The Vezina Trophy is awarded annually to the National Hockey League's goaltender who is "adjudged to be the best at this position". At the end of each season, the thirty-one NHL general managers vote to determine the winner. It is named in honour of Georges Vezina, goaltender of the Montreal Canadiens from 1910 until 1925, who died in 1926 of tuberculosis. The Trophy was first awarded after the 1926–27 NHL season and was awarded to the top goaltender. Jacques Plante holds the record for winning the most Vezinas with seven, followed by Bill Durnan and Dominik Hasek, who have won six each. Hasek has won the most awards under the current system of voting for the best individual goalie. Players for the Montreal Canadiens have won the Vezina 29 times. The LG Vezina Trophy for season 28 is both both judged by the committee as well as by the public, hence why this public poll is being made. NOTE: ONLY LGHL PLAYERS FOR SEASON 28 WILL BE COUNTED. There were several fantastic goaltender performances this season and this was a difficult list to narrow down to five candidates. Thank you to all the Gs who participated this season and good luck in season 29! Please vote for one of the following: 1.) @o S m i i t t y : 43GP 31-10-2 82.6SV% 1.73GAA 6SO 442 SHOTS FACED (10.3 S/G) Record vs Playoff Teams: 24GP 17-5-2 81.7SV% 1.76GAA 4SO Record vs Non-Playoff Teams: 19GP 14-5-0 82.7SV% 1.70GAA 2SO "The cap had to be cut somewhere, and they picked up a reliable goalie in Smitty and went with a gamble in Delosh. If it pays off this team could be your western conference champion." This was what I said about the 500k goaltending duo in San Jose before the start of the season. Not only did Smitty have have a fantastic season in net, but he also put up almost record breaking numbers for the team while also playing 43 games (compared to the current record holder's 17). This is hopefully the first of many seasons we see Smitty on this list. 2.) @Vague Being : 47GP 40-7-2 80.9SV% 1.62GAA 14SO 414 SHOTS FACED (8.8 S/G) Record vs Playoff Teams: 28GP 21-6-3 82.4SV% 1.64GAA 9SO Record vs Non-Playoff Teams: 19GP 17-2-0 78.2SV% 1.61GAA 5SO Vague on the other hand is not a new name to this list. Several times over he has been a nominee for the Vezina trophy but often fell second to a spectacular season by another player. He has been the model of consistency since he started his stint with the Winnipeg Jets several seasons ago and hasn't dropped a beat since then. Now he has posted what are arguably the best numbers of his career so far. Could this be the season he finally wins the Vezina? 3.) @Gally x l27l: 44GP 29-10-5 80.6SV% 1.89GAA 6SO 448 SHOTS FACED (10.2 S/G) Record vs Playoff Teams: 21GP 15-3-3 79.3SV% 1.77GAA 4SO Record vs Non-Playoff Teams: 23GP 14-7-2 81.4SV% 1.97GAA 2SO Over the past two seasons Gally has quietly been a fantastic starting goalie for both New Jersey and the Islanders respectively. This season he showed that against top playoff teams he can play very well if given the right linemates in front of him. NYI did a great job of line matching throughout most of the regular season, and it shows off in the stats of their top players. It does appear that the NYI got a lot more top lines from non-playoff teams, forcing Gally to contend weaker teammates against better talent. He still maintained a good stat line however and is well deserving of this spot. 4.) @Smellykickbutt : 40GP 28-10-2 80.6SV% 2.20GAA 8SO 479 SHOTS FACED (12.0 S/G) Record vs Playoff Teams: 20GP 11-8-1 79.6SV% 2.72GAA 2SO Record vs Non-Playoff Teams: 20GP 17-2-1 82.0SV% 1.71GAA 6SO Smelly has had one wild ride over the last year. He's the only goalie I've seen in this upper tier that has any ECHL games on record. Going from that to being a known name and now a nominee for the Vezina is definitely something you can pull for. Smelly touts the best stat line against non-playoff teams on this list, and his overall numbers are respectable for the amount of shots against he faces every game, with a very high 12.8 per game. Smelly was definitely one of the main factors for NJD getting into the playoffs. 5.) @BizyBounce : 51GP 30-18-3 80.3SV% 1.97GAA 9SO 524 SHOTS FACED (10.8 S/G) Record vs Playoff Teams: 30GP 20-10-0 81.8SV% 1.84GAA 5SO Record vs Non-Playoff Teams: 21GP 20-8-3 78.3% 2.23GAA 4SO Bounce has taken the opportunity given by A1 Freak and hasn't looked back. This is a statement season for Bounce, who will be looking for a contract after this season (he cannot be resigned under the new RFA rules). He put up very impressive numbers against playoff teams and stayed just as consistent against weaker teams with Winnipeg's depth lines. Bounce was also the team workhorse for Winnipeg with a total of 51 starts, leading the amount of games played on this list of nominees.
Had to cut a list of 8 down to 5. Was harder than it sounds. It's not a diss to Cripps at all. Feel free to join the committee and take on an award if you want your opinion heard.
I just don't get how someone 27-16-4 with a 2.25 and a 81% and 592 shots faced with it being 12.5 per game does not get nominated. Btw in a division that had 2 teams 2nd tag if I may add.
Cripps was also snubbed hard from Canam. If you don't believe me, just ask him... or check out the Canam thread.
All 2nd Tag game stats were overturned and wiped which in fact did correct his stats and move him higher. He finished 3rd in SV% which was great but he was 11th in GAA, so I’m not sure how that would justify him being selected over any of the others chosen here. He was a vezina nominee as shown in the nominees thread, he just wasn’t a finalist. I know he was valuable to your team which would make a good case for him to be chosen, but who do you take out if you put him in, in your opinion? I’d probably put him over Smelly but taco was in charge of the vezina finalists and even so he was only suppose to choose 3, not 5 and Cripps def wouldn’t of beat out the top 3 from a stats standpoint of these finalists
