Bruins’ Linus Ullmark Has Put Himself In Vezina Trophy Conversation
Ullmark leads the NHL in a few statistics
Boston Bruins goalie Linus Ullmark is having by far the best start to a season in his eight-year NHL career.
And with that, Ullmark has put himself squarely in the early-season conversation as a prime contender for the coveted Vezina Trophy, which is handed out to the league’s top goalie.
Ullmark has dazzled between the pipes in his second season with the Bruins. He boasts a 12-1-0 mark as his 12 wins lead the entire NHL while he also holds top marks with a 1.89 goals against average and .937 save percentage.
Despite the stellar start, Ullmark isn’t viewed as one of the top frontrunners for the Vezina Trophy by oddsmakers, but he’s certainly in the running. That could be a good thing for bettors as Ullmark still presents solid value. Ullmark has the sixth-best odds at +1200 by DraftKings Sportsbook to take home the end-of-season hardware.
Here are the goalies ahead of Ullmark with better odds on the DraftKings betting sheet:
Igor Shesterkin +450
Jake Oettinger +650
Ilya Sorokin +750
Connor Hellebuyck +1000
Andrei Vasilevskiy +1000
Linus Ullmark +1200
Oddsmakers clearly think Ullmark will regress back to his averages over the course of the season since there are still five goalies who have better odds than him. But if Ullmark only backslides a little and continues his terrific play, for the most part, he will make quite the case to be named the Vezina Trophy winner.
The Bruins have leaned on Ullmark early on, and he has held up well while to starting 13 of Boston’s first 17 games, but it will be interesting to see how first-year coach Jim Montgomery uses him now that Jeremy Swayman has returned from injury.
After posting a win on Thursday, Ullmark gets a night off Saturday with the Chicago Blackhawks in town. It will be Swayman’s first game action since Nov. 1.
