The Vezina Trophy is one of the most prestigious awards that a goaltender in the NHL can win. Of course, it is a regular season award but every goalie in the history of the league grew up wanting to win it.
Some of the all-time greats are multi-time Vezina winners. Guys like Martin Brodeur, Dominik Hasek, and Patrick Roy were all multi-time winners of it.
Other greats like Tuukka Rask, Henrik Lundqvist, Pekka Rinne, and Carey Price all earned it throughout the last decade as well.
On Monday, we learned about the next three to be nominated. Connor Hellebuyck of the Winnipeg Jets, Sergei Bobrovsky of the Florida Panthers, and Thatcher Demko of the Vancouver Canucks are the three guys that are top-three vote-getters.
Connor Hellebuyck leads the Vezina Trophy candidates in 2023-24
Hellebuyck is going to be the winner. He hasn't been amazing in the playoffs but that doesn't go into the voting. He was the clear-cut best goalie during the regular season.
His record of 37-19-4 speaks for itself. He was a big reason for the Winnipeg Jets' success. He had a 2.39 goals against average and a .921 save percentage. It was a wonderful year for him.
Sergei Bobrovsky and Thatcher Demko were both great as well on division-winning teams. In the case of Bobrovsky, he has won the award before in his career. As for Demko, this is his first time even being nominated.
Goaltending is a very important position. If you don't get good production out of your goalie, you aren't going to win many games. You also need a good team playing in front of the goalie so that are in a position to succeed. Two things can be true.
It is no coincidence that these guys are in the playoffs competing for the Stanley Cup. Hellebuyck is the heavy favorite to win as he should be but they are all worthy of this conversation.