UPDATE: It’s official, per the team:
Per TVA Sports’ Renaud Lavoie, Braden Holtby has been named a finalist for the Vezina Trophy for the second-consecutive season:
Holtby fell just short of his record-tying win total from last year, a mark which likely helped him win the 2016 Vezina, but still tied Edmonton’s Cam Talbot for the League lead in that department with 42 (in just 63 starts, ten fewer than Talbot had).
He finished the season with a sparkling record of 42-13-6 overall, posting the League’s third-highest save percentage of .925 (among goalies with at least 30 starts), the second-lowest GAA (2.07, right behind Sergei Bobrovsky’s 2.06), and a League-leading nine shutouts – all of which topped his Vezina-winning campaign of 2015-16, and helped give the Caps their first William Jennings Trophy win since 1983-84.
As good as his season was this year, he’ll likely have some tough competition for a repeat – particularly in Bobrovsky, who had almost identical stats across the board. Still, it’s a well-deserved honor for the Caps’ #1 netminder. Congrats, Braden!