A look at the Boston Bruins Vezina Trophy winners

The Vezina Trophy is handed out to the goaltender who has the best season, as voted on by the NHL General Managers. The Boston Bruins most recently won the award in 2022-23 when Linus Ullmark had a career-season during the Black and Gold’s historic season where they set a record for wins and points in a season.

Overall, the Bruins have had six Vezina Trophy winners in their 100 years with Ullmark being the sixth. Per NHL.com, through the 1980-81 season, the Vezina was awarded to the goaltender(s) who played a minimum of 25 games for the team allowing the fewest goals during the regular season. In 1981-82, the current system was put in place. Let’s take a look back at the six netminders who have won the award wearing the Spoked-B.

Tiny Thompson: 1929-30, 1932-33, 1935-36, 1937-38

Thompson played the majority of his career with the Bruins, playing in 468 games in Boston. He went 252-153-63 with a 1.99 GAA. His best season was in 1929-30, the first year he won his franchise-high four Vezina’s, where he won 38 out of 44 games with just 98 goals allowed. He finished his career in Detroit where he went just 32-41-12 in two seasons with a 2.53 GAA after being traded in November of 1938 for Normie Smith and cash.

Frank Brimsek: 1938-39, 1941-42

Brimsek followed Thompson’s footsteps and one year after Thompson won his fourth, Brimsek captured it in 1939. He would nine seasons in Boston going 230-144-70 with a 2.57 GAA. In 1938-39, he allowed just 68 goals in 43 games, then three years he won it again before being dealt to the Chicago Blackhawks in September of 1949.

Pete Peeters: 1982-83

Peeters became the first Bruins goalie to win the award in the post-expansion era. He became the first Bruin to win the award when it was voted on by the GM’s. He won the award in his first season in Boston going 40-12-9 with a 2.37 GAA and eight shutouts. 

Tim Thomas: 2008-09, 2010-11

Thomas backboned the Bruins Stanley Cup Championship in 2011, but he has two Vezina’s to add to his resume. In 2008-09, he won 36 games with a 2.10 GAA and a .933 SV%. Two years later, he won 35 games but sported a 2.00 GAA and a .938 SV% with nine shutouts. In eight seasons in Boston, he went 196-121-45 with a 2.48 GAA and a .921 SV%. He will be remembered for helping deliver the Cup to Boston in the spring of 2011 with a 37-save shutout in Game 7.

Tuukka Rask: 2013-14

Rask played all 15 of his seasons in Boston and was one of the top goalies in the league annually, but won just one Vezina Trophy. In 2013-14, he went 36-15-6 with a 2.04 GAA and a .930 SV%, and a career-high seven shutouts. That season the Black and Gold captured the Presidents Trophy for the most in team points in the regular season. He is career came to an end in 2021-22 when he played in just four games trying to come back from an injury.

Linus Ullmark: 2022-23

Talk about a season where anything that could go right, did go right. The Bruins had a record-setting season and that included Ullmark who left very little doubt who the best goalie was that year. He played in 49 games that season, splitting time with Jeremy Swayman, and went 40-6-1 with a 1.9 GAA and a .938 SV% with incredibly just two shutouts. This past season, Swayman took over as the No. 1 goalie in the playoffs, which made Ullmark expendable and Don Sweeney traded him in June to the Ottawa Senators.

The next Vezina Trophy winner for the Bruins should be Swayman at some point, but he’s still currently a restricted free agent, although you have to think something gets done sooner or later.