1 week Ago By Adam Gretz, Yardbarker
Tampa Bay Lightning goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy has been one of the best goalies in the NHL over the past decade, putting together a Hall of Fame resume that has included Stanley Cups and a Vezina Trophy. He added to his legacy on Thursday night by winning the 300th game of his career, becoming just the 40th goalie to ever reach that milestone. He got the win by helping the Lightning to a 4-1 victory over the Winnipeg Jets, the NHL's best team through the first month of the season.
He stopped 23 out of 24 shots. Vasilevskiy ended up reaching that number in only 490 games, making him the fastest player to ever get there, surpassing Hall of Fame goalie Jacques Plante. Big Cat territory Andrei Vasilevskiy surpasses Jacques Plante to become the fastest goalie to 300 wins, achieving the feat in 490 games played! pic.
twitter.com/GSHIzwxhRY The obvious asterisk that will come with that — and with any goalie win milestone in the modern era — is that Vasilevskiy has played in the era of overtime and shootout wins, which absolutely aids win totals for today's goalies. Players like Plante did not have that luxury in the past.
Even with that being the case, Vasilevskiy is one of the best goalies of the modern era and one of the best to ever play in the NHL. He has averaged 36 wins per season over the past seven years. If he reaches at least that mark this season that would be an additional 29 wins this season.
An additional 29 wins would allow him to crack the top-30 on the NHL's all-time wins list. Vasilevskiy, 30, should still have at least another five or six years of top-level play ahead of him, and as long as the Lightning team around him is still a contender he has a chance to easily surpass the 400-win mark and keep climbing the all-time leaderboard..
