The last time an NHL goaltender won the Hart Memorial Trophy as the league’s most valuable player and the Vezina Trophy as its top netminder in the same season, the year was 2015. And the winner that season was likely Hockey Hall-of-Famer Carey Price of the Montreal Canadiens. However, Winnipeg Jets star goalie Connor Hellebuyck became the fifth and latest goaltender to do so, taking home the 2024-25 Hart and Vezina Trophies Thursday night.
The 32-year-old Hellebuyck was far and away the league’s best goalie this year. He appeared in 63 games for the Jets this year, posting a 2.00 goals-against average and a .925 save percentage. The Vezina win was the second consecutive honor for Hellebuyck, and the third of his nine-year NHL career. Hellebuyck put up a 47-12-3 record this season, becoming the seventh NHL goalie in league history to generate 45 wins or more, and the first goalie to do it since Washington Capitals netminder Braden Holtby did so in 2015-16.
Certainly, Hellebuyck’s post-season numbers weren’t nearly as dominant. He went 6-7 in 13 playoff games, generating a 3.08 GAA and an .866 SP. But no one could deny he was the league’s premier netminder through the regular season. Fellow Vezina finalists Darcy Kuemper of the Los Angeles Kings and Tampa Bay Lightning star Andrei Vasilevskiy also had solid seasons, but neither could compare to Hellebuyck.
The bigger honor, obviously, is the Hart. Only seven other goalies in league history have won the MVP award, and Hellebuyck had to beat out finalists Leon Draisailt of the Edmonton Oilers and Nikita Kucherov of the Lightning. While these two players had amazing seasons in their own right, it’s hard to deny that Hellebuyck was extremely valuable to the Jets winning the NHL’s Presidents’ Trophy as the league’s top regular-season team. That’s the definition of the Hart award, and Hellebuyck is a deserving recipient.
With his third Vezina, Hellebuyck joins NHL legends Dominik Hasek, Patrick Roy and Martin Brodeur as the only goaltenders to win the best goalie award at least three times since the league altered the Vezina voting process prior to the 1981-82 campaign. Hasek won the Vezina six times, Brodeur won it four, and Roy won it three. So Hellebuyck still has plenty of time to climb up that list. And there’s no good reason why he can’t do it.
Obviously, Hellebuyck wants more playoff success than he wants regular-season success at this point in his career. He’s signed to a contract that still has six seasons left at a relatively reasonable average annual value of $8.5 million. If he’d wanted to, he could’ve left Winnipeg and signed with a different team for considerably more money. But the Jets are still one of the most competitive teams in the league, and Hellebuyck is bound to get another chance at winning in the post-season next year.
For the interim, though, he’ll have to be content with being recognized as hockey’s pre-eminent goalie, the NHL’s most valuable player and an icon-in-the-making. Hellebuyck did everything the Jets asked of him this season, and the results he delivered earned him a special combination of awards few hockey players ever achieve.
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