Does Sergei Bobrovsky deserve to be in the Hockey Hall of Fame?

After the Florida Panthers won Game 7 on Monday to claim the Stanley Cup, captain Aleksander Barkov circled the ice holding the trophy high above his head.

As he returned to his teammates at center ice, there were plenty of worthy choices to hand the Cup to next. Kyle Okposo was new to the team, but the 17-year NHL veteran was finally at the top after years of struggling with weak teams. Defenseman Aaron Ekblad was the franchise's cornerstone, playing the second-most games in a Florida jersey behind Barkov. Sam Reinhart was coming off a 57-goal season, scoring the Cup-winning goal.

Either choice was good, but everyone on the team knew who would be next to grab the Cup. When Matthew Tkachuk playfully shoved Sergei Bobrovsky forward, players scrambled to get out of the way.

The 35-year-old goalie gave the cup a quick kiss before raising it above his head, sweat still dripping from his hair. Unlike many of his teammates, he didn't let out many screams of joy. Instead, he closed his eyes for a moment and then skated quietly away with a broad smile of joy and relief.

Now that he finally has the Cup in his hands, the question arises: Will Sergei Bobrovsky earn a place in the Hockey Hall of Fame?

There are 44 goalies in the Hockey Hall of Fame, and it is notoriously difficult to get into the Hall of Fame as a goalie, with several deserving goalies still in the running for induction.

It's easy to say Bobrovsky will be the obvious choice after nearly throwing his gloves and blocker into the air with just a second left in the game. We're often caught up in the moment, but our recent memories are of Bobrovsky's masterful performances in his last two playoff games. He led Florida to the Cup Final for the second straight year, and despite two tough games after taking a 3-0 lead, Bobrovsky closed out the game with a masterful performance in Game 7. He stopped 23 of the 24 shots he faced Monday, including a beautiful padded save on Evan Bouchard's one-timer with just a few minutes left.

Let's take a moment to step back and look at Bobrovsky's Hall of Fame resume by the numbers. He still has two years remaining on the seven-year, $70 million contract he signed in 2019, and while he's not done yet, his career resume is already impressive.

Let's start with wins. Wins are not the best statistic to analyze individual performance, but rightly or wrongly, goalies are always going to be judged on their wins and losses. Bobrovsky is 14th all-time with 396 regular season wins and needs 27 more wins to move into the top 10. With 36 wins last season, there's a good chance he'll be in the top 10 by this time next year.

Here's how Bobrovsky's career wins compare to goaltenders already in the Hall of Fame: There are a total of 44 goaltenders in the Hall of Fame, but several of them never played in the NHL, and some played very few games, so they're not relevant for a statistical comparison. The comparison only covers the 34 goaltenders who played 100 or more games in the NHL. Scroll through the bars (or click on them if you're reading in an app) to see which Hall of Famer each one represents.

Bobrovsky clearly belongs in this group: Only three goalies with more NHL wins than Bobrovsky are not currently in the Hall of Fame: Marc-Andre Fleury, Curtis Joseph and Chris Osgood.

Fleury will undoubtedly be inducted into the Hall of Fame when he retires. Many believe Joseph is long past his prime, but Osgood's case is debatable, mainly because he played behind teams with so much talent. That's not the case with Bobrovsky, who spent the majority of his career with the mid-major Columbus Blue Jackets and was asked to carry the team on many nights. Still, Bobrovsky already has more wins (396) than Dominik Hasek (389) and last year's Hall of Famers Mike Vernon (385) and Tom Barrasso (369).

Taking into account the shortened 2020-21 season, Bobrovsky is averaging 30 wins per season in his five seasons with Florida, which, if he maintains that rate over the remaining two years of his contract, would rank sixth all-time behind Henrik Lundqvist (459 wins).

Bobrovsky is also tied for 37th all-time with 44 regular season shutout wins. Here's how he compares to other Hall of Fame goalies:

One of the biggest criticisms of Bobrovsky's career has been his lack of success in the postseason, especially in his early years with Philadelphia and Columbus. He went 13-23 as a starter over the first eight years of his career, but he's completely turned that around over the past few years. Not only has he amassed 28 playoff wins in the past two seasons alone, but Bobrovsky has also put together some of the most impressive postseason performances in recent memory.

In addition to this year's miraculous run to the Cup, Bobrovsky was the goaltender in two of the biggest upsets in NHL history, helping the Blue Jackets defeat the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2018-19 following a 62-win regular season. Bobrovsky stopped 109 of 117 shots (.932 save percentage) in Tampa Bay's four-game winning streak to close out the season.

