2023 Vezina Conversation - All-Star Break

If you've been keeping up with the NHL this season, there's really only one frontrunner for this year's Vezina: Linus Ullmark.

Ullmark and the Boston Bruins are having an absolutely historic season. He is 26-4-1 in his 32 starts, and the Bruins overall are 39-7-5 through 51 games. Along with their records, Ullmark is sporting a GAA of 1.90 and a SV % of .937. No other goalie this season, with at least 5 games played, has a GAA of under 2 OR a SV % of over .930, let alone both! He also has saved an incredible 29.9 goals above expected, thats nearly one per game!

No one would have expected this kind of season out of Ullmark. Last season he posted a GAA of 2.45 and a SV % of .917, much closer to league averages. He has already matched his win total from last season in 7 fewer starts, and he is on pace to blow out his prior highest number of games played in a season, set last year at 39.

While Ullmark has had a powerhouse team in front of him, his accomplishments so far are still incredible. It will be interesting to see how the Bruins manage Ullmark's minutes in the final 31 games, given they pretty much have first place in their division locked up.

Some other goalies that are having great season's and will likely be Vezina finalists are Ilya Sorokin, Connor Hellebuyck, and Juuse Saros. Sorokin was very much in the Vezina conversation last season, but he wasn't selected as a finalist. He is having a very similar year to last year, but his Islanders are struggling to score goals, giving him a disappointing 16-16-4 record. He ranks 9th in GAA (2.38), 3rd in SV % (.923), and 2nd in GSAx (25.5). Connor Hellebuyck is having a complete bounce-back year after having probably the worst season of his career last year, while playing an absurd 66 games for the Jets. So far this year Hellebuyck ranks 11th in GAA (2.45), 5th in SV % (.923), and 4th in GSAx (21.8). Lastly, after a rough start to the season Saros has regained his form and went 7-3 in the month of January, stopping 351/378 (.929) including a 66/67 save performance vs the Hurricanes! Saros ranks 32nd in GAA (2.74), 9th in SV % (.920), and 3rd in GSAx (23). While his GAA may not sound too impressive, it's partially due to the fact that he has faced the 2nd most shots of any goalies this season at 1,243, only 18 shots behind Hellebuyck (the leader) who has played 3 more games than Saros.

Sometimes we see goalies having great seasons but they are either backups, so they don't play enough, or are on bad teams, so they don't win enough, and they won't make it into Vezina conversations. Some goalies that fall into that category this season are Kevin Lankinen (Nashville), Karel Vejmelka (Arizona), and Filip Gustavsson (Minnesota).