Winnipeg Jets goaltender Connor Hellebuyck wins Hart, Vezina awards

Hamilton Spectator

20 hours ago

Connor Hellebuyck will have to make room for some more hardware.
The Winnipeg Jets goaltender won the Hart Trophy as the NHL's most valuable player Thursday. He also captured the Vezina Trophy as the league's top netminder for the second straight season — and a third time overall.
Hellebuyck is the first goalie to claim the Hart since Montreal's Carey Price a decade ago.
'It means a lot,' Hellebuyck said in a statement. 'It's one of those things that doesn't get swung towards the goalies too often, so any time a goalie gets a sniff at it, you take notice ... you look back at the year, it was just such a fun year and we had so much positivity around the locker-room and everyone was just kind of living in the moment and enjoying the year.
'With team success, individual success comes and just to get one of these is pretty special in my world.'
The 32-year-old from Commerce, Mich., topped the stats page in 2024-25 with a 47-12-3 record, a .925 save percentage and a 2.00 goals-against average to go along with eight shutouts.
Edmonton Oilers centre Leon Draisaitl finished second in Hart voting, while Tampa Bay Lightning winger Nikita Kucherov was third. Kucherov won the Ted Lindsay Award as league MVP last week in a vote among members of the NHL Players' Association.
The Hart is chosen by members of the Professional Hockey Writers Association, while the Vezina is decided by the league's 32 general managers.
Hellebuyck appeared on 183 of 191 ballots, receiving 81 first-place votes for 1,346 points. Draisaitl earned 53 first-place votes and 1,209 points. In a razor-thin margin separating third and fourth place, Kucherov edged Colorado Avalanche centre Nathan MacKinnon — the 2023-24 Hart winner — 973-972.
Hellebuyck is just the fourth goaltender in the NHL's post-expansion era beginning in 1967-68 to win the Hart, joining Dominik Hasek (1996-97, 1997-98), Jose Theodore (2001-02) and Price (2014-15). Roy Worters (1928-29), Chuck Rayner (1949-50), Al Rollins (1953-54) and Jacques Plante (1961-62) are the only other netminders on the list.
Hellebuyck took 31 of 32 first-place votes from GMs to beat out Andrei Vasilevskiy of the Lightning and Darcy Kuemper of the Los Angeles Kings for the Vezina. Hellebuyck also took the honour in 2020 and again last season.
The 130th pick at the 2012 NHL draft is the fourth goaltender to win the Vezina at least three times under the current format established in 1981-82, following Hasek (six), Martin Brodeur (four) and Patrick Roy (three).
Hellebuyck is the first repeat Vezina winner since Brodeur in 2006-07 and 2007-08.
His impressive regular-season numbers, however, once again didn't translate to the playoffs.
Despite picking up two shutouts, he won just six of 13 starts in posting an .866 save percentage and a 3.08 GAA as the Jets beat the St. Louis Blues in a dramatic seven-game series before falling 4-2 to the Dallas Stars in the second round.
Hellebuyck, who was the starting goaltender for the United States at February's 4 Nations Face-Off tournament when the Americans lost to Canada in a knife-edged final, had an .870 save percentage in the 2023-24 post-season after putting up a .886 mark the previous spring in consecutive five-game losses in the first round.
Kucherov led the NHL with 121 points in 2024-25 and tied MacKinnon for the most assists with 84. Draisaitl led the league with 52 goals and tied for third in points with Boston Bruins winger David Pastrnak with 106.
Vasilevskiy went 38-20-4 with a .921 save percentage and a 2.18 GAA for Tampa, which lost to the Florida Panthers in five games in the opening round of the playoffs. He also picked up six regular-season shutouts.
Kuemper owned a 31-11-7 mark — including five shutouts — with a .921 save percentage and a 2.02 GAA in his first season with Los Angeles. The Kings beat the Oilers twice to open their first-round series before losing four straight.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 12, 2025.