The National Hockey League released their final two awards ahead of Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Finals, awarding both the Hart Trophy and Vezina Trophy to Winnipeg Jets netminder Connor Hellebuyck.
Hellebuyck had one of the best seasons for a goaltender in recent memory. In the 63 regular season games he appeared in, Hellebuyck finished with a 47-12-3 record, a 2.00 goals against average and a .925 save percentage, with eight shutouts. He led all NHL goaltenders in wins, goals against average, save percentage, and shutouts of netminders who played at least 50 games.
Historically, Hellebuyck’s season ranked third in wins, 25th in goals against average and 41st in save percentage in NHL history.
It was just the ninth time in NHL history that a goaltender won the Hart Trophy, with Hellebuyck becoming the eighth different netminder to do so – Dominik Hasek won the award twice, in 1996-1997 and 1997-1998.
This marks Hellebuyck’s third Vezina Trophy, winning now in back-to-back seasons and three of the last six years. The American netminder is the first goalie to win back-to-back Vezina Trophies since Martin Brodeur did it in 2002-2003 and 2003-2004.
Hellebuyck was just one vote shy of being a unanimous winner. Tampa Bay Lightning’s Andrei Vasilevskiy earned a lone first-place vote, with Darcy Kuemper finishing third.
The Hart Trophy voting was a lot closer than the Vezina. Hellebuyck narrowly edged out Edmonton Oilers forward Leon Draisaitl, earning 137 more points than the German forward. After taking home the Ted Lindsay Trophy, voted on by the players, Nikita Kucherov finishes third in voting, beat Colorado Avalanche centreman Nathan MacKinnon by just one point.
By looking at the ballot, Canucks fans should notice that Quinn Hughes earned himself a pair of third-placed votes, along with six fifth place votes. This coming just one season after the Canucks Captain took home the Norris Trophy as the leagues top defenceman.
Hughes was also named to the NHL Second All-Star team.
Colorado Avalanche’s Cale Makar and Columbus Blue Jackets’ Zach Werenski were the two defencemen named to the first team, with Hughes joining Lightning captain Victor Hedman on the second team. Brandon Hagel, Leon Draisaitl, David Pastrnak and Vasilevskiy round out the second team.