Can goalie ever be considered best player in the NHL? Has anyone been close?

MadLuke

Registered User
Jan 18, 2011
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To me, it’s 100% no. you need to assess who is the best goalie and who is the best skater, the positions are so different it’s like they are playing a different sport.
If you would be able to asses how many goal over a probable replacement a goaltender saved and how many more goal were scored because the best skater played his minutes instead of a probable replacement, you would have a strong base of comparison, at least in term of MVP type, maybe less so as in the best athlete, because it is possible for one position competition to be much stronger than the other.
 
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Toby91ca

Registered User
Oct 17, 2022
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If you would be able to asses how many goal over a probable replacement a goaltender saved and how many more goal were scored because the best skater played his minutes instead of a probable replacement, you would have a strong base of comparison, at least in term of MVP type, not in best athlete, because it is possible for one position competition to be much stronger than the other.
Yeah, perhaps more of an MVP, but that's different from best player. Also, it's incredibly difficult to take a goalie's stats to do a comparison as the rest of the team has responsibilities in keeping the puck out of the net as well. Either way, I come back to the same conclusion, I really need to look at a list of goalies and come up with who is the best completely separate from skaters
 

MadLuke

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Jan 18, 2011
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Also, it's incredibly difficult to take a goalie's stats to do a comparison as the rest of the team has responsibilities in keeping the puck out of the net as well.
If the goaltender replacement are equal or above to your usual replacement and play enough game (some year that would be hard for Brodeur) it can give some idea.

For example from 1994 to 1999 the Buffalo Sabres when it was not Hasek playing in net had a .897 save percentage, they were a mix of Fuhr, Shields, Trefilov, Roloson, Biron, etc... because Roloson played only 18 games and Fuhr was getting old nothing that specially good or bad supporting cast. That around exactly the nhl average save percentage of that era.

Hasek during that time frame was .930, if a team giving their number one the best opponent in 2 games in 2 nights scenario and what not it can underrate a bit how much better they were, if they play their stars goaltender at home more and are better at home overrate them, etc... but it is probably much easier to have some idea of how many goals were saved by Hasek playing instead of a reasonable easy to find replacement than how many more goals are added by any forward playing over a reasonable easy to find replacement, that the part of the equation that specially hard.

A lot of team way to keep puck out of the net is done via shoot count not influencing the save percentage, which can happen some Claude Julien-Hitchcocks teams seem to have been able but it is rare, at least not more common that players scoring being influenced by the rest of the team responsibilities in putting pucks in the net, minutes-deployment-linemate-power play, etc....
 

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