Boston Bruins netminder Linus Ullmark has been named the 2022-23 Vezina Trophy winner.
Winnipeg Jets backstop Connor Hellebuyck and New York Islanders goaltender Ilya Sorokin finished as the runners up to the 29-year-old Bruins goaltender.
With country music superstar Dierks Bentley hosting the 2023 NHL Awards from Nashville on Monday evening, neither the Jets or Islanders managed to muster up a victory of the Vezina-type.
Anything but an Ullmark win would have caused mass uproar. And rightly so, the voting members of the Professional Hockey Writers' Association did the right thing and gave the Georges Vezina honourary trophy to the Bruins' No. 1 backstop.
Ullmark and Boston had a sensational 2022-23 regular season, with the Bruins posting an NHL record 65 victories. Ullmark was on record for a league-high 40 of those wins. He also finished the year with seven total losses - one by way of overtime.
His .938 save percentage was also record-setting, while serving as the only goaltender with a sub-2.0 goals against average on the year. Ullmark also had two shutouts to his name.
The votes were dispersed in a way that heavily favoured Ullmark, as he took 127 votes, including 22 first-place tallies.
Hellebuyck received 32 votes, significantly behind Sorokin's 70. The Jets' backstop managed just two first-place votes.
Incredibly, Hellebuyck actually finished tied for 37th place in Lady Byng Trophy voting, with two votes, just behind Nate Schmidt (26th-place) and Kyle Connor (28th-place).
It may not have been the 44-win campaign of 2017-18 or the .922 save percentage of 2019-20, but the 30-year-old Jets goaltender did find himself in the running for the third time in his six-year career.
Although having found himself in the middle of many trade rumours, Hellebuyck is definitely a repeat offender with Winnipeg, having won the award back 2020, after finishing as a runner-up in 2018.
Whether he is on the Jets next season remains up in the air, as Hellebuyck's name has been sifted heavily through the trade winds this offseason.
Next up for the Jets is the 2023 NHL Draft, also held at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville. Things will get underway with the opening round on Wednesday evening, before the teams and players reconvene for rounds 2-7 on Thursday morning.