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NHL Notebook: Vezina finalists announced, Swayman saving Bruins, and more
Tampa Bay Lightning Andrei Vasilevskiy Boston Bruins Jeremy Swayman
Photo credit: Kim Klement Neitzel-Imagn Images
Alicia LaBine
Apr 29, 2026, 20:00 EDTUpdated: Apr 29, 2026, 20:30 EDT
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The NHL has announced that Andrei Vasilevskiy, Ilya Sorokin, and Jeremy Swayman have been nominated as the 2025-26 Vezina Trophy finalists.
This is the sixth time in Vasilevskiyā€™s career that he has been nominated for the Vezina Trophy, after winning in 2018-19, placing second in 2024-25 and 2020-21, and finishing third in 2019-20 and 2017-18.
This season, the Russian goaltender held a 39-15-4 record with a .912 save percentage (Sv%) and a 2.31 goals against average (GAA). In 2018-19, he went 39-10-4 and had a 0.925 Sv% with a 2.40 GAA, spectacular stats that won him the award.
Another Russian who has found his name at the top of the goaltending charts this season is Ilya Sorokin. The Islandersā€™ netminder attempted to battle his teamā€™s way into the playoffs with his 29-24-2 record accompanied by a .906 Sv% and 2.68 GAA. Ultimately, the Islanders fell short, and they finished seven points out of a playoff spot, missing the show for the second year in a row.
Sorokin led the NHL in high-danger saves (452) and high-danger save percentage (.864) this season, marking his second time being a Vezina finalist after being the runner-up in 2022-23. He would be the first Islanders goalie to win the award since Billy Smith in 1981-82.
Swayman has been the Bruinsā€™ MVP, gaining him the nod as one of the best goalies in the league this season. His 31-18-4 campaign was achieved with his .908 Sv% and 2.71 GAA, not Vezina-calibre numbers on paper, but his 28.8 goals saved above expected was second in the league behind Logan Thompson, who controversially was on the outside of nominations despite a strong season. This is the first time that Swayman has been a finalist for the trophy, and he would join his good friend Linus Ullmark as a Bruins goaltender to win the award in the 2020s.
This season we even saw Vezina candidates Swayman and Vasilevskiy drop the gloves for a spirited bout in the 2026 Stadium Series that was held in Tampa.
Now, the two find themselves going toe-to-toe again in the battle for the trophy that awards the best goaltender in the league.
The award is voted on by NHL general managers.

Swaymanā€™s Vezina-calibre play on full display versus Buffalo

Yesterday, the talk was about Buffalo Sabres goaltender Alex Lyon and the impact he has had on the series thus far. But today, the conversations are around Jeremy Swayman and his ability to keep the Boston Bruins alive to force Game 6.
The Bruins Vezina finalist stopped 25 of 26 shots in Tuesday eveningā€™s do-or-die Game 5. The Bruins went on to win this game 2-1 in overtime after their superstar forward, David Pastrnak, rewarded his netminderā€™s spectacular performance with an overtime winner.
In Game 4, Swayman was pulled in the third period, and he was visibly frustrated with the lack of support he had received from his team. A clip of him screaming at the Bruinsā€™ bench went viral on Sunday as he headed to the locker room after being taken out of the game.
ā€‹ā€œWe have an extremely high competitive group,ā€ Swayman said on Monday following being pulled the night before. ā€œWe have a standard we carry ourselves to. It wasnā€™t met. So that was just emotion. Itā€™s moved on now, and we have a job to do, going to Buffalo.ā€
Despite allowing six goals on 29 shots in the Bruins devastating 6-1 defeat on Sunday, he holds a .910 Sv% and 2.87 GAA in this series.
The Bruins are down 3-2 heading into Game 6, which will be Friday at 5:30 p.m. MT. Buffalo hopes this will be the last game of round one, as Boston attempts to stay alive for at least one more game.

Tkachuk denies trade rumours

A frenzy of trade rumours has been surrounding Brady Tkachuk for months, but the Ottawa Senators captain has steadfastly denied any desire to leave the team.
Tkachuk met with the media on Wednesday, where he discussed his opinion on the discussions about his future in Ottawa.
ā€œIā€™ve never said any of those things,ā€ Tkachuk said. ā€œQuite honestly, itā€™s getting frustratingā€¦ Iā€™ve been fully committed to this team, this city.
ā€œI feel like Iā€™ve answered this hundreds of times that none of that I feel like Iā€™ve never said, none of those things ever came out of my mouth. And honestly, itā€™s just getting frustrating.ā€
Some of the flames were fanned by Tkachukā€™s father, Keith,Ā Daily Faceoffā€™s Tyler Kuehl wrote. Keith has recently called out the Senatorsā€™ lack of toughness, remarking it as ā€œdisgusting,ā€ while also making a comment that seemed to be directed at Linus Ullmark, who left the team for an extended period of time due to personal matters.
The remarks were made on the Tkachuk brothersā€™ Wingmen podcast. Brady attempted to calm the outrage by saying the comments were directed towards the Florida Panthers, who finished second last in the Atlantic Division.
As for managementā€™s side of things, general manager Steve Staios says that the team has not considered trading their captain away.
ā€œThis comes up often,ā€ Staios said. ā€œI donā€™t think that ā€“ thereā€™s nothing that we have talked about or thought about where that conversation should happen.
Prior to Tkachukā€™s zero points in four games this postseason, he had 29 goals and nearly a point per game with 59 in the 60 contests he took part in this year. He has tallied 213 goals and 463 points in his career that started in Ottawa, and as of now, that is where he will remain.

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