Ilya Sorokin, Jeremy Swayman, Andrei Vasilevskiy Named Vezina Trophy Finalists
The NHL has officially announced the field for the 2025-26 Vezina Trophy, naming Ilya Sorokin (New York Islanders), Jeremy Swayman (Boston Bruins), and Andrei Vasilevskiy (Tampa Bay Lightning) as the three finalists. Voted on by the league’s general managers, the award recognizes the goaltender deemed most valuable to his team at the position.
This year’s group features a mix of powerhouse names and rising stars who have carried their respective clubs through an 82-game season.
Sorokin returns to the finalist circle for the second time in his career after a season where he was arguably the league’s busiest and most reliable netminder. Despite the Islanders’ inconsistent defensive metrics, Sorokin was a human highlight reel, leading the NHL with seven shutouts across 55 games played. He posted a 29-24-2 record with a 2.68 GAA and .906 SV%, but his case for the award is notably from his league-leading 452 high-danger saves.
Swayman has taken the reins in Boston and proved he is a bona fide elite starting goaltender. The 27-year-old recorded a career-high 31 wins and led all goaltenders with 38 starts with a SV% of .900 or better. Finishing the year with a 31-18-4 record, a 2.71 GAA, and a .907 SV%, Swayman’s ability to handle a heavy workload while maintaining elite performances night after night helped a transitional Bruins roster secure the top Wild Card spot in the East.
Vasilevskiy reminded the world why he remains the gold standard for modern goaltending, leading the NHL in wins for the sixth time in his career. Across 58 appearances, he posted a 39-15-4 record, with an historic 17-0-1 record during the middle of the season. He finished the campaign ranked second in the league in GAA at 2.31 and tied for fourth in save percentage at .912, making his sixth time as a Vezina finalist as he seeks to capture the trophy for the first time since 2019.
While Vasilevskiy holds the advantage in traditional win-loss metrics and goals against average, Sorokin’s case is built on the immense degree of difficulty he faced in New York. Swayman, on the other hand, represents a newer guard, showing that he can maintain elite efficiency over a full season’s workload. The winner will be revealed during the NHL Awards ceremony later this summer.
Latest On Bruins Lineup
Boston Bruins forward Viktor Arvidsson has been ruled out for Game 5 in Buffalo, reported by Amalie Benjamin, Senior Writer at the NHL. He did not travel with the team.
Arvidsson’s Bruins are on the brink of elimination, but he’s done his part with two tallies in the series. He’ll hope they can extend their season tonight and buy enough time for a potential return, as soon as Game 6 on Friday, if necessary.
Nikita Zadorov Fined For Cross-Checking
- The NHL’s Department of Player Safety announced that Boston Bruins defenseman Nikita Zadorov has been fined $5K, the maximum allowable, for cross-checking Buffalo Sabres defenseman Rasmus Dahlin in Game 4. It was an expected, albeit underwhelming outcome. In yesterday’s contest, well after the whistle, Zadorov calmly skated up to Dahlin and delivered a cross-check to Dahlin’s back, which caused Zadorov’s stick to break. It’s hard to argue that there wasn’t intent to injure based on the video, making the NHL’s decision not to suspend him a bit perplexing.
[SOURCE LINK]
Bruins’ Viktor Arvidsson Leaves Game With Injury
Game 4 wasn’t the only thing the Boston Bruins lost today. Before the end of the game, the Bruins announced that veteran winger Viktor Arvidsson had left the game with an upper-body injury.
Arvidsson informally left the game with only a few minutes remaining in the first period. After the Buffalo Sabres had already taken a commanding lead, defenseman Mattias Samuelsson landed a hard hit on Arvidsson along the boards, which seemingly shook the winger up. The hit wasn’t dirty by any stretch of the imagination, and likely just caught Arvidsson in the wrong spot.
Already on the brink of elimination, the possibility of being without Arvidsson in Game 5 certainly lowers the Bruins’ chances of staving off the Sabres any longer. The 33-year-old forward was electric in Boston’s only win of the series thus far, scoring two goals with a +1 rating in Game 2 in 13:52 of ice time.