Just four years later, he and the Panthers defeated the Boston Bruins in the first round after a record-breaking 65-win season. Bobrovsky took command in front of Florida's goal midway through the series, helping the Panthers rally from a 3-1 deficit to beat the winningest team in regular season history. On paper, these series were wildly lopsided, but nothing evens things out quite like an in-form goaltender.

Bobrovsky ranks 17th among the 44 goalies already in the Hall of Fame, and with the Panthers currently the favorite to win the Stanley Cup in 2024-24, he's in a good position to improve on that number before retiring.

Now, let's take a closer look at the individual numbers. They're not necessarily easy to compare across eras with vastly different goal scoring and save percentages, but they do paint a more complete picture of Bobrovsky's career.

Bobrovsky's .914 save percentage since entering the league in 2010-11 is not particularly remarkable. It ranks 15th in the league among 41 goalies who have played at least 300 games in that span. Those less-than-impressive numbers are mostly due to two very poor statistical years at Florida (2019-20 and 2022-23). ​​Still, his numbers compare favorably to other Hall of Fame goalies (which is certainly not the best way to compare these goalies, but it's worth mentioning since it's one of the most commonly used statistics to evaluate the position).

Many Hall of Famers are known for their consistency throughout their careers. Lundqvist is a perfect example. He has had eight seasons in which he saved 20 or more goals, surpassing expectations, received Vezina Trophy voting 10 consecutive years and was a finalist for the award five times. He leads all goalies with a 277.94 GSAx since the statistic began being recorded in 2007-08.

That hasn't been Bobrovsky's career, and there's nothing wrong with that. His athletic, explosive style leads to higher highs and lower lows. It's reflected in his stats and accolades. Bobrovsky has a 76.12 GSAx for his career (good enough for sixth place, but far below Lundqvist's numbers). That's because great years like 2016-17, when he stopped at a 45.1 GSAx, are partially offset by slumps like 2019-2021, when he was 23.4 goals below expectations.

This season marks Bobrovsky's third time being a Vezina Trophy finalist. When Bobrovsky shines, he shines brightest, even when compared to other great players. Despite not receiving a single Vezina Trophy vote in the four years since, he is tied with the all-time greats in Vezina vote totals, thanks to a spectacular number of first place votes. This chart is a compilation of all Vezina votes since the award criteria were changed in 1981.

Bobrovsky will add to that total Thursday night at the NHL awards show in Las Vegas. The only question is how many points. The No. 3 goaltender over the past four years has earned between 31 and 36 points, which would move him past Grant Fuhr for ninth all-time. He'll be close to Lundqvist's 300-point mark, and if he earns one first-place vote he'll be tied with Andrei Vasilievskiy for fifth all-time.

Bobrovsky has already won two Vezina Trophies, but only five other goalies have won the award since 1981, and all but Boston's Tim Thomas are Hall of Famers.

But with Monday night's Cup win, Bobrovsky got what Lundqvist didn't: He joined an incredibly small list of goalies who have won multiple Vezina Trophies and Stanley Cups and appears to have secured his place in the Hall of Fame.

The numbers suggest he's Hall of Fame worthy, and while he certainly had a number of less-than-perfect seasons for a Hall of Famer, he also didn't have the benefit of playing on talent-rich teams for the majority of his career like many Hall of Famers already in the game.

Beyond the numbers, Bobrovsky's case is strengthened by the fact that part of a player's eligibility for the Hall of Fame is their impact on the sport, and however arbitrary that decision may be, Bobrovsky's impact has been profound.

He is the winningest Russian goaltender in NHL history and, although he has played limited international matches, he led Russia to a gold medal at the 2014 World Championships in Belarus and won silver the following year with the Czech Republic.

More importantly, he inspired the current generation of Russian goalies that have taken the NHL by storm recently. Vasilievsky, Igor Shesterkin and Ilya Sorokin all have highly athletic, explosive goalkeeping styles that are very similar to Bobrovsky's. That wasn't necessarily the case for the Russian goalies before him. Greats like Evgeny Nabokov and Nikolai Khabibulin both had stand-up styles that are hard to compare to today's game, but they both relied more on positioning than pure athleticism.

Bobrovsky's accomplishments are remarkable, but he still has time to add to them. He's the sixth-oldest goaltender in the NHL this season, turns 36 in September, and shows no signs of slowing down. His legendary work ethic and exceptional flexibility could see him play into his late 30s, but as it stands, Monday night's win might be enough to propel him into the Hall of Fame.

(Photo of Sergei Bobrovsky by Allie Skowronski/Miami Herald/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)