Scott Wedgewood To Start Conditioning Stint In AHL
The Dallas Stars have their eyes set on more than just a playoff appearance. The club has the best goal differential in the Western Conference and hopes to go on a long postseason run, contending for the Stanley Cup. While their hopes rest on the shoulders of star goaltender Jake Oettinger, getting his backup healthy enough to contribute down the stretch is a priority.
Scott Wedgewood hasn’t played since February 18, leaving Oettinger to start nearly every game since, given the lack of NHL-level depth behind the two netminders. Now, Wedgewood appears to be on the brink of a return.
Team reporter Mike Heika reports that the veteran netminder will go on a conditioning stint to the AHL and start for the Texas Stars on Friday. He could be back up with the NHL club as early as next week, allowing Dallas to give Oettinger a couple of nights off before the playoffs begin.
The Stars finish the season with a home-and-home with the St. Louis Blues on consecutive nights, games that could have serious significance depending on how things go from here. They currently sit three points behind the Minnesota Wild for the Central Division lead, and are tied with the Colorado Avalanche for the other two division playoff spots.
Home ice advantage in the first round – or even avoiding a matchup with the defending champs entirely – may come down to how they perform in that back-to-back.
West Notes: Fiala, Stars, Sharks
Los Angeles Kings winger Kevin Fiala is injured and listed as day-to-day according to Zach Dooley of LA Kings Insider. Fiala will miss tonight’s contest when the Kings host the Nashville Predators. Fiala left the Kings game on Thursday night against the Colorado Avalanche after a knee-on-knee hit from Andrew Cogliano. Of course the Kings don’t want Fiala to miss any time, but the fact he is only listed as day-to-day is great news as the collision looked like it could possibly result in a much more serious injury.
Fiala is leading the Kings in scoring with 68 points this season. He has been terrific in Los Angeles after being acquired from the Wild for a first-round pick and Brock Faber in the offseason. The 26-year-old winger plays a great two-way game and has fit in on the team’s top line with Anze Kopitar and also fills in on a tremendous all-around trio with Phillip Danault and Viktor Arvidsson from time to time. It sounds like his absence will be short term and that is great news for Kings fans who were holding their breath since Thursday night.
- The Dallas Stars have provided a bit of an update on their injured players. Mike Heika of NHL.com reports Tyler Seguin is not skating today which means he is not close to returning to action. The veteran center left Thursday night’s game against the Buffalo Sabres after suffering a laceration above his knee from the skate of Jordan Greenway. Luke Glendening and Scott Wedgewood did skate today, meaning they are close to getting back into the lineup. Glendening has not played since February 17 and Wedgewood’s last game was February 18.
- Curtis Pashelka of Bay Area News Group reports San Jose Sharks defensemen Radim Simek and Jacob MacDonald are out week to week. Simek is dealing with concussion symptoms and MacDonald left Monday night’s game early after taking a high hit. There is no update on what the injury is, but the timeline sounds like the Sharks will be without a couple of depth defenders for the next few weeks. In better Sharks news, winger Jonah Gadjovich is getting closer to returning but is not quite ready. He has three goals and seven points in 35 games this season but hasn’t played since February 12 with an upper-body injury.
Injury Notes: Wedgewood, Yamamoto, Roy
Dallas Stars head coach Pete DeBoer told reporters today, including The Dallas Morning News’ Matthew DeFranks, that goalie Scott Wedgewood is day-to-day after leaving last night’s game on a stretcher. DeBoer noted that Wedgewood felt better today, but did not practice.
Wedgewood could still take a skate tomorrow but is still doubtful to dress Saturday against the New York Islanders. The netminder sustained the injury by making a pair of saves on Florida Panthers forward Anton Lundell. It’s expected that Matt Murray will receive his second recall of the season to backup Oettinger for tomorrow’s game.
- Edmonton Oilers forward Kailer Yamamoto has yet to skate since suffering an undisclosed injury in a 7-2 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes on November 10, according to head coach Jay Woodcroft. Woodcroft called the young forward day-to-day, but said it was doubtful he’d play Saturday against the Vegas Golden Knights. Yamamoto has a paltry three assists through 13 games this season despite receiving top-six minutes.
