2024/2025 Around the League

[Balthazar]

Who "sucked" and is now scoring goals at high rates?

Everyone. Not long ago being PPG was rare. You want me to list 200+ players?

 

[dahrougem2]

Everyone. Not long ago being PPG was rare. You want me to list 200+ players?

So the NHL has 200 PPG players? 30% of the league is PPG?

 

[AllAboutAvs]

Goalies' SV% will continue to fall down until the return of the very exciting two-pad-stack style.

 

[Colorado Avalanche]

I don't buy that one at all.

All of a sudden the same players (almost all of them) would be better shooters? The same players that couldn't score 4-5 years ago can score a ton now.

Nope.

Sticks are incredible these days

So light and accurate

 

[Colorado Avalanche]

Who "sucked" and is now scoring goals at high rates?

It's kinda clear rule changes have helped and other factors. Freaking Benn won Art Ross with 87 points 2014-2015. Scoring isn't as hard as it used to be.

87 points for elite player is meh today. Or not amazing at least.

 

[sethro109]

I'd say the outright dismissal of equipment changes is a miss there. There were changes still being finalized until late in the 18-19 season, but it takes time for teams to figure out how the changes impacted goals. Right now we see a lot more goals scored in that armpit area. That is a direct result of two changes in equipment. The chest protector was shrunk and trimmed... and the jersey was required to be tighter. That has allowed goals to start squeaking through. Once teams figured this out, it that spot started being targeted more. Two other major areas impacted are the glove and the shoulders. The glove got shrunk by a little bit, but that little bit has made goalies with weaker glove hands more susceptible to just missing and leaving rebounds... or just missing the puck. The shoulders are impacted on the tight angle shots where shooters are targeting the corners when goalies go down. There used to be an extra bit of padding there. That used to be a very tight window to shoot into... maybe 4x4, but now its closer to 6x8. Doesn't sound like a lot, but with the shooters of today, that a huge difference and gives them a much better chance of success.

TLDR it takes time for equipment changes to change how teams attack. It isn't an on-off switch.


These are directly because of equipment changes. They were not developed or brought up with the technique to account for modern equipment. Goalies developing today will have different technique to counteract the equipment changes.

I just have a hard time putting it all on the equipment change. It just feels like goalies are cheating too much nowadays. They don't want to play based fundamental hockey anymore.

 

[dahrougem2]

It's kinda clear rule changes have helped and other factors. Freaking Benn won Art Ross with 87 points 2014-2015. Scoring isn't as hard as it used to be.

87 points for elite player is meh today. Or not amazing at least.

Sure rule changes have helped. Players also improve their shooting year after year. The year Jamie Benn won the Art Ross, Cody McLeod was playing on our 4th line. That guy has one of the worst shots I've ever seen from an NHL player.

Fast forward 10 years and we've got Logan O'Connor on our 4th line who is capable of sniping any goalie in this league if he has time and space to get a shot off.

There has been a HUGE shift towards more skill in the game.

 

[S E P H]

- I would say we got worse off goalers because this crop just isn't as good as the crop around 2009, but also because analytics are destroying goalers as well. I've played the position for multiple decades, I def have weaknesses in my game and if a goaler like AV88 is getting destroyed because he has a weak high glove, then he's going to get destroyed there more often as the numbers back it up. He's HOF-worthy easily, but even he's getting abused the last couple of seasons with the rise of analytics.


- This NHL version reminds me a lot of the modern NBA and its transformation the past decade. A lot of mistakes and a lot of offensively-focused players coming into the league.

 

[Bill Peckerskull]

https://x.com/i/web/status/1857496658306568237