Former Canucks goaltender Braden Holtby’s career “may be over”: report

Former Vancouver Canucks goaltender Braden Holtby may miss the 2022–23 season due to injury and might never return to action, according to a report by Daily Faceoff‘s Frank Seravalli.

Holtby spent the first 10 seasons of his National Hockey League career with the Washington Capitals and won the Stanley Cup with the team in 2018 before joining the Canucks on a two-year deal in 2020.

The Canucks bought out the final season of Holtby’s contract the following summer. The 32-year-old goaltender joined the Dallas Stars on a one-year deal last July but suffered a lower-body injury in March and did not return.

“Braden Holtby is unlikely to play next season,” Seravalli said on Friday’s edition of the DFO Rundown show. “His career may be over.”

Holtby’s two-year contract with the Canucks carried a $4.3 million cap hit and a modified no-trade clause. The Lloydminster, Saskatchewan product went 7–11–3 with an .889 save percentage during his lone season in Vancouver.

In 513 career regular-season games with the Capitals, Canucks, and Stars, Holtby has posted a 299–143–50 record to go along with 35 shutouts and a .915 save percentage. He won the Vezina Trophy in 2016 and the William M. Jennings Trophy in 2017.

Holtby appeared in all but one of the Capitals’ 24 games during the 2018 Stanley Cup Playoffs, going 16–7 with a .922 save percentage to help the team defeat the Vegas Golden Knights for its first championship in franchise history.