- On the other side of that matchup, Vegas Golden Knights head coach Bruce Cassidy doesn’t expect forward Nicolas Roy to travel today with the team to Edmonton. The 25-year-old is out with a lower-body injury suffered in their last game and is day-to-day. He’s been an important depth scoring piece for Vegas to start the year, notching four goals and seven assists in 18 games.
Snapshots: Pastujov, Wedgewood, Kings Defense
We are, presumably, still a few months away from the NHL’s blockbuster trading season, however the hot stove in the WHL, QMJHL, and OHL is red hot, with a few blockbusters already completed. The OHL’s Sarnia Sting managed to make one of their own tonight too, acquiring forward and Anaheim Ducks prospect Sasha Pastujov from the Guelph Storm. Heading back to Guelph will be forward Max Namestnikov along with a 2022 second-round pick, 2024 third-round pick, 2025 fifth-round pick, and 2026 fifth -round pick, all in the OHL draft.
Pastujov, 19, was a third-round selection by the Anaheim Ducks in the 2019 NHL Draft, who has put up massive numbers for Sarnia since joining them after a stint with the USNTDP prior. In just 14 games to start this season, Pastujov has 11 goals and eight assists, building on his sensational 2021-22 campaign where he recorded 34 goals and 42 assists in 65 games.
- Having recently got goaltender Jake Oettinger back from injury, the Dallas Stars were surely hoping to keep their goaltending duo intact for as long as possible, however backup netminder Scott Wedgewood was forced to leave tonight’s game against the Florida Panthers, and it did not look good. The injury happened as Wedgewood made a stop against forward Anton Lundell on a breakaway. Lundell was kept off the scoresheet, but Wedgewood remained on the ice for some time before a stretcher was brought out to help the ailing goaltender off the ice. Through seven games to start the season coming into tonight, the 30-year-old carries a 3.21 goals-against average and .903 save-percentage. The Stars added that Wedgewood is “okay” and being further evaluated in their locker room. In this sense, okay may not necessarily mean uninjured, but instead as a reference to the scary situation as Wedgewood was unable to leave the ice himself.
- Earlier today on TSN’s Insider Trading segment, Pierre LeBrun touched on the Los Angeles Kings and their envious predicament of having too many defenseman. As a response, the team has placed defenseman Brandt Clarke on a conditioning loan in the AHL and Jordan Spence, who has proven to be a capable NHL defenseman, is currently a teammate of Clarke’s with the Ontario Reign of the AHL. LeBrun notes that teams have been wondering if the Kings are or will be willing to trade from their defensive depth, however it appears Los Angeles has indicated they are planning to hold onto their defenseman, at least for now.
Jake Oettinger To Be Re-Evaluated In A Week
The Dallas Stars have lost young star goaltender Jake Oettinger for the next little while, after he pulled himself out of Saturday’s game. General manager Jim Nill told reporters including Saad Yousuf of The Athletic that Oettinger will be re-evaluated in a week’s time for the lower-body injury he is dealing with.
Now, the Stars face a difficult issue. The team cannot recall Anton Khudobin without making a significant cap move, like putting Oettinger on long-term injured reserve. The only other two netminders signed to NHL contracts are Adam Scheel and Remi Poirier, who both are playing in the ECHL. Matthew Murray, Khudobin’s partner, is signed to an AHL contract and would have to be signed to an NHL deal in order to be recalled. None of the three has any NHL experience.
That mean’s it is the Scott Wedgewood show, for the time being, something that would’ve been difficult to predict when he was being claimed off waivers by the Arizona Coyotes almost exactly a year ago. While Wedgewood has shown an ability to play at the NHL level in the past, he only actually has 80 appearances and is 0-2-1 this season with an .880 save percentage.
These in-between injuries – ones that don’t keep a player out for more than ten games, thus removing the possibility of LTIR – have become increasingly difficult for some teams to deal with, given cap constraints. As clubs continue to push their salary chart right up to the cap ceiling, they remove any room for in-season maneuvering.
For Oettinger, it’s a difficult break during what was shaping up to be his true breakout season. After starring in last year’s playoffs, he had an incredible .952 save percentage so far, only allowing nine goals on 186 shots. Hopefully the 23-year-old will be able to quickly recover from this injury and get back in the net to continue his early Vezina contention.
