Juuse Saros Overlooked in Vezina Voting
Nashville Predators goaltender Juuse Saros was not a finalist for the Vezina Trophy despite an exceptional season in which he carried a team in transition.
Yesterday the NHL announced the finalists for the Vezina Trophy awarded to the "goaltender adjudged to be the best at his position". Boston Bruins net minder Linus Ullmark, the Islanders' Ilya Sorokin, and Connor Hellebuyck of the Winnipeg Jets were named the three finalists. The winner will be announced at the NHL Awards show held in Nashville on June 26.
Of course, valid arguments can be made for the three finalists. Ullmark anchored the Bruins to a historic 65 wins and 135 points in the regular season. The 29 year old Swedish net minder ranked first in the league with a .938 save percentage and a goals against average of 1.89.
Ilya Sorokin led the league in shutouts and finished third in save percentage with an impressive .924 all while carrying a heavy workload. He finished fifth among goaltenders in goals against average and third in saves above expected.
Winnipeg's Connor Hellebuyck knows about heavy workloads. In his 64 starts during the regular season, Hellebuyck earned the fourth best save percentage in the league and was second in total saves.
Ullmark is undoubtedly the Vezina frontrunner with his strong play in net and Boston's impressive regular season performance, but have any of these three finalists done more with less than Nashville's Juuse Saros?
Saros tied Hellebuyck in games played this season but spent more time on the ice in net than anyone else. Saros also faced more shots on goal than any other goaltender while still finishing in the top ten in save percentage.
Despite one of the heaviest workloads in the league, Saros came up big for the Predators especially down the stretch when they traded away key pieces, suffered injuries to core players, and filled in the roster with young players from Milwaukee. Even with the team drastically changing in front of him, Saros was first in the league in goals saved above expected and wins above replacement.
There are a few reasons why General Managers may have overlooked Saros. First, the Predators - and thus Saros - don't get the same amount of exposure across the league being a mid market team. That's just the reality of the NHL. Second, context is key when evaluating the impressive season Nashville's goaltender had. To appreciate Saros's body of work, GMs needed to keep up with the circumstances of the team in front of Saros and dig deeper into the "micro stats" to understand how important his performance has been. Finally, the Predators didn't make the playoffs and while this is an award based on regular season play, how a goaltender's team performs overall may reflect (consciously or subconsciously) on an individual's performance.
While it's disappointing that Saros's season didn't garner more attention across the league, he will undoubtedly be a very important piece in the Nashville Predators "reset". There has been plenty of speculation about his value on the trade market, but both David Poile and incoming GM Barry Trotz have been clear that Saros is a foundational part of the Predators moving forward. With his quality goaltending, that "reset" is likely to get a jump start with Saros in net.
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