NHL goaltender Scott Wedgewood, now on the Dallas Stars, has moved around all his life. Wedgewood grew up in Brampton, Ontario, just outside of Toronto. Growing up in Canada, hockey immediately became a very big part of his life. He explained, “I was playing on a community hockey team by the time I was four and was playing competitive hockey by the time I was six. This is a pretty average Canadian childhood. Growing up, hockey is typically the household sport, everyone plays it, and that’s how it was for my family as well.”
Wedgewood moved from a young age to Plymouth, Michigan to help improve his hockey career. Playing in Michigan caught the attention of countless NHL teams.
Wedgewood continued to thrive as an athlete and entered the OHL draft at just 16 years old. He explained, “The OHL is a league among itself. If you enter the OHL draft, it is essentially saying ‘no’ to playing hockey in college. OHL teams all across the country draft players they want on their teams. If you choose to report to the team you were drafted to, you are committed to that team. I remember watching the TV in Canada and watching the draft with my family. I wasn’t sure about any decisions or where I was going at the time, but we would refresh the page every so often. It was just my brother and I in the room when we refreshed the page and saw my name pop up. When we saw “Plymouth Whalers”, we weren’t sure where it was, but I remember being very excited. Tyler Seguin. who now plays with me on the Dallas Stars, was also drafted to the team the same year I was. We had grown up together in Canada, so it was nice to know there would be a familiar face there. At the time, I wasn’t completely sure if I was going to make the team, but they told us to come to Plymouth for the week for camp.”
When playing in the OHL, it is common to stay with a host family in the nearby city. This happened to both Wedgewood and Seguin. Wedgewood said, “They told me to bring all my belongings because there was a chance we wouldn’t be leaving. At the end of camp, they offered me a spot, my parents went back to Canada, and I was given the address of the family I was going to be living with. The next few days were definitely hard. My parents dropped me off at a random family’s house that we had never met. It was a huge adjustment for all of us. Seguin and I became very close because we hung out at the family’s house where he was staying all the time.”
Wedgewood then went on to play for the Plymouth Whalers for four years. When asked about his favorite memory while playing hockey in Michigan, he said, “During the playoffs, around April 2010, we were down 3-0 in the first games of the series, and the starting goalie had gotten suspended during game three. So, I became the starting goalie for game four. The team and I knew that we were going to lose, but we all agreed to keep our heads up and that we would get through it together. The game started, and in the first period, we were outshot 20-2, and 23-3 in the second period, but were up 1-0. In the third period, we got outshot 27-3, but they scored 2 goals on me late into the 3rd. Seguin tied the game with about 20 seconds left, sending us into overtime. In the end, we lost, but the big part of the story was that they shot 70 shots on me and I only let three in.”
Wedgewood explained that later that night was the Michigan v. Michigan State Frozen Four game, and all of the NHL scouts were going to be there. At the time, Seguin was projected to be one of the top players in the draft, so that got the scout’s attention, and they attended the game. “I got lucky enough that the goalie had been suspended, that it was my game, and I showed out. I got a call from my agent the next day asking me what I had done. I went from being projected as the 15th goalie in the draft to being the 4th goalie drafted.”
Wedgewood was then drafted into the NHL in 2010 by the New Jersey Devils. He played there for the Devils for the 2010-2016 season. He then went to the Arizona Coyotes for the 2017-2018 season. Wedgwood then signed a contract with the Tampa Bay Lightning and was on the team when they won the Stanley Cup during the 2019-2020 season. For the 2020-2022 seasons, he returned back to the New Jersey Devils. The season following, he returned back to the Arizona Coyotes. Wedgewood was traded to the Dallas Stars for the 2022 season, and he is currently still playing for the Stars.
When asked what his favorite memory in the NHL so far, he said, “Though I have many, I would say my favorite memory would be my NHL debut. It was like a turning point, it was like everything I sacrificed, leaving home to come to Michigan, missing out on a lot of school events, parties, birthdays, everything that everyone else my age was experiencing, all seemed worth it. It was the first time I really felt like I made it. I was able to have my family and friends fly in for the game.”
He explained that his second favorite memory would be playing for the Stanley Cup, “We were in the ‘bubble year’, with COVID, and we were secluded from our family and friends for 68 days. I was just two miles away from my wife in Toronto, but I couldn’t see her. Unfortunately, I wasn’t the active goalie during that time, but I was the main goalie practicing. The other goalies were playing so much, so I was the goalie who was working with the team, getting them ready. In the end, we won and the feeling was similar to that NHL debut feeling. It felt like everything the team and I had sacrificed was all worth it. It makes every decision we make, even if we question it, worth it. It’s a feeling you can’t even put into words.”
Currently, Wedgewood is playing for the Dallas Stars and has played in the most games of his career so far. His fellow goaltender, Jake Oettinger, got injured early in the season and left Wedgewood to step up. The team is currently ranked first in their division. As the remainder of the season goes on, Wedgewood looks forward to hopefully winning, and making it further than they did last season!