Given how good Comrie has been and how strong WPG D has been I don’t think it’s a huge stretch to say they’d be a playoff team this year if you removed Helle from the roster. Comrie has a 0.914 save percentage to Helle’s 0.924 and a 2.39 GAA to Helle’s 2.02. I think they’d still safely have made it with any other true #1 goalie if Comrie’s stats are that strong.
I know it’s the most valuable player award, but I feel like the unwritten rule is that a goalie has to do something really special to win it, a year where you would have won the Vezina every time going back for a while.
Let’s compare Helle’s year to Price’s 2014-15 Hart, in which he won the goaltending “triple crown” with a 0.933 save percentage (0.004 higher than next goalie), 44 wins (3 more than nearest competitor), and 1.96 GAA (0.11 better than next guy).
In save percentage there are 3 guys within 0.03 of Hellebuyck. He’s tied in GAA with Kuemper. He only has 2 more shutouts than Vasy.
Don’t get me wrong, he should be a shoo in for the Vezina, but that’s kind of where it starts and ends for me.
He leads in wins. It’s impressive and he’s played a big part. But it is definitely more of an indication of the team’s success regardless of his role. It’d be one thing if the Jets stunk, but they won the President’s Trophy (again, he does get credit for his role, but would they be out of the playoffs without him?)
Ultimately I think it’s easier to argue that the difference between Kucherov and/or Draisaitl is slimmer than the margin between Hellebuyck and the 5th best goalie. But it’s a tough call and I wouldn’t call him undeserving by any stretch. My main argument is that if you put a guy with 20 fewer points than Kucherov on Tampa or 15 fewer goals than Draisaitl on Edmonton, they would probably be in a more precarious playoff position now than the Jets would if you swapped Hellebuyck with, say, Bobrovsky or Adin Hill. But that’s just my $0.02.
