The 2023-24 season was a career-worst for Tampa Bay Lightning goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy. Career worsts in save percentage (.900) and goals-against average (2.90) and he didn’t receive Vezina Trophy votes for the first time since he took over the starting job.
However, the hockey world isn’t letting one season completely change their perception of one of the league’s top goalies. NHL Network recently released its top 10 goalies list. Vasilevskiy was ranked third despite his off year.
Now, he did drop. The year before, he was first on the list. But the fact that he only fell two spots says a lot about his expectations and how highly regarded he still is.
A Reminder of Vasilevskiy’s Injury
Before the start of last season, Vasilevskiy went down with a herniated disk in his lower back. The heavy workload over the last few years caught up with him.
He was already not looking quite like himself toward the end of the previous season. In the final 20 games of 2022-23, his save percentage was .906 after sitting at .920 for the first 40 games. In the playoffs against the Toronto Maple Leafs, he looked completely out of character with a .875 save percentage and three home losses in overtime.
When the news came out that he was hurt, it was a massive blow, but it wasn’t entirely surprising. It explained the regression. Once he was back, we knew he would have to play after not having a full preseason and likely not being fully back to full strength.
According to the Mayo Clinic, recovery from a diskectomy is between two and eight weeks. This includes jobs that involve heavy lifting and operating machinery. However, these jobs don’t typically involve the same physical strain put on a goalie. So, while it’s not crazy that he returned after two months, that didn’t mean he was ready, per se.
Related: Revisiting the Tampa Bay Lightning’s 2022 Free Agency Class
Head coach Jon Cooper also played Vasilevskiy a lot once he was back. He played 52 games despite making his debut on Nov. 24. I get it. The Lightning needed their prize goalie in games badly with how the season was going. But his workload could have been managed way better. He likely would have performed better in that case. Jonas Johansson had performed respectably in those first 20 games.
Vasilevskiy isn’t the type of goalie to say no to playing. He’d play all 82 games if he had unlimited stamina. That’s just how he is. It was up to the coaches to know when he needed a break.
What’s done is done. That season is over, and Vasilevskiy has had more time to recover and get back in shape. This should lead to better season-long results. Since he should be healthy the whole season, he’ll likely play a similar number of games but with more breaks in between. That will help a lot.
Vasilevskiy Still Had His Moments
The best way to describe Vasilevskiy’s season is the highs were high and the lows were low. Since the highs were high, we got a few streaks of Vasilevskiy looking like his usual self and making the type of saves we expect of him.
During those highs, we saw the herculean numbers we’d expect as well. Here’s a look at the three best stretches he had last season:
- Dec. 4 to Dec. 23: Nine games, .925 SV%, one shutout
- Jan. 9 to Feb. 15: 12 games, .915 SV%
- March 9 to April 9: 12 games, .922 SV%, one shutout
He would get going for a bit and dominate. Then, he’d tire out and struggle before getting going again for good chunks of the season. But just seeing those flashes of greatness proved to many what he still has left to offer. It’s what kept him from dropping further than third on the list. Vasilevskiy is the type of goalie where you need to be given a reason to knock him down a peg, and he didn’t give many reasons beyond playing hurt.
Igor Shesterkin and Connor Hellebuyck both are rightfully ahead of him for first and second on the list. Shesterkin had a strong year as usual and Hellebuyck won the Vezina last season. But we know that Vasilevskiy is a strong bounce-back year away from jumping back to the top.
For the last three years, players have been polled with the following question: If you need to win one game, who is the goalie you want on your team?
The answer has been Vasilevskiy by a long shot each time. Even last season, he took 46.92% of the vote. It’s a dip from the previous season’s 52.33%, but nobody else is still sniffing 10% of all players. To his peers, he’s still the best in the game.
One good season is all it takes for the consensus to redub him as the best goalie in the NHL.
