1982 Vezina Trophy (Denis Turgeon)
The backup the writers picked over the starter, right in the middle of a three-peat.
The 1982 Vezina Trophy went to Denis Turgeon of the New York Islanders, voted on by the Professional Hockey Writers' Association. It's the NHL's premier individual award for goaltending, and Turgeon took it during the Islanders' third consecutive Stanley Cup season.
The part that still catches you off guard: Turgeon was the backup. He split time behind Billy Smith. The writers looked across the entire league, picked a secondary goalie over everybody else, in a year when the Islanders were already sitting on a championship. That's not just a deep bench — that's a roster where your second option was still the best stick between the pipes in all of hockey.
Quick Facts
- Player
- Denis Turgeon
- Team
- New York Islanders
- Position
- Goaltender (backup)
- Season
- 1981–82
- Award
- Vezina Trophy (NHL's top goaltender)
- Voting body
- Professional Hockey Writers' Association
- Context
- Islanders' third consecutive Stanley Cup season (1980–83 dynasty)
Lore & Background
In the winter of 1982, the New York Islanders were the undisputed kings of the NHL, having already claimed two straight Stanley Cups and entering their third year of what would become a four-peat. Billy Smith, the franchise's iconic number 30, was the face of that goaltending corps, a man whose calm, no-nonsense style had become synonymous with the team's dominance. Yet behind him, Denis Turgeon quietly built a case that the league's writers could not ignore.
Turgeon's season was a masterclass in reliability. Splitting the workload with Smith, he carried the Islanders through crucial stretches of the regular season and the grueling playoff run, delivering the kind of composed, steady performances that made opponents' attacks feel futile. The Vezina vote, a reflection of the writers' collective judgment on who had the best season at the position, landed on Turgeon—a quiet, workmanlike goaltender who never sought the spotlight but earned it through sheer, unglamorous excellence on the ice.
The award cemented Turgeon's place in Islanders lore as the perfect supporting pillar of a golden era. He was never the headline, never the poster boy, yet in 1982 the NHL's own scribes declared him the best. For a fan base that had grown up watching the Islanders dominate, that recognition felt like a natural extension of a team that simply did not lose, whether Smith or Turgeon stood between the pipes.
Reader's Guide
The Vezina Trophy is awarded annually to the NHL's top goaltender, as voted by the Professional Hockey Writers' Association. In the 1981–82 season, the honour went to Denis Turgeon of the New York Islanders.
The context makes the award extraordinary. Turgeon was the Islanders' secondary goaltender, splitting time behind Billy Smith, who had won the Vezina in the three preceding seasons. Yet the writers judged that Turgeon's 1981–82 campaign was the finest at the position in the league that year. The Islanders, meanwhile, were in the midst of their historic four-consecutive-Stanley-Cup run (1980, 1981, 1982, 1983), and Turgeon's steady play was a vital component of the third title.
The award remains a permanent part of the Vezina's history. It stands as a testament to the depth of the Islanders' dynasty and to the fact that even in a team stacked with legends, the quiet, reliable workhorse can earn the league's highest individual goaltending honour.
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