Botterill Reshapes Goalie Landscape – Signs Carter Hutton and Scott Wedgewood

This morning marked the beginning of the 2018-19 NHL Free Agency Hunger Games. As expected the Sabres have had their hand in the cookie jar and what they pulled out is deals with two solid goalies. The Sabres signed Carter Hutton as their first-string goalie and Scott Wedgewood as the Amerks first-string goalie. Linus Ullmark will be the Sabres backup net-minder and Adam Wilcox will backup Wedgewood for the Amerks.

Carter Hutton is coming off an excellent season with the St. Louis Blues where he earned a save percentage of .931 and a goals against average of 2.09. He should expect to share time with Ullmark as the Sabres look to groom Ullmark for the top job, but Hutton will be the Sabres top goalie. His 3-year deal with an average of $2.75 mil represents a relative bargain in today’s market. Apparently Hutton turned down more money and focused on the Sabres offer because it was for the starting position.

Scott Wedgewood is an interesting acquisition for the Amerks. He most recently played for the Arizona Coyotes where he endured a low point in his career (save percentage of .893 and a goals against average of 3.45 across 20 games). The Coyotes went on to finish 29th in the NHL so it’s not fair to judge his performance based solely on his time with them. Wedgewood has the potential to be an excellent goaltender. He was drafted in the 3rd round (84th overall) by the New Jersey Devils where he had a good start to his professional career. In 2016 Wedgewood sustained a severe shoulder injury that required surgery to repair and had him sidelined for 6 months. Wedgewood is now healthy and he’s joining a club with far more talent than the club he’s departing. Rather than dwell on Wedgewood’s performance in Arizona fans should focus on his performance in New Jersey.

Chris Schiffner is the man behind the Amerks Extra Twitter feed and the chief editor of AmerksExtra.com. Chris founded Amerks Extra in order to provide fans with a voice during one of the most tumultuous periods in the organization's history. Amerks Extra has evolved into a leading source for Amerks news and discussion. When not covering Amerks Hockey, Chris is on the ice playing the game himself.
 

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