Official Habs Press Release - Jaroslav Halak Named Molson Cup Player of the Year

JAROSLAV HALAK NAMED THE CANADIENS 2009-10 MOLSON CUP PLAYER OF THE YEAR

MONTREAL (April 9, 2010) – Goaltender Jaroslav Halak is the Montreal Canadiens Molson Cup Player of the Year for the 2009-10 season. Halak succeeds goaltender Carey Price who was the recipient in 2008-09.

Born in Bratislava, Slovakia, Halak completed the season with 63 points in the Molson Cup standings. He had 10 first-star selections, four (4) second-star selections and one (1) third star selection ending the season on top of the standings ahead of teammates Carey Price (48 points) and Tomas Plekanec (43 points). Halak was named the Canadiens’ Player-of-the-Month in December (20 points), and for the January and February segment (25 points).

Halak who played in 44 games during the regular season, posted a record of 26 wins, 13 losses and 4 overtime/shootout losses with a 2.36 goals-against-average (8th in the NHL) and a .926 save percentage (3rd in the NHL). Halak recorded five shutouts in 2009-10, while setting a new personal high with a 157:45 minutes shutout streak from January 22 to 26. He also went 156:30 minutes without allowing a goal from March 27 to April 6, recording back-to-back shutouts on April 2 and 3. Halak was twice named the NHL First Star for the Week this season, for the week ending on December 27 (3-0-0, 1.97 GAA, .959 save percentage – 140 saves on 146 shots) and for the week ending on April 4 (2-0-0, 0.00 GAA, 1.000 save percentage – 64 saves on 64 shots).

Earlier this week, Halak was voted by the Montreal chapter of the Professional Hockey Writers Association(PHWA) as the team’s candidate for the Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy for the 2009-10 season. The Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy is awarded to the NHL player who best exemplifies the qualities of perseverance, sportsmanship and dedication to hockey.

2009-10 Molson Cup Standings
# Star Selection 1*,2*,3*,Points
Jaroslav Halak 15,10,4,1,63
Carey Price 14,6,5,3,48
Tomas Plekanec 13,4,7,2,43
Brian Gionta 13,3,3,7,31
Michael Cammalleri 7,3,2,2,23
Andrei Kostitsyn 8,1,4,3,20
Scott Gomez 7,3,0,4,19
Sergei Kostitsyn 5,3,1,1,19
Andrei Markov 5,2,2,1,17
Glen Metropolit 6,2,0,4,14
Mathieu Darche 4,1,3,0,14
Benoit Pouliot 6,0,3,3,12
Travis Moen 3,1,2,0,11
Roman Hamrlik 3,1,1,1,9
M.-A. Bergeron 4,0,1,3,6
Dominic Moore 3,0,1,2,5
Max Pacioretty 2,0,1,1,4
Jaroslav Spacek 2,0,0,2,2
Josh Gorges 1,0,0,1,1
David Desharnais 1,0,0,1,1
Tom Pyatt 1,0,0,1,1
PK Subban 1,0,0,1,1
Maxim Lapierre 1,0,0,1,1

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