Vezina Trophy Top 5: Early Rankings of the NHL's Best Goalies
They're the last line of defense.
And more than one expert has suggested it's the most important position in sports.
Goaltenders in the NHL glide on a sheet of ice and face 30 or so shots per night off the sticks of players capable of launching them at better than 100 miles per hour.
So it's not an occupation for the faint of heart.
The best of the best are in annual pursuit of the Vezina Trophy, which is awarded to the top regular-season goalie as voted by the general managers of the league's 32 teams.
Now that we're a month into the 2023-24 schedule, members of the B/R hockey staff got together to assess the first group of candidates for the superlative hardware. We took a look at early-season stats while factoring in past performance and forecasting which players might be able to carry the initial momentum over the long haul.
Take a look at what we came up with and drop a thought of your own in the comments.
Statistics are effective through Tuesday's games.
5. Cam Talbot, Los Angeles Kings
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He's not a first-timer, but he's not a perennial candidate either.
Cam Talbot is one of those goalies who's carved out a respectable NHL career while suiting up for myriad teams, including the New York Rangers, Edmonton Oilers, Philadelphia Flyers, Calgary Flames, Minnesota Wild and Ottawa Senators.
He's taking the ice these days for the Los Angeles Kings and has woken up the echoes of past success while doing so—going 7-3-1 in his first 11 appearances while posting numbers (2.21 goals-against average, .923 save percentage) far better than his career figures.
Talbot was fourth in Vezina voting while with the Oilers in 2016-17, winning 42 times in an incredible 73 starts. The Kings are among the perceived powerhouse teams in the Western Conference this season, which should keep his name in the mix through April.
4. Tristan Jarry, Pittsburgh Penguins
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If there's a wild card in the early Vezina mix, it's Tristan Jarry.
And like Talbot before him, it's not the Pittsburgh veteran's first time in the mix—given that he was seventh in the voting after a 2019-20 season in which he made 31 starts, won 20 games, and racked up three shutouts. He also had a standout 2021-22 campaign in which he finished seventh in the voting.
Still, he posted full-season career worsts in goals-against average (2.90) and save percentage (.909) in 2022-23. He then signed a five-year, $26.9 million deal to stay with the Penguins for the long term.
Jarry is just 6-5 but has a 2.31 goals-against average and a .918 save percentage in his first 11 starts this season, including a league-best three shutouts—making it six straight full seasons in which he's registered at least two. Will he stay hot?
3. Thatcher Demko, Vancouver Canucks
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In the Vezina street-cred race, Thatcher Demko went from 0 to 100 in a flash.
He'd made 69 starts across four seasons through 2020-21 before establishing himself as Vancouver's go-to guy in 2021-22, starting 61 times in 64 appearances and landing among league leaders with 33 wins (ninth) and 1,799 saves (third).
The franchise's seemingly cursed 2022-23 season impacted Demko, too, and saw him limited to 32 starts and 14 wins.
But he's among the reasons the Canucks are among the West's leaders so far this season, with a 7-3 record, 1.96 goals-against average and .935 save percentage across 10 starts.
Given his rise to the NHL's elite at the position, it'd be far more a surprise if he's out of the Vezina mix come springtime than in it.
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2. Adin Hill, Vegas Golden Knights
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It's good to be Adin Hill these days.
Really good.
The third-round pick in the 2015 draft was barely a third-stringer at this time last season, trying to find time in a crowded Vegas net alongside Logan Thompson and Laurent Brossoit.
To say it's gotten a bit better since then is hardly hyperbolic.
His 27 starts in 2022-23 were 10 fewer than Thompson's number, but injuries and circumstances gave Hill the No. 1 role in Round 2 of the playoffs as the Golden Knights faced Edmonton. He responded in championship style, allowing nine goals in five appearances to oust the Oilers and following it up with eliminations of Dallas and Florida to give the franchise its first title.
Hill was third in Conn Smythe Trophy voting and hasn't missed a beat in 2023-24, going 7-1-1 in nine games with the league's second-best goals-against average at 1.75 and its third-best save percentage at .939. Not surprisingly, Vegas is third in the NHL in points percentage, fourth in goals allowed, and on a very short list of early-season Stanley Cup favorites.
1. Jeremy Swayman, Boston Bruins
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When it comes to rankings, go with an established commodity.
Boston's Jeremy Swayman arrived to this season with a recent history of capturing awards reserved for goaltending elites, having shared the William M. Jennings Trophy with teammate Linus Ullmark in 2022-23 after combining to allow a league-low 177 goals.
His first seven starts this season have confirmed it was no mirage.
The 111th overall pick in the 2017 draft, Swayman is off to another stellar start with six wins, an OT loss, and league leads (among goalies with five or more games played) in both goals-against average (1.69) and save percentage (.944).
He's still sharing the net with Ullmark, who's also made seven starts and posted terrific numbers, but we went with the Alaska native for the Vezina list because of slightly better numbers in those two benchmark statistics and a 50-second edge in total ice time.
The Bruins' competitive strategy ensures their goaltenders will nearly always be among the league's statistical trend-setters, and given Swayman's obvious talents, he's as good a candidate as there is for a wire-to-wire polling lead, too.
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