Dallas Stars Sign Scott Wedgewood
While the Dallas Stars have a big negotiation coming up with starting goalie Jake Oettinger, they won’t have any more negotiating to do to find his backup. The team announced today that they have re-signed goalie Scott Wedgewood to two-year, $1MM AAV deal.
Wedgewood originally came to the Stars as part of a mid-season trade with the Arizona Coyotes, who had claimed him off waivers from the New Jersey Devils. It had been Wedgewood’s second tour of duty with the Coyotes, a far more successful tenure than his first time in the desert. In 2017-18, the Coyotes acquired Wedgewood and he ended up playing 20 NHL games there, going 5-9-4 with an .893 save percentage. This year, Wedgewood flipped the script, posting a strong .911 save percentage on a Coyotes team that finished among the league’s worst teams.
While Wedgewood only played eight games with the Stars, his overall performance in 2021-22 is the primary reason why GM Jim Nill and the Stars can be confident in him as their choice to back up Oettinger. In total this year, Wedgewood started 32 games and had a .910 save percentage, which is especially impressive when you consider that the bulk of his starts came in Arizona. The Stars clearly believe that Wedgewood has what it takes to be a strong backup for their up-and-coming star, and the numbers support them in that belief.
At only 29 years old, Wedgewood still figures to have a long career in front of him. The former top-100 pick at the 2010 draft took his time developing in the minors, starting first in the ECHL before eventually reaching the NHL after three seasons with the AHL’s Albany Devils. While he has bounced around quite a bit so far in his career, as part of three trades and a waiver claim, he seems to have found a home in Dallas.
Dallas Stars Acquire Scott Wedgewood
The Dallas Stars have added another goaltender to help in their playoff race. They have acquired Scott Wedgewood from the Arizona Coyotes in exchange for a conditional 2023 fourth-round pick. The pick becomes a 2023 third-rounder if the Stars make the playoffs this season. Both teams have announced the trade. This is now the second time in his career that Scott Wedgewood has been traded by the Coyotes. In 2018, he was part of the team’s trade for Darcy Kuemper, and now he finds himself likely experiencing a bit of deja vu.
This seems to come as a bit of a disappointment for Wedgewood, as according to Craig Morgan of PHNX Sports he “desperately wanted to stay in one place” after having moved so much over the course of his career so far. But what can’t be disappointing for Wedgewood is the fact that a team in the middle of a playoff race values him highly enough to trade as much as a third-round pick to acquire him. The Stars clearly believe he can help them, and it’s easy to see why. Wedgewood has a .911 save percentage in 26 starts this season, backstopping one of the league’s worst teams. He has received little help from the defense in front of him far too often this season and has come out of those difficult games with highly respectable numbers. Wedgewood is 29 years old and has an expiring $825k cap hit, meaning he is unlikely to be a long-term fixture in Dallas, but he certainly will help them right now. Their need for Wedgewood is exacerbated by the recent injury trouble that has hit Jake Oettinger‘s usual partner in net, Braden Holtby. Holtby is battling a lower-body injury, and Jeff Marek of Sportsnet speculates that Holtby could be headed for long-term injured reserve. So if Holtby’s injury does prove to be more significant than one may have previously anticipated, this move for Wedgewood is an important one to help protect Oettinger as he backstops the Stars in his first real season as a number-one goaltender.
For the Coyotes, getting a fourth-rounder that can potentially become a third-rounder is solid value for Wedgewood, a pending UFA. The Coyotes’ crease seems to belong to Karel Vejmelka for the near and potentially long-term future, so for a team that is in the NHL’s basement adding a decent draft pick to their already impressive stockpile is a shrewd move. Perhaps they could have been more accommodating to the journeyman Wedgewood’s wish to have more stability in his career, but this trade is one more reminder of the businesslike nature of NHL roster-building, and how valuable draft picks have become to rebuilding clubs. Overall, the Coyotes get good value for a player they likely didn’t have as part of their long-term plans, and the Stars get a goaltender in the middle of the best season of his career to help as they desperately try to make the playoffs in what is a win-now season for the club.
ESPN’s Kevin Weekes was the first to report Wedgewood being traded to Dallas. Matthew DeFranks had the conditions on the pick being sent to Arizona.
