Sergei Bobrovsky (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)
The new NHL season is right around the corner, and it is shocking that Sergei Bobrovsky, a former Vezina Trophy winner, is not getting the respect he deserves.
The latest odds are out on which goalie will win the Vezina Trophy as the best goalie in the NHL for the upcoming season, and the Florida Panthers’ goalie has the ninth-best odds of winning the award this forthcoming season.
For a guy who just won the Stanley Cup and could have won the Conn Smythe Trophy as the Playoffs most valuable player, it feels like he is underappreciated and being taken for granted.
Former NHL goalie Jame McLennan spoke with RG about why Bobrovsky is listed so low on the oddsmakers' boards. A lot of it has to do with his inconsistency in play.
"I would say underappreciating a guy who's won two Vezinas, but what it is his highs are so high and lows are so low, that what I think causes people to pause because you're like 'Okay this guy we forget he's got two Vezina's and now he's got the Stanley Cup on top of that, and he should be looked on as an absolute Rockstar right?"
The numbers back up Bobrovsky's claim that he is one of the best goalies in the NHL. Last season, he had a great year, finishing as a finalist for the Vezina Trophy with a 36-17-4 record, a 2.37 goals against average, and a .915 save percentage in 58 starts in the regular season for the Panthers.
In the playoffs, Bobrovsky finished with a 16-8 record, a 2.32 GAA and a .906 save percentage as he guided the Panthers to their first Stanley Cup in franchise history. Again, at one point, Bobrovsky was in the Conn Smythe conversation. However, he was out of running once the Stanley Cup Final against the Edmonton Oilers went to seven games.
However, Bobrovsky has not always been this spectacular in Florida. After he signed that seven-year contract on July 1, 2019, which carried a $10 million AAV, it felt at times that despite him putting up decent numbers, the talk about how bad his contract was.
"But there was a time there when you could argue again, I don't know this for a fact, but I'm just saying from the outside, where people were saying, "This is a bad contract from Florida," McLennan said. "He basically moved to Florida and collected a check."
There were struggles in Bobrovsky's game. He lost time to his backups. Chris Driedger, and especially Alex Lyon, in the 2022-23 season when Lyon got the Panthers into the playoffs. So those inconsistencies led many to wonder if he just wanted to get a paycheck down in South Florida or if he wanted to win.
Well, it was the latter. Over the last calendar year's performance, from the 2023 playoffs through the 2023-24 regular season and the 2024 playoff run to the Stanley Cup, as McLennan stated, Bobrovsky is in that category of eight goalies who are elite in the NHL and needs to get more respect on his name than he does.
However, the position as a whole needs to be respected more. While McLennan is a member of the goalie union, the position does not get the respect it should, especially in today's world.
"And I say this all the time, and I'm a goalie hugger, though that position is so under respective, McLennan said. "It just, if you don't have goaltending, you know about it, and there are only eight goalies in this league who are bonafide number ones. Everybody else is a tandem goal."
Without a starting goalie, your team will be in trouble. While the skeptics will point to some that goalies win the Stanley Cups, only a handful of guys can carry the load for their teams.
"There are only a few guys who can handle that type of workload nowadays. So, I guess my point is that I agree with you, but I go back to the overarching thing is I think that position is not respected because people go, well, Vegas won with Adin Hill, and Adin Hill was technically their fourth on the depth chart at one point. If you look, they had Robin Lehner, and then you had Logan Thompson for a brew. They had traded for Jonathan Quick.
“But that is not the case because teams need a number one goalie to win. Yes, it is a right-time, right-place situation for some guys; however, that goalie must stop the puck for that team to win. Bobrovsky made those key stops and got his team to the final. Not every goalie can do that.
"And so the argument is that, yes, some Canadian goaltenders or just goaltenders have won Cups, but oh, they're not superstar players who just happen to be on a good team at the right time," McLennan added. "And so I think that's where it comes back to the overarching lack of respect to the position period, and somehow he's fallen into that narrative."
Some people say it is easy to find goaltenders in the NHL. Everyone says they are like running backs you can find everywhere. If that were the case, every goaltender on a roster would be seen as a bonafide number, and that is not the case. Thus, the best comparison is the quarterback. Both receive the same criticism and praise, as McLennan points out.
"Well, here's my argument. I think the goalie position should be compared to the quarterback position and should be compared to a pitcher because name me a team that wins without pitching or a team that wins without a quarterback. And the argument from the analytics people is, well, you can win with just an average goaltender.
“Well, then you better have a damn good team that wants to win 6-5 every night, or limit your chances to 15 shots at night. So, I mean, that's where I look at it, as I think goalies are comparable to quarterbacks and to pitchers, where that's, that's the kind of what I look at it is the position is very unique, and those people are unique, so they're kind of on an island. That's the way I, I look at it. Yeah, that's my feel about it."
"I am preparing for the main camp. I saw the list of players for the rookie camp, and I am not on this list. The main goal is to make the first team. I fully understand the type of hockey and the requirements here. I know what to prepare for. In Denver, we play at 1 mile above sea level. You can feel it during training. It is a little more difficult to train here, but because of this, you feel better in other states. It turns out that we have a small advantage."
Jim Biringer
