Goalies are the biggest x factor in the NHL. On one hand they can spoil a great possession team’s hopes by playing poorly but on the other hand they can prop up a team they has no business competing on a nightly basis. Examples from just last year include the Minnesota Wild before Devan Dubnyk’s arrival and the Buffalo Sabres needing to consistently trade away goalies to ensure their 30th place finish.
Today I attempt to power rank the goaltenders in the Metropolitan Division. The goaltending in this division is as good as any in the league with two of the top five goaltenders in the NHL and some other very good candidates.
1.Henrik Lundqvist
The gold standard of goaltending in his generation. Carey Price may be getting a lot of the goaltending love lately but Lundqvist is consistently sniffing a .930 even-strength save percentage every year. It is his consistency what makes him the best. At 33 years of age Lundqvist is still going strong and until further notice he stays in the top spot.
2. Cory Schneider
Cory Schneider is a top five goalie in the NHL and I’m not really sure how many people know that. Schneider’s career track to this point has been unfortunate. It started with him battling against the excellent Roberto Luongo in Vancouver for starting time and then he was forced to share starts with an over the hill Martin Brodeur. Now he is the best player on a New Jersey team that doesn’t have a lot going for it heading into 2015-16. Schneider carries a career .928 EVSV% despite being jerked around for much of his NHL tenure.
3. Sergei Bobrovsky
You could say 2014-15 was a disappointing year for Sergei Bobrovsky due to the groin injury he suffered in January that cost him around five weeks. This fit with the theme of the 2014-15 Blue Jackets as most of their impact players missed extended periods of time. Despite the groin injury Bobrovsky’s .925 EVSV% in a “down year” was still above league average. The former Vezina Trophy winner should enter the 2015-16 healthier and continue to put up quality numbers on a rising Blue Jackets team.
4. Braden Holtby
Washington has had quite a number of starting goaltenders the past few seasons but they have finally found their long term starter in Braden Holtby. Since becoming the full time starter for Washington he has flirted with that same .930 EVSV% that Henrik Lundqvist does year after year. The big difference between Holtby and Lundqvist is that King Henrik has been doing this for close to a decade while Holtby’s promising sample includes one lockout shortened season and two full seasons. To justify his new 6.1M cap hit he will need to continue to play at the level he has showcased the past three years which is certainly in the realm of possibility.
5 (tie). Marc-Andre Fleury
Probably best known for his wildly inconsistent playoff showings over the years Marc-Andre Fleury has found himself battling against that perception in recent years. If you track Fleury’s EVSV% throughout his career it literally goes up and down, up and down. The good news for Pittsburgh is that his down is not as low as it used to be. In 2013-14 that down was a .918 EVSV% which is slightly below the league average (.921). Last year he was above average at .926%. If you average his past three seasons he is above league average at .925%.
5 (tie). Steve Mason
Steve Mason started off his career with an impressive Calder Trophy but the rest of his sample size in Columbus was a dumpster fire. Since joining Philadelphia he has righted the ship and posted some really nice numbers. In 2013-14 he equaled his EVSV% from his Calder Trophy winning season (.926). Last year he led the entire NHL with an amazing mark of .944% which was even better than Carey Price. The only reason Mason is lower down on this list is because his sample size of being this good is very limited and is coupled with an extended period of time being terrible. If his 2015-16 season continues to look like the last two years he will easily shoot up this list.
7. Jaroslav Halak
Jaro Halak is best known for his legendary performance in the 2009-10 playoffs in which he dispatched the top seeded Washington Capitals in round one and then the defending Stanley Cup Champion Penguins in round two. Since then he has been a quality goaltender, predominately for the St. Louis Blues. The reason Halak finds himself lower on this list is because the past three seasons have been average at best. Halak was miserable in the lockout shortened season of 2012-13 (EVSV .909) and since then hasn’t been able to climb above that ~.923 range. Certainly not bad numbers but when compared to the other goaltenders in this particular division it is a little bit behind. If Halak were in another division he wouldn’t rank this low.
8. Cam Ward
Cam Ward won the Conn Smythe Trophy as a rookie when he took over for the flailing Martin Gerber in the 2006 Stanley Cup Playoffs. That was nine years ago and Ward was never able to find that high gear again. He was a decent goaltender from 2008-2011 but the last four years have seen him post numbers that are below league average. Cam Ward’s 6.0M contract is one of the worst goaltender values in the league. The good news for Carolina is that his contract is up at the end of the year and they can finally move on and in another direction. Acquiring Eddie Lack from Vancouver is a step in the right direction.
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In keeping with the Metropolitan Division theme the latest Hockey Hurts Podcast discusses the best and worst moves in the Metro Division. You can find that
here
Thanks for reading!
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