Nearly seven months ago, Braden Holtby was announced to the hockey world as the 2015-16 Vezina Trophy winner as the League’s best goalie - an award he won comfortably, fueled by his record-tying 48 wins, strong 2.20 goals-against average and .922 save percentage.
He’s been better so far this season.
It’s a trend we started talking about a few months ago, but as the season drifts toward the halfway point, it’s become even more clear that Holtby’s 2016-17 season is leaving last year’s Vezina campaign in the dust.
That’s probably not all that surprising, actually, when you recall that Holtby had a pretty significant swoon through the early part of the 2016 calendar year, and reasonable minds differed as to whether or not Holtby even was ultimately the circuit’s best netminder.