TAMPA, Fla. – Tampa Bay Lightning goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy has officially captured the 2025-26 Vezina Trophy, but the hardware came with an unexpected twist. NHL general managers voted Vasilevskiy the league’s top goaltender, and he found out about the honor right as local law enforcement was inspecting his vehicle.
Vasilevskiy was leaving the Benchmark International Arena when Tampa Bay police officers and a member of their K-9 unit, who were already in the area investigating suspicious activity near his car, surprised him with the trophy.
The win marks Vasilevskiy’s second career Vezina Trophy and his first since the 2018-19 season. This was his sixth time as a finalist for the award, having previously finished second in 2024-25 and 2020-21, and third in 2019-20 and 2017-18. By reaching the finalist stage six times under the current selection criteria established in 1981-82, he joins an elite group of just three other goaltenders to do so: Martin Brodeur (9 times), Patrick Roy (7 times), and Dominik Hasek (6 times).
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The voting breakdown showed a clear gap between first and second place. Vasilevskiy secured 17 first-place votes and appeared on 28 total ballots to finish with 114 points. Meanwhile, a tight race for the runner-up spot ended with Ilya Sorokin of the New York Islanders taking second place with eight first-place votes and 51 points, just ahead of the Boston Bruins’ Jeremy Swayman, who finished third with two first-place votes and 46 points.
On the ice, Vasilevskiy’s season was anchored by an 18-game point streak running from Dec. 20 to Feb. 25, during which he went 17-0-1. He led the entire NHL with 39 wins in his 58 starts, finishing the year with a 39-15-4 record, a 2.31 goals-against average, a .912 save percentage, and two shutouts. His performance helped the Lightning secure their ninth consecutive postseason appearance, which is currently tied for the longest active streak in the league.
With this season in the books, Vasilevskiy became the sixth goaltender in NHL history to record at least nine 30-win seasons. His active streak of nine consecutive 30-win seasons is the second-longest in league history, trailing only Martin Brodeur’s 12-season run from 1995-96 through 2007-08.
The 2012 first-round draft pick (19th overall) ranked near the top of the league across multiple statistical categories this year. He tied for first in games allowing two or fewer goals (35), ranked second in goals-against average (2.31), finished third in save percentage (.912), and tied for third in total starts (58). Additionally, Vasilevskiy logged 3,430:45 minutes of ice time (4th), registered an .844 high-danger save percentage (7th), kept a .912 mid-range save percentage (7th), and made 1,353 total saves (10th).
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