Trophy Tracker: Vezina

To mark the midway point of the 2020-21 regular season, NHL.com is running its Trophy Tracker series. Today, we look at the race for the Vezina Trophy, the award given annually to the goalie adjudged to be the best at his position as selected by the NHL general managers.

Andrei Vasilevskiy is coming off a Stanley Cup victory last season, and the Tampa Bay Lightning goalie could be in line for more hardware.
Vasilevskiy was 18-7 with a 1.90 goals-against average and .927 save percentage in 25 Stanley Cup Playoff games and played every minute in the postseason. That was after he led the NHL with 35 wins in the regular season.
Despite the short offseason, Vasilevskiy has picked up where he left off. He's 18-3-1 in 22 games and is second in the NHL in save percentage (.932), third in GAA (1.90) and is tied for third in shutouts (three) among goalies to play at least 10 games.
"You can give him the first, second and third (place) votes for the Vezina (Trophy)," NBC Sports analyst Brian Boucher said earlier this month of the award given to the best goalie in the NHL. "Just from a pure talent standpoint he is the best goalie in the League. Whether he wins the Vezina or not, nobody matches up to his capabilities in net. No chance. Some people have talent and never live up to the expectations. He's living up to the expectations. We're not clamoring for more. We're wondering if he can get more, but we're not clamoring for it. We see greatness."

A panel of 17 NHL.com writers agree with Boucher and expect Vasilevskiy to win the Vezina Trophy for the second time in three seasons (2018-19). Vasilevskiy finished first with 78 points and got 10 first-place votes to edge Marc-Andre Fleury of the Vegas Golden Knights (73 points; seven first-place votes). Fleury leads the NHL in GAA (1.87) and save percentage (.933), and is tied for first in shutouts with four.
Vasilevskiy has won nine straight games, which included three straight shutouts as part of a shutout streak of 228:09 spanning five games.
"Talk about somebody that's in a groove, he is most certainly in one right now," Lightning coach Jon Cooper said after Vasilevskiy's third straight shutout, a 2-0 win at the Dallas Stars on March 2. "Just to watch his growth, it's been awesome to see. You've got to take advantage when he's in a groove like this and we are."
Vasilevskiy has led the NHL in wins in each of the past three seasons and is atop the leaderboard this season. Since becoming the No. 1 goalie for the Lightning in the 2016-17 season, he leads the NHL in wins (159), nine more than Sergei Bobrovsky of the Florida Panthers (150), ranks tied for second in save percentage (.921) and is tied for first in shutouts (22) among goalies to play in at least 50 games. Vasilevskiy has been a finalist for the Vezina Trophy three times.
"[Vasilevskiy] is a big part of our team and you know sometimes, not too often, you have to rely on him to keep us in games when we're not at our best," Lightning defenseman Victor Hedman said March 4 after the shutout streak ended. "He's been tremendous the whole season."
Vasilevskiy, who shut out the Stars 2-0 in the clinching Game 6 of the 2020 Cup Final, has shut them out twice this season in three wins against them.
"If there's any other goalie in the League other than [Vasilevskiy] in there tonight, we score some goals," Dallas coach Rick Bowness said after the loss March 2. "He was great. That's why he's the best goalie in the League."
Voting totals (points awarded on a 5-4-3-2-1 basis):Andrei Vasilevskiy, Lightning, 78 points (10 first-place votes); Marc-Andre Fleury, Golden Knights, 73 points (seven first-place votes); Semyon Varlamov, New York Islanders, 49 points; Philipp Grubauer, Colorado Avalanche, 21 points; Connor Hellebuyck, Winnipeg Jets, 20 points; Kaapo Kahkonen, Minnesota Wild, 6 points; Kevin Lankinen, Chicago Blackhawks, 4 points; Frederik Andersen, Toronto Maple Leafs, 3 points; John Gibson, Anaheim Ducks, 1 point
NHL.com senior writer Dan Rosen contributed to this report