THN.com's 2024-25 pre-season writers' poll is complete, and we're revealing where Stars players finished in certain categories. In today's file, we're examining goalie Jake Oettinger, and projecting where he'll finish in this year's Vezina Trophy race.
The Hockey News’ pre-season writers’ poll is slowly being unveiled. Yesterday, we revealed the Stars are the sexy pick to win both the Presidents’ Trophy as the NHL’s best regular-season team as well as to win this year’s Stanley Cup. And today, we’re breaking down Dallas goalie Jake Oettinger’s chances of winning his first Vezina Trophy as the league’s top netminder.
Although Oettinger didn’t garner the most votes for the Vezina in the writers’ poll – that honor went to New York Rangers star goalie Igor Shesterkin, who received 24 of 56 votes – Oettinger finished second in the Vezina poll, with 10 votes. Oettinger finished ahead of Jets star goaltender Connor Hellebuyck (seven votes), Nashville’s Juuse Saros (five votes), and New York Islanders star Ilya Sorokin (three votes). And getting the respect he got from voters shows how high Oettinger is in the upper echelons of the goalie business.
If the 25-year-old Oettinger does win the Vezina, the Stars almost assuredly will challenge to be the league’s best regular-season and playoff team. It would be the first Vezina of Oettinger’s five-season NHL career, and very probably not the last.
Who do you think will win this year’s Vezina Trophy? Let us know below in the comments section.
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