The Utah Hockey Club is only four years from when the Arizona Coyotes started rebuilding their roster. This rebuild has led to Utah getting their hands on several talented players, such as Logan Cooley and Dylan Guenther. Entering their inaugural season in the NHL as the third youngest team, several players were expected to grow and get more comfortable at the NHL level.
Based on training camp, some early candidates for Utah’s most improved player would have been Josh Doan, who had four points in five preseason games and Matias Maccelli, who had three points in three games. However, neither of these two emerged in this conversation. Shockingly, Karel Vejmelka emerged as Utah’s most improved player.
Karel Vejmelka’s Rocky First 3 Seasons in the NHL
Utah’s primary concern coming into the season was their goaltending. Neither Connor Ingram nor Vejmelka had demonstrated enough consistency to believe this was a tandem that could lead Utah to the NHL playoffs, and that was primarily due to Vejmelka, who had a career .898 save percentage and a goals-against average of 3.50. In addition, Vejmelka allowed 30.8 goals to be scored on him above average, and 22% of his 140 starts for the Arizona Coyotes were graded as ‘really bad starts’ (via Hockey-Reference).
To put it bluntly, these numbers were awful, and Vejmelka likely only made 140 appearances for the Coyotes because they were actively tanking and trying to lose games. No team trying to make a playoff push would have accepted this level of play from their backup or starting goalie. Just for context, Vejmelka ranked 51st of 61 goalies in save percentage, 59th in goals-against average and 59th in goals saved above average among goalies to make 50 starts in the last three seasons.
Karel Vejmelka Is a Vezina Trophy Candidate
After reading what I just detailed, you should understand why few were optimistic about Vejmelka’s future with the team. He did not help his case in Utah’s preseason, where he had a .869 save percentage and a 4.04 goals-against average in the two games he started. Ingram got the starting job out of training camp, just as everyone expected, given he finished tied for the NHL’s league lead in shutouts last season and had a great preseason, saving 1.28 goals above average in the 100 exhibition minutes he played.
However, Ingram struggled out of the gates and has allowed 9.53 goals above average in 13 games this season. Despite struggling, Ingram got the lion’s share of the workload in October, and Vejmelka only made three starts in the first month of the season. Vejmelka had his fourth start of the season on Nov. 5 against the Winnipeg Jets. Utah lost this game 3-0, but Vejmelka only allowed two goals to be scored on the 27 shots he faced while in the net. This is the game where everything changed for Vejmelka.
Vejmelka followed this performance up against the Jets by making 49 saves on 50 shots, earning his first win of the season against the Carolina Hurricanes, a performance so good it landed Vejmelka the start in Utah’s next game. It was the first time he started two games straight for Utah this season. Utah lost that game 4-2 to the Vegas Golden Knights.
Ingram got the net back for a game against the Washington Capitals, but he was touched up for four goals in less than two periods before Vejmelka took over in the second period, and following that game, Utah announced Ingram would have to miss time with an injury.
Related: Utah’s Hot Goaltending Could Make Connor Ingram Expendable
The injury to Ingram left many concerned. However, Vejmelka continued to build on his good start to the season, only allowing 2.2 goals per game in his first five games as Utah’s starting goalie, and he has only gotten better from there. Vejmelka has given up two or fewer goals in eight of his previous 12 starts. He has saved 9.15 goals above average, ranking 6th in the NHL among goalies who have played at least five games. He also ranks 5th among qualified goalies with a .917 save percentage and fifth with a 2.29 goals-against average. While Utah has several players who have improved this season, none have improved more than Vejmelka, who looks like a completely different goaltender from past seasons with the Coyotes. If he continues to play like this, Vejmelka could wind up in the Vezina Trophy conversation at the end of the season.
All Stats via NaturalStatTrick unless specified.
