Connor Hellebuyck has a chance to add his name to a very short list of hockey history this season.
After winning the Vezina Trophy the last two seasons, the Winnipeg Jets goalie enters the season as the favourite to win his third straight this season, something no goalie has done since Dominik Hasek from 1996 to 1999.
Since the NHL adopted the current criteria for the Vezina Trophy in 1981–82, Hasek is the only goalie to win three straight.
Hellebuyck is just one of three goalies listed at shorter than 10-1 to win the award this season.
Vezina Trophy Candidates
Connor Hellebuyck +310
The 32-year-old posted a career-best .925 save percentage and 2.00 goals-against last season en route to his second straight Vezina Trophy.
It’s expected to be another big season for the Jets netminder as he projects to lead Team USA in goal at the 2026 Olympics after being the team’s starting goalie at the 2025 4 Nations Face-off.
Last year marked the fourth consecutive season he appeared in at least 60 games, and the sixth time in his 10 NHL seasons. Hellebuyck is happy to buck the current trend of seeing NHL starters owning a closer split with their backups.
“Yeah, the trend is the split, but I think that is like a [political] movement in that someone got lucky and made it work and now everyone else thinks, ‘Oh, that’s the right way to do it.’ I don’t agree with that,” Hellebuyck said.
“I think the best way to bring out the best part of yourself is to play and get into a rhythm.” He told NHL.com, “For me, I would like to go back to the days of 70-plus games. I think you can stay in a rhythm and once you’re confident you can just ride it and you don’t really have to think a whole lot, you’re just playing because you’re feeling it every single night.”
Igor Shesterkin +650
Starting the first season of a new eight-year $92 million, Igor Shesterkin is the biggest threat to win this award according to the odds at FanDuel.
It was a down 2024-25 for the Rangers goalie, posting a career-worst 2.86 GAA with a .905 save percentage.
The 2022 Vezina winner didn’t earn a vote for the award last season for the first time since the 2020-21 season when he finished fifth in Calder voting.
Andrei Vasilevskiy +750
The only other goalie priced at shorter than 15-1 in this market is the Tampa Bay Lightning’s Andrei Vasilevskiy.
The 31-year-old finished second in voting last season with a career-best 2.18 GAA and one of the best save percentages of his career at .921.
Outside of winning this award in 2018-19, Vasilevskiy finished inside the top five in voting for the Vezina in five of the last seven seasons.
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Here is a look at the rest of this market on FanDuel.
