Coyotes trade for Devils goalie Scott Wedgewood

Regardless of how the score ends tonight, the Arizona Coyotes won’t be walking away from the Prudential Center empty-handed. Earlier this morning General Manager John Chayka traded a 5th round pick in 2018 for the New Jersey Devils’ third goalie Scott Wedgewood.

He won’t have far to travel to join the team as he was serving as the backup for Keith Kinkaid while Cory Schneider was injured. It was expected that Schneider would be returning to the lineup tonight and the Devils confirmed his return.

Wedgewood has only played four NHL games to date and in those games, he has a .957 save percentage. Most of his time has been spent in the AHL where he has played 110 games faced 2,598 shots and a career average .908 save percentage.

With the addition of Wedgewood, the Coyotes now have six goalies on their NHL/AHL rosters making a combined $5,010,833 in NHL salary. (Three of the goalies make less when they are in the AHL.)

However, it should be noted that earlier this month Arizona Sports Reporter Craig Morgan tweeted that the number of goalies may soon change.

If Marek Langhamer exercises his out clause in November to play in the Czech league the three goalie situation would only be cleared up in the AHL. There would still be a very large and looming question of what happens to either Wedgewood or Louis Domingue when Antti Raanta returns from injury. For now, it seems that the front office is content in letting the goalies play their way in or out of their prospective positions.

The only thing that is clear is that no one should feel comfortable that their spot is secured.