On Monday the National Hockey League announced the three finalists for the 2025 Vezina Trophy as the NHL's top goaltender. One goaltender was notably missing in Washington Capitals goalie Logan Thompson.
LT not a Vezina finalist
The goalies who are up for this award are Connor Hellebuyck of the Winnipeg Jets, Darcy Kuemper of the Los Angeles Kings, and Andrei Vasilevskiy of the Tampa Bay Lightning. This award is voted on by NHL general managers who submitted their choices at the conclusion of the regular season.
Thompson finished the regular season appearing in 43 games and going 31-6-6 as he helped the Capitals to the most standings points in the entire Eastern Conference.
LT did this with a 2.49 goals against average which was the seventh best among goalies who appeared in over 25 games, as well as a .910 save percentage which is ninth best along with two shutouts.
The most impressive statistic was that LT finished the season third in goals save above expected with 26.0 trailing only Hellebuyck (39.6) and Vasilevskiy (29.2) in the category. He was second for much of the season before the Caps slumped after clinching the playoffs.
The likely winner of this award will be Connor Hellebuyck of the Winnipeg Jets who went 47-12-3 with a 2.00 goals against average, a .925 save percentage and eight shutouts in 63 games. The Jets were also the best team in the regular season and captured their first Presidents' Trophy with a 56-22-4 record, good for 116 points.
Kuemper is a former Capitals goaltender who was dealt last summer to the Kings in exchange for Pierre-Luc Dubois. The current Kings goalie finished with a 31-11-7 record with a 2.02 goals against average, a .922 save percentage and five shutouts.
Vasilevskiy of the Lightning went 38-20-5 and his 38 wins ranked second in the NHL. He also finished fourth in goals against average at 2.18 and save percentage at .921.
Perhaps a reason why Thompson didn't get chosen among the three was that he split starts with Charlie Lindgren for most of the season. That kept his stats lower than the other three finalists.
Hellebuyck and Vasilevskiy led the league with 63 games played while Kuemper palyed in 50 games, seven more than Thompson. Although Thompson didn't get picked, this was a good season for LT and he can only go up from here.