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Buffalo Sabres History: Vezina Trophy Winners

By Melissa Kania

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The National Hockey League will hold its annual year-end awards ceremony this year on June 24 in Las Vegas. The league will celebrates its top players in both on-ice and off-ice performances, rewarding representatives from the top scorers to the best goaltenders and everything in between. As the NHL continues to announce its nominees for the yearly awards, we’ll take a look back at the history of each award and when – if ever – a member of the Buffalo Sabres franchise has won it.

Some of these awards have been given out for 90 years, while others are newer. Regardless, it’s a true honor for any player to receive these awards.

Today, we’ll look at the NHL Vezina Trophy.

The Vezina Trophy is annually given to the goaltender who is judged to be the best at that position, as voted by the general managers of all 30 NHL clubs.

Historically, the trophy was presented to the NHL by Leo Dandurand, Louis Letourneau and Joe Cattarinich in memory of Georges Vezina. Vezina was a goaltender for the Montreal Canadiens who collapsed during an NHL game in November 1925 and died of tuberculosis months later.

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    • The present voting system of awarding the Vezina Trophy has been in place only since the 1981-82 season. Prior to that, the goaltender(s) of the team allowing the fewest number of goals during the regular season got the award.

    A member of the Buffalo Sabres organization has won the Vezina Trophy nine times since the 1979-80 season. The team with the most Vezina trophies? The Montreal Canadiens, who have won it 28 times since 1926. (This, of course, makes sense, since Montreal was one of the Original Six teams.

    The first-ever Buffalo Sabres goaltender to win the Vezina Trophy was actually a duo. Both Don Edwards and Bob Sauve won the trophy in the 1979-80 season, having allowed the fewest goals during the regular season.

    Edwards had a 2.57 GAA that season with a record of 27-9-12, while Sauve had a 2.36 GAA with a record of 20-8-4.

    It would take just a few more seasons before the Buffalo Sabres would once again win the Vezina Trophy, with Tom Barrasso taking it in the 1983-84 season.

    He had a 2.84 GAA and record of 26-12-3 at just 18 years of age. As a result, he also won the Calder Memorial Trophy for best rookie that season, the only Buffalo Sabres goaltender to have done so.

    Next up, of course, were the glory years with Dominik Hasek on the Buffalo Sabres. Hasek won the Vezina six times during his stint with Buffalo: 1993-94 and 1994-95; 1996-97 and 1997-98 AND 1998-99, and 2000-2001. Historically, only Jacques Plante (7) won more Vezina Trophies in the NHL.

    Most recently, Ryan Miller won the Vezina Trophy as a member of the Buffalo Sabres in the 2009-10 season.

    This year’s nominees for the Vezina Trophy: Carey Price, Pekka Rinne and Devan Dubnyk. Who do you think will get it this season? None of those three have ever won it before, so we’ll definitely see a new Vezina winner this season.

    Next: In The Head Of Ryan Miller

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