William M. Jennings Trophy

The **William M. Jennings Trophy** is an award in the National Hockey League (NHL) given each year to "to the goalkeeper(s) having played a minimum of 25 games for the team with the fewest goals scored against it. Winners are selected based on regular-season play." Up until 1981, the Vezina Trophy had been awarded under that definition, but it was later changed and replaced by the Jennings Trophy. Since it began in 1982, it has been awarded at the end of 25 seasons to 27 different players. The most recent winners are Corey Crawford of the Chicago Blackhawks and Carey Price of the Montreal Canadiens, who both allowed only 189 team goals against for their teams in the 2014–15 NHL season.

## History

Until the 1980–81 season, the Vezina Trophy was awarded to the goaltender(s) of the team allowing the fewest goals during the regular season. However, it was discovered that this often meant the trophy went to the goaltender of the better team rather than the individual, so they changed it to offer the Vezina to the most outstanding goaltender, as voted by the NHL General Managers. The William M. Jennings Trophy was created as a replacement and is given to the goaltender(s) playing for the team with the fewest goals scored against them.

The Jennings Trophy was donated by the NHL's board of governors and first handed out at the end of the 1981–82 season. It is named for the late William M. Jennings, who was a governor and president of the New York Rangers and who helped build ice hockey in the United States. Normally the lowest number of games a goaltender must play to be eligible for the trophy is 25, but for the lockout shortened 1994–95 season, the lowest was fourteen games.

Five players have won both the Jennings and Vezina Trophy for the same season: Patrick Roy (1988–89 and 1991–92), Ed Belfour (1990–91 and 1992–93), Dominik Hasek (1993–94 and 2000–01), Martin Brodeur (2002–03 and 2003–04) and Miikka Kiprusoff (2005–06). Roy has won the trophy five times, the most of any goaltender. Belfour and Brodeur are tied for second, having each won the trophy four times. It has been won most often by the Montreal Canadiens, on 5 occasions. The New Jersey Devils have won four times, and Buffalo Sabres and Chicago Blackhawks have three wins each.

