“Sorokin robbed” – NHL fans react as Lightning’s Andrei Vasilevskiy wins Vezina Trophy

While the Tampa Bay Lightning’s 2026 ended in disaster, the team’s goaltender, Andrei Vasilevskiy, is ending his season on a high note. In the 2025-26 season, the Lightning made the playoffs, but they were eliminated by the Montreal Canadiens in Round 1.

Although elimination was a setback for Vasilevskiy, too, he can smile knowing he has won the prestigious Vezina Trophy. On X), Chris Johnston wrote a tweet in which he mentioned Andrei Vasilevskiy won the Vezina Trophy over Ilya Sorokin and Jeremy Swayman, who finished second and third, respectively.

After Johnston’s tweet went viral, there were mixed reactions among NHL fans. One user reacted to Johnston’s tweet by mentioning that Sorokin has been robbed.

Let us take a look at more reactions:

“Bro no way people actually thought Sorokin should’ve won it over Vasy 😂,” a fan wrote.

“How John Gibson isn’t top 5 just blows my mind he legit carried Detroit all year,” one fan wrote.

“Swayman robbed no one faced a harder challenge night in and night out without him the bruins are in the lottery. Save percentage is now an overrated stat,” a user wrote.

“I’m surprised it’s not closer, maybe if the Islanders made the playoffs it’d be different. The Islanders are such an astronomically mid team and he was the single reason they even were close to the playoffs,” one user wrote.

“Would love to know the preseason odds of Vladar getting a 2nd place vote for a Vezina!,” a fan wrote.

The 2025-26 regular season was exceptional for Andrei Vasilevskiy. He featured in 58 games for the Lightning and boasted 39 wins with a .912 save percentage. In the playoffs, Vasilevskiy played all seven games, winning 3 and recording a .897 save percentage.

Andrei Vasilevskiy dropped a message after winning the Vezina Trophy

The Tampa Bay Lightning shared a video on their Instagram account, showing how Andrei Vasilevskiy was presented with the Vezina Trophy. According to the shared video, the team took help from the Tampa Police Department.

First, Vasilevskiy’s car keys were stolen, and the bag containing the trophy was placed inside the car. Later, the Tampa Bay Police Department was called to investigate a suspicious item in the player’s vehicle. However, when the police removed the bag from the car, Vasilevskiy realised he had won the Vezina Trophy.

Once the trophy was presented to Vasilevskiy, he quickly headed to take photos. On his personal IG account, he shared a photo with the trophy and wrote, “Thank you all for your support.” He also reshared a post from Tampa Bay’s Police Department on his story.

Andrei Vasilevskiy has been with the Tampa Bay Lightning since the start of his NHL career. The organization drafted him 19th overall in the 2012 NHL Entry Draft. The Vezina Trophy Vasilevskiy won is the second time he has received this honor. He is also a two-time Stanley Cup winner.