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Washington Capitals: Braden Holtby is second fastest goalie to 250 wins

By Dave Stevenson

NEW YORK, NY - MARCH 03: Washington Capitals Goalie Braden Holtby (70) stays cool during a regular season NHL game between the Washington Capitals and the New York Rangers on March 03, 2019, at Madison Square Garden in New York, NY. (Photo by David Hahn/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
NEW YORK, NY - MARCH 03: Washington Capitals Goalie Braden Holtby (70) stays cool during a regular season NHL game between the Washington Capitals and the New York Rangers on March 03, 2019, at Madison Square Garden in New York, NY. (Photo by David Hahn/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) /
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Washington Capitals goaltender Braden Holtby has quietly been accumulating wins at an impressive pace. He’s now the second-fastest goalie to reach 250 wins. 

Ever since his magical playoff run in 2011-12, when the Washington Capitals upset the then-reigning champion Boston Bruins, Braden Holtby has been racking up wins. He’s been a critical part of some great teams, including the backbone of the 2017-18 Caps, who won the Stanley Cup.

With Wednesday’s 5-3 win over the Philadelphia Flyers, Holtby can now add a very nice bullet point to his resume – second-fastest goalie (by games played) to reach 250 wins. He reached the plateau in 409 games. Only Montreal Canadiens legend Ken Dryden did it quicker. He did it in 381 games.

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Now, to be fair, Holtby does have the shootout era on his side. Before shootouts, if a game was tied at the overtime period, it would end in a tie. It would be negligent to think this hasn’t given Holtby and other modern goaltenders a distinct advantage.

But still, this is a very impressive accomplishment for him. Holtby has one Vezina Trophy to his name, winning the award in 2015-16. He was also a Vezina Trophy finalist for the 2016-17 season.

Holtby is the 12th active goaltender to reach the milestone. Jaroslav Halak of the Boston Bruins is stuck at 249 wins, so he could be number 13 very shortly. Holtby is the 56th goaltender in NHL history to get to 250 wins.

Naturally, he has the highest winning percentage of any active goalie with at least 250 wins. Holtby has won 61.3 percent of his games, while longtime nemesis Marc-Andre Fleury has won 55 percent of his games.

He has made it to four consecutive All-Star Games (2016, 2017, 2018, 2019). Holtby has helped the Metropolitan Division win the three on three tournament twice (2017 and 2019).

Quietly, he’s building up quite the legacy. Goalies are often treated cruelly by the Hall of Fame. The only goalies in the Hall of Fame who debuted past 1989 are Dominik Hasek and Martin Brodeur. So the bar has been set at a very high point.

However, if Fleury can get in and Holtby can keep on consistently winning games, he’s got a shot. And he’ll likely have something Fleury won’t – a Vezina Trophy. While Fleury has three Stanley Cups to Holtby’s one, the Vezina is important. It shows he was the best goalie in the league, even if it was only for one season.

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Who knows? Maybe Holtby will win another Stanley Cup or two. He does, after all, have the third-highest career save percentage in the postseason in NHL history. Holtby keeps on building up an impressive resume. It could wind up being impressive enough to be enshrined in Toronto one day.

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