Washington Capitals’ Braden Holtby wins Vezina Trophy
By Leah Smith
The Washington Capitals’ Braden Holtby wins the Vezina Trophy as the NHL’s top goaltender at the 2016 NHL Awards.
The President Trophy winning Washington Capitals had a record-setting regular season on route to a franchise best 56 wins and 120 points. 48 of those wins came with Braden Holtby between the pipes. That ties the record set by Martin Brodeur during the 2006-07 season for most wins in a single season. Holtby played in 66 games for the Capitals recording a goals against average of 2.20 and a save percentage of .922.
The other two finalists for the Vezina were Ben Bishop of the Tampa Bay Lightning, and Jonathan Quick of the Los Angeles Kings.
Bishop played in 61 games for Tampa Bay this season with a record of 35-21-1. He had a GAA of 2.06 and a save percentage of .926.
Quick played in 68 games for the Kings this season with a record of 40-23-2. He had a GAA of 2.22 and a save percentage of .918. He was the only other goalie besides Holtby to get 40 or more wins.
The Vezina Trophy was first awarded to the league’s top goalie following the 1926-27 season and was named after Montreal Canadiens’ goaltender Georges Vezina who died in 1926 of tuberculosis. In the early years of the trophy, debate raged on how the top goaltender would be determined and in 1946, it was established that the Vezina would be won by the goalie with the lowest GAA.
Things changed in 1982 when the NHL established the William M. Jennings Trophy that would be awarded to the goalie(s) on a single team with the lowest regular season GAA. This year, the trophy went to the Anaheim Ducks goalie tandem of Frederik Andersen and John Gibson. Since 1982, General Managers have voted on who was the top goaltender and would win the Vezina.
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