On Tuesday, the final five NHL awards are being handed out. First up was the Vezina Trophy for the best goaltender. The winner of the award was Rangers goaltender Igor Shesterkin. The other finalists were Calgary’s Jacob Markstrom and Nashville’s Juuse Saros.
The 26-year-old had a dominant season, leading the league with a 2.07 GAA along with a .935 SV%. That helped lead New York to second place in the Metropolitan Division while recording their highest point total since the 2014-15 campaign and third-best in franchise history. Shesterkin’s numbers in the playoffs were also quite strong as he put up a 2.59 GAA along with a .929 SV% as he helped the Rangers reach the Eastern Conference Final before they were eliminated in six by Tampa Bay. He becomes the third Ranger to win the award under the current voting criteria, joining Henrik Lundqvist and John Vanbiesbrouck.
The Vezina Trophy is voted on by the 32 General Managers and it was a near-unanimous selection as Shesterkin took home 29 of 32 first-place votes while having more voting points than every other goalie combined. Interestingly, the other two finalists didn’t receive a first-place vote with those nods going to Andrei Vasilevskiy of the Lightning, Ilya Sorokin of the Islanders, and Frederik Andersen of the Hurricanes.
The full results of the voting can be found here.
Amazing to think Richter never one. What a great time it was for goalies back in the 90’s.