Tampa Bay Lightning goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy was surprised with his second-career Vezina Trophy in anxious fashion. Tampa Police surprised him with the award in his car, telling Vasilevskiy he had a suspicious object in his vehicle.
The NHL revealed Andrei Vasilevskiy as the winner of the Vezina Trophy of the 2025-26 season on Saturday.
With the league finding ways to surprise the award-winning players, the Tampa Bay Lightning got creative and serious when presenting Vasilevskiy with his second-career Vezina Trophy.
Vasilevskiy was going through some off-season training in the gym at Tampa Bay's home rink, Benchmark International Arena, when Tampa Police arrived on the scene in the arena's parking lot.
The plan was to sneak the Vezina Trophy into Vasilevskiy's car while he was working out. Later, the officers would ask the Lightning goaltender to step outside with them in the parking lot to identify his vehicle, saying there was a suspicious object nearby.
Tampa Police put on a show, looking around his vehicle, and even brought out a K9 police dog, which alerted that there was something in the passenger seat of Vasilevskiy's car.
An office opened the door and pulled out the trophy, which was sealed in a black cover. But once they set the award down and pulled it out, there was a sigh of relief from Vasilevskiy.
Not only was the 31-year-old happy to win the Vezina for the first time since 2018-19, but he was also able to relax after knowing his car was fine.
"I was just happy that my car is in one piece," Vasilevskiy said. "I didn't want to go through the insurance process when I heard that this suspicious object's in my car. So, I'm like, 'it's probably not going to end well."
Vasilevskiy is the second member of the Lightning to get their hands on an NHL award this season. Head coach Jon Cooper was surprised on Wednesday with the Jack Adams Trophy, and there could be more coming as superstar Nikita Kucherov is a finalist for the Ted Lindsay Award and Hart Trophy.
Voted by the 32 GMs in the NHL, Vasilevskiy received 17 first-place votes for the Vezina, earning 114 voting points for the award. That marked a healthy lead over countryman and New York Islanders netminder Ilya Sorokin, who had eight first-place votes and 51 points to his name.
Vasilevskiy led the NHL regular season in wins with 39 in 58 games for the Bolts. He also recorded a .912 save percentage and a 2.31 goals-against average, along with a pair of shutouts.
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