Central Notes: Khudobin, Wild, Coyotes Goaltending
Earlier this season, Dallas was shopping goaltender Anton Khudobin and after they found no takers, they waived him and sent him to AHL Texas to try to get him back to his form from previous seasons. Now, while they could certainly benefit from shedding his $3.33MM cap hit that runs through 2022-23, GM Jim Nill indicated in an interview with Mike Heika of the Stars’ team site that they may elect to hold onto the netminder as injury insurance. If the Stars were willing to take a similarly-priced player back in a swap of bad contracts, it’s quite possible that they’d have been able to find a taker. Now, it appears that the 35-year-old will stick around and be a high-priced insurance policy in the minors.
More from the Central Division:
- Wild winger Marcus Foligno is expected to return to Minnesota’s lineup on Tuesday against Winnipeg, notes Michael Russo of The Athletic (Twitter link). The 30-year-old has missed the last two games with an upper-body injury, his first real blemish on an impressive season that has already seen him reach a career high in points with 27 in 39 games. Meanwhile, Russo adds in a separate tweet that the team is hopeful that defenseman Mathew Dumba will be able to play on Saturday after being placed on IR earlier today.
- Coyotes goaltender Scott Wedgewood was injured in practice today and did not accompany the team on their road trip to Vancouver, relays Craig Morgan of PHNX Sports (Twitter link). The veteran has done relatively well since joining Arizona, posting a .903 SV% in 18 games after being claimed on waivers early in the season. Ivan Prosvetov will be recalled from AHL Tucson with Carter Hutton not quite ready to return although he did skate before practice.
Snapshots: Coyotes, Canucks, Kuzmenko, Pillar
The Coyotes are set to get their top defenseman back in the lineup as Jakob Chychrun has cleared COVID protocol, relays Jose M. Romero of the Arizona Republic. Chychrun had been out with an upper-body injury sustained back in December and was close to returning before testing positive. Head coach Andre Tourigny, defensemen Anton Stralman and Kyle Capobianco, and goalie Scott Wedgewood all also cleared protocols and are with Arizona on their road trip. However, they will be without winger Antoine Roussel who entered COVID protocol today and will miss at least the next five days.
Elsewhere around the hockey world:
- While the attendance restrictions in Vancouver have been extended through the middle of February, the Canucks will not be having any games on their upcoming three-game homestand rescheduled, mentions Postmedia’s Ben Kuzma (Twitter link). Vancouver already has seven games that need to be rescheduled with at least some of those changes expected to be announced very soon.
- Free agent winger Andrei Kuzmenko won’t be deciding on which NHL team he’ll sign with anytime soon. TSN’s Darren Dreger reports in the latest Insider Trading segment that the 25-year-old will wait until the end of his season in Russia before choosing where to sign with. Kuzmenko is on Russia’s training camp list for the upcoming Olympics and as the second-leading scorer in the KHL, it’s quite likely that he’ll make it. Ottawa is among the teams known to be interested although Dreger relays that almost every team has at least reached out to his agent (Gold Star’s Dan Milstein) to inquire about Kuzmenko.
- Wild prospect Josh Pillar was traded from Kamloops to Saskatoon at the WHL trade deadline on Monday. The 2021 fourth-round pick has averaged just over a point per game for the second straight season with 11 goals and 20 assists in 29 games. However, the two picks the Blazers are receiving are conditional as the winger is currently dealing with a private medical situation and the move was made to allow Pillar to recover closer to home.
Coyotes Cancel Practice, Add Six To COVID Protocol
Another coronavirus outbreak is starting in the NHL, this time affecting the Arizona Coyotes. The team canceled practice earlier today after receiving test results and this afternoon announced that Scott Wedgewood, Jakob Chychrun, Cam Dineen, Anton Stralman, head coach Andre Tourigny, and goaltending coach Corey Schwab have all been placed in the COVID protocol.
The Coyotes are scheduled to take on the Toronto Maple Leafs on Wednesday, before a home-and-home series against the Colorado Avalanche on the weekend. The team already had Kyle Capobianco and assistant coach Mario Duhamel in the protocol, placed there a few days ago.
While Chychrun was already out with an injury, losing the other players–especially Wedgewood–is certainly a challenge for the Coyotes. The team has so many injuries and absences even before these players were ruled out, that icing a competitive lineup will be even tougher.
Of course, the Coyotes were having trouble icing a roster like that anyway as they go through a scorched earth rebuild. The team has won just seven times in 33 games and sit last in the entire NHL.