After 17 seasons in the National Hockey League, three Stanley Cups, and a career year at the age of 36, Marc-Andre Fleury of the Vegas Golden Knights was finally named Vezina Trophy winner on Tuesday night.
The league's general managers named Flower, along with Philipp Grubauer of the Colorado Avalanche and Andrei Vasilevskiy of the Tampa Bay Lightning, as award candidates. The veteran goaltender, who shared the Jennings Trophy for fewest goals allowed in the regular season with teammate Robin Lehner, concluded the season with a.928 save percentage and 1.98 goals-against average.
After a difficult year in which he lost his starting crease to Robin Lehner in the 2020 playoffs and faced the chance of being dealt for contract space in the winter, this is fantastic news for Fleury. Fleury's agent, Allan Walsh, responded by tweeting a photo of Fleury being stabbed in the back by a sword with Vegas coach Peter DeBoer's name on the blade. DeBoer's management of the Knights' goalkeeper dilemma between Fleury and Lehner was, of course, the inspiration for the image.
Then this year, Lehner was sidelined with a concussion for more than a month and Flower led the Knights to an 82-point season, tied with Colorado for the most in the NHL.
