against the Utah Mammoth and Anaheim Ducks, followed by Nov. 27-28 dates with the Minnesota Wild and San Jose Sharks, hand Bednar natural windows to conduct that experiment. If Wedgewood responds, the issue resolves itself, and if he cannot, Colorado’s remedy waits a short drive up Interstate 25 in Loveland.
