According to records at NHL.com, 70 goalies have dressed for a game with the Pittsburgh Penguins. One of the team’s forgotten players is Tomas Vokoun, the former record-holder for the team’s longest shutout streak.
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Initially drafted by the Montreal Canadiens in the ninth round (226th overall) of the 1994 Draft, he played one game with the organization before being claimed by the Nashville Predators in the 1998 Expansion Draft.
In Tennessee, Vokoun became one of the franchise’s first marquee players, playing eight seasons with the club, dressing in 383 games and compiling a 161-159-46 record with 21 shutouts.
Additionally, with the Predators, he finished as a top-10 candidate for the Vezina Trophy on three occasions. At the time, Vokoun cemented himself as the franchise leader in every major statistical category, only surpassed by Pekka Rinne and, most recently, Juuse Saros.
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Like most good things, they have to come to an end. In June 2007, Nashville dealt him to the Florida Panthers, where he played the next four seasons of his career.
Despite not having a strong supporting cast in Nashville and advancing to the playoffs twice, things were worse in Florida, where he led the league in losses in 2008 and 2010.
As a free agent in 2011, Vokoun signed with the Washington Capitals as a free agent playing 48 games in the Nation’s Capital before coming to the Penguins in June 2012 in a trade for a seventh-round pick.
That season, Vokoun split duties with Marc-Andre Fleury, who was 28 then. In limited action, 20 games, he went 13-4-0 with a 2.45 GAA and .916 SV%.
At 36, he went on one of the most incredible runs by a goalie in Pittsburgh history, setting the then-franchise record for longest shutout streak at 173:06.
His streak began against the New York Islanders on Mar. 22, 2013. After a first-period goal, Josh Bailey scored at 17:18 of the second period, the last tally the Czechia goalie would surrender for the next five games.
In his next appearance, he relived Fluery for 20 minutes and preserved the Penguins’ 1-0 victory over Montreal. On Mar. 28, 2013, he played the entire game against the Winnipeg Jets, locking down a 20-save shutout victory to extend his streak.
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Riding the hot hand, Vokoun started the next game against the Islanders and walked away with another shutout on 35 saves.
However, in his next start, against the Buffalo Sabres on Apr. 2, 2013, his streak ended at 10:24 of the first period when Kevin Porter lit the lamp.
Interestingly, his teammate that season, Fleury, came close twice in 2014-15 from catching and surpassing Vokoun’s mark, recording streaks of 164:22 and 165:06, but no one else came close to breaking the record until Tristan Jarry did in 2019-20 with a 177:15 streak.
Before advancing to the Stanley Cup playoffs with the Penguins in 2012-13, he had skated in only 11 postseason games (3-8) with the Predators. During his last run for a championship, Vokoun stepped in for Fleury and guided Pittsburgh to the Eastern Conference Final.
He was 6-5 with a .933 SV% and a 2.09 GAA, picking up two wins over the Islanders in the first round while helping the Penguins eliminate the Ottawa Senators in five games before a sweep at the hands of the Boston Bruins.
After two starts with the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins in 2013-14, Vokoun announced his retirement on Dec. 14, 2014. His NHL totals included a 300-288-78 record in 700 games with 51 shutouts.
At the time of his announcement, he had one of the most memorable but brief runs as a netminder in Penguins history.
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