This morning the NHL Announced the first of may 2010 NHL Trophy Finalists starting with the Vezina Trophy. As expected, Phoenix Coyotes Goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov along with Ryan Miller of the Buffalo Sabres and Martin Brodeur of the New Jersey Devils are the finalists for the Vezina trophy.

For those of you who are not familiar with the Vezina Trophy process, the trophy is awarded “to the goalkeeper adjudged to be the best at his position”. The Vezina trophy is voted on by the General Managers of all 30 NHL Teams at the end of the regular season. The the three goaltenders with the most amounts of votes are named as finalists. The winner will be announced during the 2010 NHL Awards on Jun 23rd at the Palms Hotel which will be televised on Live Versus in the US and on CBC in Canada.

The NHL also posted a bit of history about Vezina Trophy in their press release today:

Leo Dandurand, Louis Letourneau and Joe Cattarinich, former owners of the Montreal Canadiens, presented the trophy to the National Hockey League in 1926-27 in memory of Georges Vezina, the outstanding Canadiens goaltender who collapsed during an NHL game on Nov. 28, 1925, and died of tuberculosis a few months later. Until the 1981-82 season, the goaltender(s) of the team allowing the fewest number of goals during the regular season were awarded the Vezina Trophy.

Tomorrow at 9 AM Arizona Time, the NHL will announce the finalists for the Frank J. Selke trophy which is given to the top defensive forward in the NHL. The announcement will be made on NHL Live which is streamed live on NHL.com and on the NHL Network (US and Canada)!