Well, I did skip a trophy, mostly because it doesn't have any real relative meaning to the fantasy numbers (the Lady Byng), so I won't really apologize for that. It's an okay trophy, but it just doesn't have the same factor of comparison that the other trophies have. Nevertheless, another one of my favourite trophies had their nominees announced today, the Vezina Trophy, for best goaltender. Again, I will order the goalies by the amount of points they earned in the pool last year.
Leading the list of goalies on the Vezina Trophy list is
Niklas Backstrom of the Wild. Amazingly, Backstrom finished fourth in goaltender points in the pool, with 37 wins and 8 shutouts for 90 points, which makes him a great fantasy goalie going forward. His overall ranking was 11th in the pool, which makes him a very high first round pick in a Draft next season. It's fair to say that I would be looking at him that way myself.
The fifth-ranked goalie in the pool and top rookie,
Steve Mason, finished the seeason with 33 wins and 10 shutouts for 86 points, granted he was taken in the first Waiver Draft, so not all of those points were collected this season. Leading the league in shutouts, as a rookie, seems to be the basis for his nomination, which no one can really dispute right now. Mason finished 16th in overall pool standings, which also has him in the first round of the Draft.
Finally, ranked eighth among goalies for pool points is
Tim Thomas, the Bruins number one goalie. Thomas had a breakout year for the Bruins and helped lead the team to the top of the Eastern Conference and now has a second round birth in the playoffs. Thomas finished the regular season with 83 points (36 wins, 5 shutouts and 1 assist), which also ranked him 20th among all pool players in 2009. His abilities should give him more than enough votes to win this time around.
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