To no one’s surprise, New York Rangers goalie Igor Shesterkin won the Vezina Trophy as the NHL’s best netminder. It was a landslide as Shesterkin got 29 of the 32 first place votes. Although he finished third in voting for the Hart Trophy, he was also fittingly named to the NHL First All-Star Team.
That’s.
— New York Rangers (@NYRangers) June 22, 2022
Our.
Goalie. pic.twitter.com/leAp5VlnuJ
Here’s the final vote tally for the Vezina Trophy:
- Igor Shesterkin, Rangers: 154 points (29-3-0)
- Jacob Markstrom, Calgary: 53 points (0-14-11)
- Juuse Saros, Nashville: 32 (0-9-5)
- Frederik Andersen, Carolina: 21 (1-3-7)
- Andrei Vasilevskiy, Tampa: 14 (1-2-3)
- Ilya Sorokin, Islanders: 11 (1-1-3)
- Thatcher Demko, Vancouver; Ville Husso, St. Louis; Tristan Jarry, Pittsburgh: 1 (0-0-1)
What’s interesting is the other goalies who got first place votes were Andersen, Vasilevskiy and Sorokin and all three didn’t make the top three in point totals.
It certainly sets up a heated rivalry we can look forward to between Shesterkin and Sorokin for Metropolitan Area bragging rights.
Shesterkin is the third Ranger netminder to win the award under the current criteria, following John Vanbiesbrouck (1986) and Henrik Lundqvist (2012).
Matthews wins Hart Trophy
To no one’s surprise, Auston Matthews took home the Hart Trophy as the NHL’s most valuable player. Igor Shesterkin finished third with 738 points to 1,630 points for Matthews and 1,111 points for Connor McDavid.
Matthews led the way with 199 first place votes while Shesterkin finished with 24 first place votes, just five behind McDavid who had 29.
No other Rangers players got any votes for the Hart, unsurprisingly.
The Norris Trophy, how soon we forget
The Norris Trophy winner for best defenseman was a close one with Cale Makar taking it home. He finished just ahead of Nashville’s Roman Josi with 1,631 points to 1,606 for Josi. The Predators’ blueliner actually got more first place votes with 98 to 92 for Makar.
The big surprise for Ranger fans has to be that Adam Fox, last year’s winner, finished fifth overall behind Makar, Josi, Tampa’s Victor Hedman and Charlie McAvoy of the Bruins.
The fact that McAvoy finished with 358 points, over 100 more than Fox who had 248 points, has to be a headscratcher. As a result, Adam Fox didn’t even make the First or Second NHL All-Star Teams.
Offensively, Fox was light years ahead of McAvoy with 74 points to the Bruins’ D-man’s 56. The simple fact is that Fox finished 10th in assists in the NHL among all skaters and played heavy minutes on the top pairing, he warranted at least Second Team All-Star consideration.
At any rate, it will provide some incentive for Fox to do well next season compared to McAvoy, his former youth hockey teammate on the Long Island Gulls. It won’t be that difficult with McAvoy expected to miss the first two months of next season after shoulder surgery.
Rangers overlooked?
The only Ranger who could have gotten Calder Trophy consideration was defenseman Braden Schneider, but his stats were nowhere near the numbers achieve by the vote getters. Red Wings defenseman Moritz Seider got that award.
Chris Kreider didn’t get any consideration for the Hart Trophy despite finishing third in the league in goal scoring and first in power play goals. While other top goal scorers got Hart votes, it was his lack of assists that hurt him in the consideration for the MVP award. Despite being among the league leaders in assists and 11th overall in scoring, Artemi Panarin didn’t get any votes either.
Drury in the running for GM of the Year
Another bit of good news was the announcement that Rangers President and General Manager Chris Drury is one of three finalists for the Jim Gregory General Manager of the Year Award. His competition is Julien BriseBois of the Tampa Bay Lightning and Joe Sakic of the Colorado Avalanche.
The biggest congratulations, Dru! pic.twitter.com/0LBuDDDpON
— New York Rangers (@NYRangers) June 21, 2022
There’s no denying that Drury did the most with the least this season and his trade deadline acquisitions had the most impact on any team this season.
This award was first given out in 2009-10 and no Ranger GM has been recognized so far. Whoever wins this season will dethrone the Islanders’ Lou Lamoriello who won the award the last two season.
The winner will be announced at the NHL Entry Draft on July 7.
Of course, we all know that Gerard Gallant did not win the Jack Adams Trophy as best coach, losing out to Calgary’s Darryl Sutter.
Congratulations to Igor Shesterkin on his first of what should be many NHL honors.