## Winners

**Bold** Player with the fewest goals ever scored against in a season.

|scope="col"|Season|scope="col"|Winner|scope="col"|Team|scope="col"||scope="col"|Win #|scope="col"|Team Win #|
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|rowspan=2|||rowspan=2|Montreal Canadiens|rowspan=2|223|1|rowspan="2"|1|||
|Denis Herron|1|||||||||||
|rowspan=2|||rowspan=2 bgcolor="#ccffcc"|New York Islanders|rowspan=2|226|1|rowspan="2"|1|||
|Billy Smith|1|||||||||||
|rowspan=2|||rowspan=2|Washington Capitals|rowspan=2|226|1|rowspan="2"|1|||
|Pat Riggin|1|||||||||||
|rowspan=2||bgcolor="#FBCCE7"||rowspan=2|Buffalo Sabres|rowspan=2|237|1|rowspan="2"|1||
|Bob Sauve|1|||||||||||
|rowspan=2|||rowspan=2|Philadelphia Flyers|rowspan=2|241|1|rowspan="2"|1|||
|Darren Jensen|1|||||||||||
|rowspan=2||bgcolor="#FBCCE7"||rowspan=2|Montreal Canadiens|rowspan=2|241|1|rowspan="2"|2||
|Brian Hayward|1|||||||||||
|rowspan=2||bgcolor="#FBCCE7"||rowspan=2|Montreal Canadiens|rowspan=2|238|2|rowspan="2"|3||
|Brian Hayward|2|||||||||||
|rowspan=2||bgcolor="#FBCCE7"||rowspan=2|Montreal Canadiens|rowspan=2|218|3|rowspan="2"|4||
|Brian Hayward|3|||||||||||
|rowspan=2|||rowspan=2|Boston Bruins|rowspan=2|232|1|rowspan="2"|1|||
||1|||||||||||
||bgcolor="#FBCCE7"||Chicago Blackhawks|211|1|1||||||
||bgcolor="#FBCCE7"||Montreal Canadiens|207|4|5||||||
||bgcolor="#FBCCE7"||Chicago Blackhawks|239|2|2||||||
|rowspan=2||bgcolor="#FBCCE7"||rowspan=2|Buffalo Sabres|rowspan=2|218|1|rowspan="2"|2||
|Grant Fuhr|1|||||||||||
||bgcolor="#FBCCE7"||Chicago Blackhawks|115|3|3||||||
|rowspan=2|||rowspan=2|Detroit Red Wings|rowspan=2|181|1|rowspan="2"|1|||
|Mike Vernon|1|||||||||||
|rowspan=2||bgcolor="#FBCCE7"||rowspan=2|New Jersey Devils|rowspan=2|182|1|rowspan="2"|1||
|Mike Dunham|1|||||||||||
||bgcolor="#FBCCE7"||New Jersey Devils|166|2|2||||||
|rowspan=2||bgcolor="#FBCCE7"||rowspan=2 bgcolor="#ccffcc"|Dallas Stars|rowspan=2|168|4|rowspan="2"|1||
|Roman Turek|1|||||||||||
|||St. Louis Blues|165|2|1|||||||
||bgcolor="#FBCCE7"||Buffalo Sabres|184|2|3||||||
||bgcolor="#FBCCE7"||Colorado Avalanche|169|5|1||||||
|rowspan=3||bgcolor="#FBCCE7"||bgcolor="#ccffcc"|New Jersey Devils|166|3|3||||
||rowspan=2|Philadelphia Flyers|rowspan=2|166|1|rowspan=2|2|||||
||1|||||||||||
|****|bgcolor="#FBCCE7"|****|**New Jersey Devils**|**164**|**4**|4||||||
|||Calgary Flames|200|1|1|||||||
|rowspan=2|||rowspan=2|Minnesota Wild|rowspan=2|191|1|rowspan="2"|1|||
||1|||||||||||
|rowspan=2||bgcolor="#FBCCE7"||rowspan=2 bgcolor="#ccffcc"|Detroit Red Wings|rowspan=2|184|3|rowspan="2"|2||
|Chris Osgood|2|||||||||||
|rowspan=2|||rowspan=2|Boston Bruins|rowspan=2|196|1|rowspan=2|2|||
||2|||||||||||
||bgcolor="#FBCCE7"||New Jersey Devils|191|5|5||||||
|rowspan=2||bgcolor="#FBCCE7"||rowspan=2|Vancouver Canucks|rowspan=2|185|1|rowspan=2|1||
|bgcolor="#ffffcc"||1||||||||||
|rowspan=2||bgcolor="#ffffcc"||rowspan=2|St. Louis Blues|rowspan=2|165|1|rowspan=2|2||
|bgcolor="#CFECEC"|Jaroslav Halak|1||||||||||
|rowspan=2|||rowspan=2 bgcolor="#ccffcc"|Chicago Blackhawks|rowspan=2|102|1|rowspan="2"|4|||
|Ray Emery|1|||||||||||
||bgcolor="#CFECEC"||bgcolor="#ccffcc"|Los Angeles Kings|174|1|1|||||
|rowspan=2|||bgcolor="#ccffcc"|Chicago Blackhawks|rowspan=2|189|2|5||||
|bgcolor="#ffffcc"||Montreal Canadiens|1|6||||||||
|rowspan=2||bgcolor="#CFECEC"||rowspan=2|Anaheim Ducks|rowspan=2|192|1|rowspan=2|1||
|bgcolor="#CFECEC"||1||||||||||
||bgcolor="#CFECEC"||Washington Capitals|182|1|2||||||
||bgcolor="#CFECEC"||Los Angeles Kings|203|2|2||||||
|rowspan=2||bgcolor="#CFECEC"||rowspan=2|New York Islanders|rowspan=2|191|1|rowspan=2|2||
|bgcolor="#CFECEC"||1||||||||||
|rowspan=2||bgcolor="#ffffcc"||rowspan=2|Boston Bruins|rowspan=2|174|1|rowspan=2|3||
|bgcolor="#CFECEC"||2||||||||||
|rowspan=2||bgcolor="#CFECEC"||rowspan=2|Vegas Golden Knights|rowspan=2|124|1|rowspan=2|1||
|bgcolor="#CFECEC"||2||||||||||
|rowspan=2||bgcolor="#CFECEC"||rowspan=2|Carolina Hurricanes|rowspan=2|202|2|rowspan=2|1||
|bgcolor="#CFECEC"||1||||||||||
|rowspan=2||bgcolor="#CFECEC"||rowspan=2|Boston Bruins|rowspan=2|177|1|rowspan=2|4||
|bgcolor="#CFECEC"||1||||||||||
||bgcolor="#CFECEC"||Winnipeg Jets|199|1|1||||||

## Notes

_For the 2002–03 season, there was a tie between Martin Brodeur of the New Jersey Devils and Robert Esche and Roman Cechmanek of the Philadelphia Flyers. This is the only time that there has been a tie between players from different teams._

## References

- General
- Specific

## Infobox (sports award)

- **name**: William M. Jennings Trophy
- **image**: William_M._Jennings_Trophy_(Hockey_Hall_of_Fame,_Toronto).jpg
- **sport**: Ice hockey
- **givenfor**: National Hockey League goaltender(s) that have played for the team that allows the fewest goals scored against it.
- **first**: 1981–82 NHL season
- **mostrecent**: Connor Hellebuyck
Winnipeg Jets