If Arvidsson is unable to go when the series continues in Buffalo, the Bruins will have to sort out the top six of the forward group. Head coach Marco Sturm will likely move Marat Khusnutdinov to the top line alongside Elias Lindholm and David Pastrnak, while moving Morgan Geekie down to the second line to take Arvidsson’s spot. Regardless, it puts the Bruins in an even bigger hole after getting embarrassed on their home ice.
Michael DiPietro Wins Les Cunningham Award
The Providence Bruins, AHL affiliate of the Boston Bruins, announced that netminder Michael DiPietro has won the Les Cunningham Award, given to the AHL’s regular season MVP. DiPietro becomes the first goaltender to win the award since Dustin Wolf in 2023, and only the third since Jason LaBarbera in 2004.
DiPietro, 26, is in his fourth season with the Bruins organization. The former Vancouver Canucks prospect was traded to the Bruins organization at the start of the 2022-23 campaign in a trade for Jack Studnicka. Largely blocked in Boston behind Jeremy Swayman and Joonas Korpisalo, DiPietro has been particularly good over the last several years but took his performance to a different level this year.
The AHL Bruins relied heavily on DiPietro this season, giving him 62.5% of the available starts. In one of the best seasons in recent memory, DiPietro finished with a 34-8-1 record in 45 games with a .930 SV%, 1.91 GAA, including three shutouts. Unless the Bruins move Korpisalo this summer, DiPietro is unlikely to find his way to the NHL with Boston. Much like the Canucks did last summer with Arturs Silovs, the Bruins could look to trade DiPietro for a premium to a goalie-needy team.
Bruins Sign Billy Sweezey To One-Year, Two-Way Extension
The Boston Bruins have re-signed pending unrestricted free agent Billy Sweezey to a one-year, two-way contract. The deal will carry a cap hit of $850K in the NHL. Sweezey has spent the last five seasons in the AHL. He joined the Providence Bruins in 2024 and serves as an alternate captain for the club.
Sweezey has racked up 17 points, 84 penalty minutes, and a career-high plus-21 in 69 games this season. His single goal on the season gave Sweezey three consecutive seasons with only one score – a pattern he repeated in the first three seasons of his career at Yale University. Sweezey has continued to offer the chippy, defensive style that he took on way back with the USHL’s Chicago Steel in 2015.
Sweezey signed his first pro contract with the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins in 2020, after racking up 29 points and 159 penalty minutes in 127 games at Yale. He only reached four assists in 22 games in the AHL’s shortened 2020-21 season. He left the Penguins and signed a deal with the Cleveland Monsters in the following summer. A move to Ohio proved to bring much more action, pushing Sweezey to 11 points and 114 penalty minutes in 70 games of his first season in Cleveland.
His 2021-22 performance was such a pleasant surprise that the Columbus Blue Jackets signed Sweezey to a two-way NHL contract in March 2022. The Blue Jackets vindicated that deal roughly one year later, when Sweezey made his NHL debut on February 26, 2023. He would go on to play in nine games with Columbus marked by one assist, nine penalty minutes, and a minus three. Sweezey has since spent the last three seasons in a full-time, AHL role – though the Boston Bruins kept him on an NHL contract when they signed him out of free agency. Sweezey has already recorded 27 points and 151 penalty minutes in 133 games with the Providence Bruins and will stay on a two-way NHL deal next season.
Victor Soderstrom Linked To Swiss League
When the Bruins acquired and signed Victor Soderstrom, the defenseman was hoping that he would get that elusive extended NHL opportunity. However, that hasn’t been the case as he has once again spent most of the season in the minors. As a result, he’s eyeing a return overseas as Expressen’s Johan Svensson and Mattias Persson report that the blueliner is expected to sign with EHC Biel-Bienne in Switzerland for next season.
The 25-year-old was a first-round pick by Arizona back in 2019 but after seeing limited opportunities with the Coyotes, he opted to head overseas at the end of his entry-level contract, returning to SHL Brynas. Arizona retained his NHL rights and ultimately flipped them to Chicago at the 2025 trade deadline with Boston acquiring those rights three months later and signing him to a two-way deal.
