Jacob Fowler: The Calder, yes, but the Vézina, too

Maxime Truman
Jacob Fowler: The Calder, yes, but the Vézina, too
Credit: Matt Garies/NHLI via Getty Images

Where to start?

Let's just say that giving Jacob Fowler and Mike Matheson some credit for their performance last night is a great place to start. Fowler and Matheson were incredible against the Blues.

Jacob Fowler had the best game of his career yesterday in St. Louis. He stopped all 46 shots he faced to record his second shutout of the season and the third of his NHL career. Do I need to remind you that he's played just seven games this season… and only 24 in his entire career in the Bettman league?

Yesterday, Fowler delivered a masterpiece of a performance. Not only was Fowler named the game's first star, but he also put up the best goaltending performance in the NHL since the start of the season.

It's not just me saying this: two experts in advanced statistics have each confirmed it independently.

Yesterday, he theoretically should have allowed four goals; he allowed none.

Fowler has played nearly 430 minutes since the start of the season, and Stéphane Waite is still waiting for his first bad goal.

The young Floridian is the goaltender who has saved the most goals in the entire NHL since the start of the season. Nothing less!

According to advanced stats, Fowler should have allowed 21 goals since the start of the season (in seven games). Instead, he's allowed only 11. That's 10 fewer! That might be five more points in the standings that the Habs have been able to accumulate thanks to Fowler—points they might not have earned if Jakub Dobes had been in net.

If we set aside the advanced stats for a moment and look only at the traditional statistics, we arrive at the same conclusion: Jacob Fowler is having an incredible start to the season, while Jakub Dobes's has been dreadful. And that conclusion holds true on every level!

(Credit: NHL.com)

Yesterday, in the third period, Jacob Fowler turned into Carey Price. Calm, confident, and inspiring, he stopped 24 shots, helping his team secure a classic 2-0 road win.

Many people mention Fowler's name when discussing the next Calder Trophy winner. However, if this continues, those same people will have to add the Vézina Trophy to the conversation. Because right now, Fowler—who has won his last six games—is certainly playing like a potential Vézina Trophy winner.

He even has the audacity to try to score goals!

I'll say it again: the contract that Jeff Gorton and Kent Hughes gave Jakub Dobes over the summer—in the absence of a major acquisition—could really turn into a nightmare. If Dobes doesn't get his act together, paying him more than $5 million per season through 2030 could become a liability.

Besides, can Marco Marciano and Martin St-Louis—who made the right call by trusting Fowler yesterday—really send Jakub Dobes into the fray in Dallas tomorrow night?

I'm not so sure…

The Avalanche were interested in Jayden Struble

I appeared on my good friend Jean Trudel's Stanley25 podcast yesterday afternoon. The episode was released early this evening, and I revealed an interesting piece of information (among several juicy stories).

Very reliable sources told me that before he was traded, Jayden Struble had been put on the trade market. It wasn't the Predators who forced the Habs' hand into agreeing to trade Struble; it was the Canadiens who had invited other teams to offer something in exchange for Struble's services.

The Avalanche were interested in Struble, and according to my sources, members of management contacted people in Montreal to find out if Struble would be a good fit in the Avalanche's (unique) locker room.

Everyone surveyed expressed doubts.

Why? Basically, the Avs' veterans—starting with Nathan MacKinnon—demand an almost obsessive level of dedication from their teammates. They want the guys to be ultra-serious—all the time. They want every Avalanche player to think about nothing but hockey, basically.

Jayden Struble, unlike Artturi Lehkonen, for example, might not be as focused or 100% dedicated.

That's fine—he's entitled to that… but he's not the kind of player the Avalanche is looking for when they acquire a new player.

The good news is that Struble seems to be a perfect fit for the Preds, and in the end, everyone—even Arber Xhekaj and Adam Engstrom—seems thrilled with the trade. A win-win, as they say.

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