The race for the Vezina Trophy is wide open.
On Thursday’s edition of "The Daily Faceoff Show," Frank Seravalli and Tyler Yaremchuk discussed their five-man ballots for the league’s top goaltender. Jack Campbell, Andrei Vasilevskiy, Tristan Jarry, Frederik Andersen and Igor Shesterkin made both lists, while Jacob Markstrom and Juuse Saros were among the ones who missed the cut.
Seravalli: “I think the Vezina this year is going to be the hardest individual trophy to win because there are so many goalies who are having outstanding seasons.
"For me, I know there’s been lots of talk about Jack Campbell and how he’s had this superb statistical season, a .939 save percentage and four shutouts. He’s been great for the Leafs, I just have some question marks. What is his season going to look like as the workload increases?
"You’re going to see some incredible pace in March and April as the schedule gets re-jigged here due to COVID and there’s going to be a ton of work to go around. How much does Petr Mrazek get, how much does Campbell get, and how much does that affect his numbers?
"For me, Andrei Vasilevskiy is still the best goaltender in the game and I think he’s got the inside track here.
"But what’s interesting is that if you look at our ballots, we both have the same five goaltenders just in different orders. We don’t have Juuse Saros on the list, there’s certainly a case to be made for him. And as the Vancouver Canucks rise in the standings, I’d imagine that Thatcher Demko gets some consideration as well.
"It’s important to point out, I’m not a voter for this award, it’s voted on by the NHL’s general managers. It’s going to be an interesting race because there are so many guys you can make a case for.”
You can watch the full episode here…
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