But Soderstrom went through waivers unclaimed in training camp and outside an eight-game stint in Boston in December (where he had an assist and averaged 13:41 per game), he has played exclusively with AHL Providence. Soderstrom has done well in the minors, tallying nine goals and 21 assists in 57 games and should be set for a long playoff run with Providence guaranteed to finish the season with the AHL’s top record, earning them the Macgregor Kilpatrick Trophy.
Soderstrom is set to become a Group Six unrestricted free agent this summer and could have entertained offers to see if a better opportunity was out there. But with how this year has gone, he’d likely be viewed as a recallable depth player elsewhere as well so instead of repeating this season, it appears he’ll try his hand in the Swiss league next season.
James Hagens Likely To Be In Playoff Lineup
- Boston Bruins star prospect James Hagens will most likely be in the lineup for the first game of the team’s upcoming series against the Buffalo Sabres, head coach Marco Sturm told the media today. Hagens, 19, has gotten into two career NHL games so far and has registered one assist, playing a third-line winger role alongside Fraser Minten and Marat Khusnutdinov. Hagens scored four points in six games at the AHL level and managed 23 goals and 47 points in 34 games playing for Boston College this year. He’s been widely considered the Bruins’ top prospect since the team selected him No. 7 overall at the 2025 draft.
Bruins Receive Elevated Draft Compensation
- The Maple Leafs aren’t the only team in the Atlantic Division to reap the benefits of another team making the postseason. Since the Philadelphia Flyers made the playoffs, the Boston Bruins will receive the Red Wings’ 2026 fourth-round pick from the Anaheim Ducks in the trade that sent Jeffrey Viel to Orange County a few months ago (via PuckPedia).
[SOURCE LINK]
Bruins Recall Lukas Reichel
4/11: One day later, the Bruins have reversed Reichel’s assignment, recalling him back to the NHL roster ahead of Sunday’s game against the Columbus Blue Jackets. He will offer another forward option should Boston decide not to ice Hagens.
4/10: The Bruins assigned forward Lukas Reichel to AHL Providence on Friday, per a team announcement. It’s not expected to be a long-term demotion, though, Ty Anderson of 98.5 The Sports Hub relays. He’ll get into action for Providence tonight before being added back to the roster as early as Saturday.
That makes sense considering he’s sat out of two of Boston’s last three games. While head coach Marco Sturm confirmed new rookie addition James Hagens will be a healthy scratch tomorrow morning against the Lightning, his inclusion on the roster only makes NHL playing time for Reichel a tougher battle to fight.
Boston acquired Reichel, the 17th overall pick in 2020, from the Canucks at the trade deadline for a sixth-round pick. Vancouver had acquired the struggling 23-year-old from the Blackhawks just a few months prior for a fourth.
At the time of the trade, he was on an AHL assignment after clearing waivers, so he reported to Providence to begin his B’s tenure. The German sharpshooter looked like a natural there, racking up a goal and four assists through his first three games.
That earned him a quick recall to Boston. Since then, he’s averaged 12:53 of ice time across nine contests, scoring once and adding a pair of assists.
Reichel’s physicality remains a non-factor, but his possession impacts, an area of concern throughout his career in Chicago and still through his pit stop in Vancouver this year, have seen improvement in a small sample. Boston has controlled 53.0% of shot attempts with Reichel on the ice at 5-on-5 despite him receiving the least defensively sheltered usage of his career.
That’s mostly due to Reichel being able to effectively gel on a high-event third line with Elias Lindholm and Morgan Geekie. They gave up considerable quality defensively in their nine games together but were able to produce enough quality chances to offset, controlling 52.2% of expected goals and outscoring opponents 6-2, per MoneyPuck.
If Reichel can keep up that level of play, there are worse options to toss into that position in the playoffs if a need arises. With Geekie and Lindholm now being bumped up the lineup to skate with David Pastrňák, though, there’s less of a fit for Reichel in the lineup with less two-way support available for him in the middle six.
Reichel is a pending restricted free agent with arbitration rights. His inability to hold down a full-time NHL job this season makes it unlikely that the Bruins will risk themselves getting roped into an award, nor will they likely be willing to extend him the $1.3MM qualifying offer he’s owed. While a strong non-tender candidate, Boston could look to bring him back on a cheaper deal if both sides have liked the fit thus far.