The Colorado Avalanche have a good pair of goaltenders in Mackenzie Blackwood and Scott Wedgewood. The team has a chance to win every game because of those two guarding the net. With that said, however, we could see a major shift in starts this season.
Last year, Wedgewood started out the season because of Blackwood’s injury status. He finished the year with a record of 31-6-6. Now, Blackwood is healthy and will look to take back the starter’s net. The Avalanche seem to be leaning that way, too.
Blackwood is set to start his second straight game on Saturday, and will have started the first two games of the season.
Now, it’s still early, but it’s possible that the Avalanche are playing a game here with Wedgewood’s workload. The reason is because Wedgewood is on a one-year, $2.5 million deal. Blackwood is in the second year of a five-year deal worth $5.25 million AAV. That alone is proof that they view Blackwood as their long-term starter.
I’m confident in saying that I feel as if the Avs have a 1A and 1B situation between the pipes. That’s what any team and fan would want out of their goaltenders. It’s the best situation. But, you won’t have your two goaltenders making nearly identical amounts of money per year. That is just bad cap management to me. For this season, Blackwood is the 19th-highest paid goaltender. I’d take that any day of the week on my team.
Blackwood could prove to be a major steal in terms of contract. The fact that they have him locked in for half a decade is great, assuming he continues his high performance in each of those seasons.
Wedgewood is great, too. The only reason I think Jared Bednar would keep him out of the starter’s crease is to make sure he doesn’t have a strong chance of outplaying his contract. That does feel a bit dirty in terms of respect, but it makes sense because you are confident that Wedgewood has the ability to outplay his contract, and you don’t want there to be any chance that he walks in free agency to a much larger contract.
If Wedgewood has a strong season even in terms of a backup, he could still sign with the Avalanche for cheap. That’s exactly what Colorado would want. They know what they have in both of their goaltenders. They know what both of them are capable of. So do other teams. It’s not like every other team is blind to how Wedgewood has performed in the past. When given an opportunity, he’s performed well.
In another angle, if the Avalanche end up winning the Stanley Cup this season, I feel like Wedgewood would have had a strong season. Colorado likes to use their two goaltenders throughout the season and as proven by their 2021-22 Stanley Cup victory, having two starter-quality guys is crucial when trying to win it all.
We’ll see how it all plays out this season, as well as the offseason. Will Wedgewood decide to return to Colorado during free agency? That should be the hope.
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