One of the things that I love about the Colorado Avalanche is their willingness to stick up for each other. That went an extra mile on Wednesday morning.
The NHL has announced the candidates for the Vezina trophy, given to the goalie who is voted as the league’s best goaltender for the season.The three goaltenders nominated for the trophy were Andrei Vasilevskiy of the Tampa Bay Lightning, Ilya Sorokin of the New York Islanders, and Jeremy Swayman of the Boston Bruins.
So, why am I bringing this up? Simple: Scott Wedgewood was omitted from the list. Throughout the year, Scott Wedgewood has given his heart and soul to the Avs and it certainly was noticed by Avs Faithful. There is no way you can convince me or most others that he didn’t deserve to be nominated.
There’s one hilarious thing that came from this decision, however. It is thanks to the Avalanche’s X account that I got a good laugh this morning, lightening the mood after the initial news of the snub.
We Love Scott Wedgewood 💙❤️
— Colorado Avalanche (@Avalanche) April 29, 2026
Scott Wedgewood’s omission from the Vezina trophy nominations is a joke
Wedgewood won 31 games this season, and was the major factor in the Avalanche winning the Jennings trophy, given to the team who finished the regular season with the fewest goals against. To qualify, goalies need to have played at least 25 games.
Wedgewood started 43 of 45 games played. He won 31 of those games, and overall, had a goals-against average of just 2.02 and save percentage of .921. If those don’t scream Vezina-worthy numbers, I don’t know what more Wedgewood needs to do to get the credit.
Perhaps it has something to do with the familiarity of goaltenders. While Wedgewood has been stellar for Colorado since coming over in a trade with the Nashville Predators, the goalies who were actually nominated have more experience. I don’t think that should be a reason to leave a player off the list, simply because it’s not a trophy for “What have you done for me in the past?”
At the same time, I’m not really surprised Wedgewood was excluded. Going forward, I expect him to perform with a chip on his shoulder. That’s a scary thought for opponents, because truthfully, he has already been superb. Whoever excluded Wedgewood from nomination is going to catch a lot of heat for the decision, and rightfully so.
That being said, Wedgewood will look to continue to torch opponents this postseason on his way to hopefully helping the Avalanche lift the Stanley Cup.
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