The two most recent winners of the Vezina Trophy lead the way on the odds to claim top goaltender honours during the upcoming NHL season, with Connor Hellebuyck joining Andrei Vasilevskiy as the plus-500 betting favourites at sportsbooks monitored by OddsShark.com.
The reigning Vezina Trophy winner, Hellebuyck finished second only to Vasilevskiy with 31 wins last season, and also led all NHL backstops with six shutouts. The Winnipeg Jets netminder also rose to the top of the NHL goaltending stats while facing 1,796 total shots on goal, and making a league-leading 1,656 saves.
The greatest challenge that Hellebuyck will face in repeating as Vezina Trophy winner will be getting support from the team in front of him. Faced with the prospect of playing an abbreviated schedule in what would be a tough all-Canadian division, the Jets sit well off the pace as a distant plus-3500 wager on the Stanley Cup odds.
Vasilevskiy faces no such concerns in his bid for a second Vezina Trophy win in three years. The 26-year-old Russian played a mammoth role in the Tampa Bay Lightning’s marathon march to a Stanley Cup win after leading the NHL for a second straight year with 35 regular-season wins.
Hellebuyck and Vasilevskiy are joined by Boston’s Tuukka Rask, who also sports plus-500 Vezina Trophy odds, just ahead of Robin Lehner of the Vegas Golden Knights at plus-650, while Toronto’s Frederik Andersen sits alongside Carter Hart and Igor Shesterkin at plus-1100.
In addition to leading the league with a sparkling 2.12 goals-against average, Rask trailed only Anton Khudobin with a .929 save percentage. However, after electing to opt out of this past summer’s NHL playoff bubble, questions swirl around the Finn’s future with the Bruins.
Arguably the most talented young goaltender in the game, Shesterkin’s brief debut with the New York Rangers last year quickly made veteran Henrik Lundqvist expendable. With Shesterkin now set to take over the reins as the Rangers’ starter, he has rocketed to the top of the odds to win the Calder Trophy as the NHL’s top rookie as a plus-175 favourite.
Following a spectacular three-season stint with KHL Saint Petersburg, Shesterkin dominated while going 10-2-0 in his first taste of NHL action. However, the talented Russian faces stiff competition from new teammate Alexis Lafreniere, who sports solid plus-375 odds after being selected first overall by New York in this year’s NHL Draft.
Further down the Calder Trophy odds at betting sites, Minnesota forward Kirill Kaprizov sits at plus-400, ahead of Florida’s Grigori Denisenko at plus-1000, and Los Angeles Kings centre Quinton Byfield at plus-1100.
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