Despite being the main reason the Nashville Predators made it into the playoffs and performing as one of the best goaltenders in the NHL over the last two months, Juuse Saros will not be a Vezina Trophy finalist.
The NHL announced that Andrei Vasilevskiy, Marc-Andre Fleury and Philipp Grubauer will be the three finalists. Surprisingly enough, Fleury has never won a Vezina Trophy, and neither has Grubauer.
Vasilevskiy is looking to claim his second Vezina Trophy in three years. He won it in 2019 as well.
Saros should be in over Grubauer
This does feel like a major snub for Saros to not be included after being one of the top performing goaltenders in many different statistical categories, with Goals Saved Above Average being a key one.
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Saros finished third in this category at 20.86, only trailing Vasilevskiy and Semyon Varlamov. This category really tracks the impact that goaltenders are making for their teams relative to what they’re up against in terms of the shots they’re up against relative to the league average.
Another analytic that Saros finished in the top-three in was Goalie Point Shares, which estimates how many points a goaltender contributed to the team by their individual play. Saros comes in third here and narrowly trailed only Vasilevskiy and Connor Hellebuyck.
Again, another category that Saros performed better than Grubauer in.
Just based on pure save percentage, Saros was also better than Grubauer with a .928 save percentage. Grubauer was solid was well, but lower than Saros with a .922 percentage.
I can’t totally understand how Grubauer is in over Saros. I get that Fleury and Vasilevskiy are in there. Those two were locks and one of those two should win it.
Even furthermore, Saros was simply the best goaltender in the NHL after February. Yes he had another rough start that you hope he can keep from doing in the future, but the way he rebounded to have such an incredible season is something you can’t overlook.
Sean Gentille of The Athletic shared another key statistical category that Saros led the NHL in after March 1:
From March 1 on, he led the league in 5v5 save percentage and overall save percentage. That’s more than half the season. Stupid. https://t.co/47YDG3NHBZ
— Sean Gentille (@seangentille) June 1, 2021
Grubauer did have the seven shutouts which is what probably put him over the top, while Saros managed only three. Those are apparently pretty valuable in the eyes of the voters.
It’s also very obvious that wins are heavily weighted in this voting as the three finalists also lead the league in wins, respectively. Saros took a lot of losses this season due to poor play in front of him.
Saros performed on an elite level, carried an average to the playoffs
Saros didn’t have the luxury of playing for a Stanley Cup contender and still managed to carry his team further than many expected him to do so. There should be more value in that, and it shouldn’t be so heavily weighted on wins alone.
There should be way more value placed in how much impact a goaltender makes on their particular team. Saros made a way bigger impact on the Predators than the others did for their respective teams.
With all of this being said, Saros’ time will come. He’s here to stay and winning a Vezina Trophy isn’t an easy accomplishment. There are a plethora of outstanding goaltenders in this league right now, and Saros wasn’t the only player you can argue maybe got snubbed off being a finalist.
Saros set career highs a shortened season in starts (35), wins (21), save percentage (.927) and GAA (2.28). He took the pressure he was facing to show he’s ready to be the franchise goaltender and delivered promising results.
Just like Pekka Rinne had to play nine full seasons before getting his one and only Vezina Trophy, it might take Saros a while too. But he’ll get one eventually if he stays on this trajectory.