It’s pretty obvious that someone from the Florida Panthers or Vegas Golden Knights will wind up putting the Conn Smythe Trophy on his mantle. And it would seem to us that the player who is most responsible for his team is Sergei Bobrovsky, who has been so good that he almost does not appear human.
Bobrovsky has not come out of nowhere; indeed, he has won two Vezina Trophies from his tenure with the Columbus Blue Jackets. But since signing a seven-year, $70 million contract to play with the Panthers, things have been up and down for him.
In the 2020-21 season, he was solid enough, with a 19-10 record, but he stumbled in the playoffs, with a .841 save percentage against Tampa Bay before he was yanked in favor of Chris Driedger. In 2021-22, he led the Panthers to win the President’s Trophy, which went to the team with the best record. And Bobrovsky had 39 victories to lead the NHL. But disappointment followed, as Florida was swept by Tampa Bay in the playoffs, and there were plenty of trade rumors surrounding Bobrovsky, specifically on some of the best NHL betting sites.
The purpose was to free up some cap space so that GM Bill Zito could sign some players. But “Bob” has a “no-movement” clause in his contract that allows him to reject trades. The Panthers were a borderline playoff team this season, and near the end, Alex Lyon had to be summoned from the AHL to help the team secure the last spot in the postseason field on the last day of the season.
But Lyon got a little worn out, and coach Paul Maurice had to take him out of action after three games against the Boston Bruins. Brobovsky came back in, and the rest could wind up being history.
Brobovsky is indeed the favorite to win the Conn Smythe Trophy (emblematic of being the Most Valuable Player in the playoffs).
Here are the odds, as they are posted at BetOnline:
| To Win the 2023 Conn Smythe Trophy | |
| Sergei Bobrovsky | +200 |
| Jack Eichel | +400 |
| Matthew Tkachuk | +400 |
| Mark Stone | +500 |
| Jonathan Marchessault | +1000 |
| Adin Hill | +1200 |
| William Karlsson | +1800 |
| Aleksander Barkov | +2000 |
| Sebastian Aho | +3300 |
| Brandon Montour | +3500 |
| Frederik Andersen | +5000 |
Goalies get hot, and sometimes that can happen in the playoffs, but it can be argued that there is no goaltender in the world who is doing what Bob did through the first three games of the Eastern Conference finals series against Carolina. He has stopped 132 of 135 shots, which gives him a .978 save percentage. He played all the way through a four-overtime marathon in Game 2, and then, while Carolina switched out its man in net for Game 3, coach Paul Maurice stuck with the veteran and got a shutout.
Why would he ever want to change now? The guy is 10-2 with a 2.15 GAA in the postseason.
What makes Bobrovsky’s performance even better is that the Hurricanes have not exactly been stopped cold by the Florida backline. In fact, Carolina holds a 135-103 edge in shots on goal. The Panthers even had a power play in which they gave up six shots on goal.
So, while the acquisition of Matthew Tkachuck, who scored overtime goals to win the first two games of this series, has been crucial, let’s not have any illusions about the reason the Panthers are here, on the brink of a Stanley Cup final for the first time since 1996, and doing it as a #8 seed.
And do you think anyone’s wondering out loud now about why the Panthers signed the guy for $10 million a year?
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