(Almost) all big $$$ goalies suck

[BelovedIsles]

Sorokin is underrated. Before last season he was a perennial top-5 goalie. He suffered a back injury, had surgery, and is playing behind a bottom-tier team.

 

[Martin Skoula]

Might not be for a long time.

Stick technology has progressed to the point it's not humanly possible to be a reflex goalie in the NHL anymore. Goalies play the percentages and try to put themselves in the spot where it's most statistically likely the puck will hit them. This is vulnerable to bad luck and the shooter happening to make the perfect shot. If goalies get bad luck they get in their own heads and start chasing and it goes downhill from there.

Goalies seem unpredictable because it's a luck based position. If the shooter makes the perfect shot there is zero even the best goalie in the league can do about it. Goaltenders are differentiated by their anticipation of the play and ability to get into position.

Didn't used to be this way even 30 years ago. At one time only a couple guys on a team had 100mph shots, now it's the entire team down to the 6th defenceman and stick technology makes shots so much more accurate.

It’s a double edged sword, the save % creep in the late 2000s early 2010s forced a lot of teams to incorporate a lot more random pinball into their games. Netfront specialists like Holmstrom used to be.. well specialists, but now it’s expected that everyone in your top 9 has the hand-eye to tip pucks and generally make the goalie’s life difficult. It indirectly killed the big slapshot from the point since it’s easier for the goalie to read and harder to tip.

 

[The Macho King]

Sorokin is underrated. Before last season he was a perennial top-5 goalie. He suffered a back injury, had surgery, and is playing behind a bottom-tier team.

See that's overstating it. Sorokin had only been a starter for 3 seasons - 2 good and 1 meh.

Consistency in starting goaltenders is rare nowadays.

 

[Henkka]

You pay your goalies and probably lose something (cap space) from defence. Then you blaim the goalies.

And goalie shined, when he was cheap (and more money invested to better defence).

Most goalies are product of a system in front of them, and when they'll get their payday, the system goes weaker, and the "goalie" level will drop.

I would never do a long-term deal for any goalie. Maximum of 3-4 years. You can get rid of the guy of things go south.

 

[bobholly39]

Swayman, Vasilevsky, Shesterkin, all shitting the bed this year and/or recent playoffs. Gibson is still an anchor and Grubauer is a nightmare. Bobrovsky is meh at best, and Sorokin is underwhelming, as is non-4 Nations Bennington. Markstrom es no bueno anymore and neither is Merzlikins. The list goes on. Don't spend money on goalies. Only exception is Hellebuyck.

Boston giving Swayman so much money while having a career high of 44 games is absolutely stupid. As a Boston hater, I also finding it incredibly hilarious though. But it was always a dumb move.

Bobrosvky - I've been a very strong critic of his and his contract, but no more. Great in the last 2 playoffs, and earened it.

Vasi is....weird. I'm super high on him, and he was great during the cup runs, but he seems to have slowed down, with injury/age. Very curious to see if he can bounce back, maybe with these very playoffs.

Shesterkin is having a really bad stretch of like ~10 games or so. I fully expect him to bounce back, so no really worried about contract (the term might be annoying as he ages out, but we'll see).

I'm a Habs fan - and I never once had a problem with Carey Price's contract. BecauseI had full confidence that when the situation was important, he'd step up big time. He did in the 2020 playoffs, and even more so with a heroic playoff run in 2021 all the way to finals. Obviously he got injured, and missed a ton of games. But for me, for Price - it was never about "well, with that $$, he should be top 3 in vezina every year to earn it". For me it's more about playoffs, and having faith he can be consistent in regular season and a killer in playoffs, and I always felt good about that.

As for your comment on Hellebuyck - it's funny you say that, because he's one top goalie who has never performed come playoffs in my opinion. He's obviously a tremendous goalie, but he really needs an extremely strong playoff performance (or a few), to not be labeled a choker.