3. William M. Jennings Trophy – Tuukka Rask and Jaroslav Halak
After allowing the fewest goals in the NHL, Rask and Halak were awarded the Jennings Trophy. However, with some major changes happening on the B’s backend, this level of play may be hard to replicate.
The Jennings Trophy is more of a team award than an individual award. This can be seen with the fact that as of recently a goaltending duo usually wins the award.
Additionally, although a team may have an elite goaltender like Hellebuyck or Vasilevskiy, they also need an elite defense to really limit the number of goals they let up.
With Krug leaving for St. Louis via free agency and the unlikelihood of Chara returning, this will be extremely difficult for an inexperienced Bruins defense.
However, I think Boston taking home the Jennings Trophy is a bit more likely than Rask winning the Vezina. Coach Cassidy just needs to know where and when to play his defensemen to get the best possible product.
Rask hasn’t started more than 50 games in each of the last two seasons, and at his age, his stats would most likely take a hit with a heavier workload.