Vezina Trophy favorite debated by NHL.com

Pekka Rinne of the Nashville Predators has three top-3 finishes in Vezina Trophy voting, finishing second in 2010-11 and 2014-15, and third in 2011-12. Is this the season he finally wins?

The winner will be announced at the 2018 NHL Awards presented by Hulu at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas on Wednesday (8 p.m. ET; NBCSN, SN).
We decided not to wait and asked a panel of NHL.com writers to have their say on the Vezina race, which also features Connor Hellebuyck of the Winnipeg Jets and Andrei Vasilevskiy of the Tampa Bay Lightning, each up for the award for the first time.
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Rinne, 35, was third in the NHL with 42 wins behind Hellebuyck and Vasilevskiy (44 each) and helped the Predators to their first Presidents' Trophy. His eight shutouts set a Predators record and tied with Vasilevskiy for the NHL lead. Rinne ranked fifth in goals-against average (2.31) and seventh in save percentage (.927).
Hellebuyck, 25, broke the NHL record for most victories by a United States-born goaltender set by Tom Barrasso (43) with the Pittsburgh Penguins in 1992-93. He finished eighth in GAA (2.36) and 10th in save percentage (.924).
Vasilevskiy, 23, helped the Lightning to the best record in the Eastern Conference (54-23-5) and the best season in their history. He finished with a 2.62 GAA and .920 save percentage.

Here is what the panel had to say:

Nick Cotsonika, columnist

Pekka Rinne, Nashville Predators
Pretty simple. Rinne. Among goaltenders who played at least 48 regular-season games, he led the NHL in GAA (2.31), save percentage (.927) and even-strength save percentage (.939), and tied for first in shutouts (eight) with Vasilevskiy. But it's bittersweet that he deserves to win the Vezina for the first time at age 35 considering his performance in the Stanley Cup Playoffs (3.07 GAA, .904 save percentage, two shutouts). He was a big reason the Predators looked like Cup contenders and a big reason they didn't live up to expectations.

Tracey Myers, staff writer

Connor Hellebuyck, Winnipeg Jets
Rinne was outstanding but I'm going with Hellebuyck. His regular-season numbers were tremendous (44-11-9, 2.36 GAA and .924 save percentage in 64 starts), but his work was that much more impressive when you consider how injured the Jets were throughout the season (285 man-games lost). Winnipeg's backup goaltenders were among those with health issues. Steve Mason missed 28 games with upper-body injuries and 13 games with a lower-body injury, and Michael Hutchinson missed 11 games with upper-body injuries. That left Hellebuyck with a heavy workload but his game rarely wavered under the pressure.

Mike Zeisberger, staff writer

Pekka Rinne, Nashville Predators
Tracey makes some great points but not enough to sway me from giving Rinne the nod. In fact, Rinne earned my pick all by himself. Remember, the Vezina is awarded to the top goalie in the regular season, not the playoffs. Sure, the lasting impression of Rinne is of him sitting on a stool in the walkway adjacent to the Predators bench, looking understandably perplexed after allowing two bad-angle goals and then being yanked 10:31 into Game 7 of the Western Conference Second Round against Winnipeg. He took the blame for the Predators' 5-1 elimination defeat, a loss that will haunt him all summer. At the same time, that has nothing to do with the outstanding regular season he enjoyed. Rinne (42-13-4) became the seventh goaltender in NHL history to have at least three seasons with 40 or more wins, joining Miikka Kiprusoff, Terry Sawchuk, Jacques Plante, Evgeni Nabokov, Braden Holtby (three each) and Martin Brodeur (seven).

Tom Gulitti, staff writer

Andrei Vasilevskiy, Tampa Bay Lightning
My colleagues make good cases for Rinne and Hellebuyck, but I'll go with Andrei Vasilevskiy, who was probably the Tampa Bay Lightning's most valuable player and easily could have been a Hart Trophy finalist. He helped Tampa Bay to first place in the Eastern Conference and a team-record 113 points (54-23-5). His 44 wins (44-17-3) tied Hellebuyck for most in the NHL and his eight shutouts tied Rinne for most in the NHL. Five of Vasilevskiy's shutouts came against teams that qualified for the Stanley Cup Playoffs, including a 33-save performance in a 4-0 win against the Boston Bruins on April 3 that essentially clinched first place in the conference and Atlantic Division for Tampa Bay. Three of Rinne's eight shutouts came against playoff teams.

Tim Campbell, staff writer

Pekka Rinne, Nashville Predators
The clinical analysis points to only one goalie, Rinne, for the Vezina this season. Rinne's playoff story is an entirely different tale and doesn't belong in this discussion since the Vezina is awarded for regular-season performance. What especially impressed me about his season was how he played when it counted. Nashville was 19-4-2 in its last 25 games to win the Presidents' Trophy and Rinne was better than Hellebuyck in this key stretch to the regular season. The Jets (and Hellebuyck) put extreme pressure on Nashville right to the wire with the two teams finishing 1-2 in regular-season points (117-114). During that time, Rinne's .931 save percentage and 2.20 GAA were each better than Hellebuyck's .925 save percentage and 2.42 GAA. He was better when it mattered and that leaves one choice, Rinne.