Photo: Bruce Bennett/Getty Images
Connor Hellebuyck of the Winnipeg Jets won the Vezina Trophy as the National Hockey League’s top goaltender for the 2023-24 season, one of several honors received by American Hockey League alumni at Thursday’s NHL Awards ceremony in Las Vegas.
It was the second career Vezina Trophy win for Hellebuyck, who spent his first two pro seasons in the AHL with the St. John’s IceCaps (2014-15) and Manitoba Moose (2015-16). He went 41-37-6 with a 2.55 goals-against average, .921 save percentage and 10 shutouts in 88 AHL appearances, and was an AHL All-Star as a rookie in 2015.
Hellebuyck (37-19-4, 2.39, .921, five shutouts) was a near-unanimous pick, winning 31 first-place votes and one second-place vote from the NHL’s 32 voting general managers. He also won the William Jennings Award as the team’s goaltender with the fewest goals allowed in the regular season, helping the Jets earn a spot in the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the sixth time in seven years.
Hellebuyck also earned a spot on the NHL First All-Star Team, along with other AHL alumni. Nikita Kucherov of the Tampa Bay Lightning and Roman Jose of the Nashville Predators. in Nashville Filip Forsbergin Boston David Pastrnak and Vancouver Thatcher Demko were called Second All-Star Team.
Marco Rossi of the Minnesota Wild champion and the 2022 Calder Cup Pyotr Kochetkov of the Carolina Hurricanes was chosen to be NHL All-Rookie Team.
That said, more than 87 percent of all National Hockey League players in 2023-24 were American Hockey League graduates, including 349 players who skated in both leagues during the season.
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