The Vezina Trophy is given annually to the NHL goaltender voted best at his position by the NHL’s 32 general managers.
This season, Sergei Bobrovsky of the Florida Panthers, Thatcher Demko of the Vancouver Canucks and Connor Hellebuyck of the Winnipeg Jets are the finalists.
The award will be given to one of these goalies during the NHL Awards at the Fontainebleau in Las Vegas on Thursday (7 p.m. ET; ESPN, SN).
While we wait to find out the winner, staff writer Bill Douglas, columnist Nicholas J. Cotsonika and senior director of editorial Shawn P. Roarke debate the merits of each finalist in this Awards edition of State Your Case.
Sergei Bobrovsky
The Florida Panthers goaltender’s numbers were right there with finalist Connor Hellebuyck’s. He went 36-17-4 with a 2.37 goals-against average and .915 save percentage, and he tied for the NHL lead with six shutouts. It’s remarkable that at age 35, Bobrovsky got back to doing what he did at 24 and 28, when he won the Vezina Trophy with the Columbus Blue Jackets in 2013 and 2017. After signing a seven-year contract with the Panthers on July 1, 2019, Bobrovsky had four pedestrian seasons in Florida. But he found his game in the Stanley Cup Playoffs last season, when the Panthers made a run to the Stanley Cup Final, and he carried that into this season. – Nicholas J. Cotsonika, columnist