Braden Holtby may not challenge for the Vezina Trophy anymore, but this season, he showed that he absolutely still has it at age 32.

Serving as the Dallas Stars’ backup, Holtby sported his best save percentage, .913, since the 2016-17 season with the Capitals. He also was honored by the NHL for making the save of the season.

Holtby’s award winner was actually a sequence where he made three consecutive 10-bell saves on the Carolina Hurricanes, punctuated by a miracle glove stop while he was laying on his side. Holtby denied Andrei Svechnikov on a breakaway, stopped Seth Jarvis face-down with his pad, and caught a Svechnikov rebound out of the air with his glove while on his side.

The Stars would go on to win 4-1. Holtby made 39 saves on the evening. He also became the winningest goaltender in NHL history through their first 500 games.

“I’m not as good at it as some guys are,” Holtby said of laying on his side via The Athletic’s Saad Yousuf. “Kind of learned it from Thatcher (Demko) last year, he’s pretty good at it so you kind of see that it works.”

Holtby made the 2020-21 list too for his human windmill stop as a member of the Vancouver Canucks. That save, according to the NHL, was the fourth-best save of the year.

Holtby, a 2018 Stanley Cup champion with the Capitals, will be an unrestricted free agent this summer.

"I hope I never reach the top of my game." – Braden Holtby, zen as fuck

— RMNB (@rmnb) February 4, 2015

Capitals’ third-string goaltender Zach Fucale was also honored by the NHL for making the sixth-best stop of the 2021-22 season.

Headline photo: Elizabeth Kong/RMNB