HFBoards Top 25 Goalies in the NHL - Results

[Pavel Buchnevich]

I'll be honest Shesterkin is great but I like Sorokin's consistency a little more. I think Igor has a higher ceiling lower floor.

How have you arrived at this conclusion?

Sorokin has 5 more shutouts in 22 less games, yet they have the same career SV%.

 

[MasterMatt25]

I’d argue Swayman is a top 20 on that list & didn’t even get an honourable mention lol

Raanta somehow got on this?

Swayman is 13...

 

[The Hockey Tonk Man]

Swayman is 13...

I was being generous and didn’t want to argue very hard about it hah

 

[tarheelhockey]

Why stop at 25? Just do 32. You're done with a good goalies after 10 anyway.

At some point you get 10 guys with an equal number of votes.

 

[Aurinko]

He's played in only 15 playoff games and half have been great and half have been awful. Check his regular season numbers, they're average to downright putrid. Much larger sample too.

Ye he's average at Best based on regular season stats, but I wanted to look at the playoff stats. Not because I knew they were better but because I like to look at them seperately and give more value to them.

Goalies (and people in general) are prisoners of their own routines/habits and I feel like its more likely goalie succeed in playoffs if they have managed to succeed in the past. It's not easy to develop new habits.

 

[ViD]

Bob over Georgiev is pure comedy

I'll be honest Shesterkin is great but I like Sorokin's consistency a little more. I think Igor has a higher ceiling lower floor.

Shestyorkin is great? Based on your post history he’s overrated and garbage most of the nights. Come on now.

 

[Bourne Endeavor]

I'd give it a pass.

Demko is the only goalie that I remember seriously carrying a series win after 2016-17 Jake Allen. And I dont mean couple amazing saves in one game, I mean just carrying several games for a team that had no business being there.

If I recall, his SV% for that stretch of games was something like 0.97. Complete and utter insanity how good he was performing. He damn near single-handedly carried the Canucks through Vegas. What's crazy is it wasn't even everyone else was bad. Horvat was fantastic. Demko was just on a whole different level.

He came back down to earth more recently but he's also been playing through a lot of injuries. Not to mention, Vancouver may have had the worst defense in recent memory. Been interesting to see where he ends up now that they have something decent in front of him.

 

[SnowblindNYR]

How have you arrived at this conclusion?

Sorokin has 5 more shutouts in 22 less games, yet they have the same career SV%.

Was talking year to year. 0.925 last two seasons while Igor struggled this past season until the last couple of months.

Bob over Georgiev is pure comedy


Shestyorkin is great? Based on your post history he’s overrated and garbage most of the nights. Come on now.

He sucked most of last season but was great towards the end and had a historic season before. That's what I mean he's inconsistent compared to a guy like Sorokin.

 

[Bleedred]

Recency bias?

Korpisalo has career playoff saves of 92,2%, but that came from the CBJ.

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Playoff teams value playoff success. I would pick Korpisalo before Vitek Vanecek for a playoff run just because he has better playoffs stats and is more experienced.

View attachment 736983

You seem to have a playoff bias if your own. You implied on the Devils forum that Jake Allen was more of a playoff performer than Carey Price.

Korpisalo has 15 playoff starts and 9 of them came in one year. The other 6 came this last year.

Korpisalo has been a bad goalie more years than an average or better than average goalie in the NHL.

There’s only been two years where Korpisalo was not significantly outplayed by his goalie teammate and that was his rookie year and this most recent year. Merzlikins vastly outplayed him the first three seasons they were teammates (not last year though) and Bobrovsky vastly outplayed him all but the first year they were teammates.

Korpisalo is not a very good goalie, despite one really hot playoffs and a legendary 5 or 6 OT game in 2020.

 

[Bleedred]

Wait, you’re upset he gave up a few soft goals and otherwise played well getting outplayed by the best goalie in the league?

He had a .922 SV% in that series and he’s rated 30th. If he’s overrated, where should he be rated?

He’s fine being an honorable mention on this poll. He has a small but vocal cult following that point out how good he is, but he’s only been really good as a backup/1b for just about his entire NHL career. I’m also pretty sure that at this point in his career, Carolina is really helping him along and not the other way around.

Jack Campbell had a .940%-something in that Montreal/Toronto series in 2021, where I was shredding him for giving up lots of stinkers to blow the 3-1 series lead. I was told I was wrong for shredding him in that series, but Price wasn’t giving up stinkers like that Gallagher goal, which really sticks out on Campbell. Shesterkin wasn’t allowing too many cheap goals in that series (nor in his other 4 playoff rounds he’s played in) like that super softy goals on Raanta in games 6 and 7.

His play in that series doesn’t take points off his career overall, but he seems to be a darling among a small but vocal group. He’s performed well in his career, but hasn’t really been the guy on his teams for more than a year in his pretty long career.

 

[Pavel Buchnevich]

Was talking year to year. 0.925 last two seasons while Igor struggled this past season until the last couple of months.

Sorokin has improved his consistency a lot over the years, but if you look at their whole hockey careers since they started, Shestyorkin has better more consistent year to year.

Feels like you are holding the worst season of his hockey career in what is so far a small sample size NHL career of like 3 or 4 NHL seasons against him in saying that when we have their whole hockey career data to look at.

And I think it remains true that Sorokin's best games are better, but Shestyorkin plays well or not bad more often, last season notwithstanding. They are 27 and 28, so I don't think looking at one season gives us an accurate picture

 

[Pavel Buchnevich]

He’s fine being an honorable mention on this poll. He has a small but vocal cult following that point out how good he is, but he’s only been really good as a backup/1b for just about his entire NHL career. I’m also pretty sure that at this point in his career, Carolina is really helping him along and not the other way around.

Jack Campbell had a .940%-something in that Montreal/Toronto series in 2021, where I was shredding him for giving up lots of stinkers to blow the 3-1 series lead. I was told I was wrong for shredding him in that series, but Price wasn’t giving up stinkers like that Gallagher goal, which really sticks out on Campbell. Shesterkin wasn’t allowing too many cheap goals in that series (nor in his other 4 playoff rounds he’s played in) like that super softy goals on Raanta in games 6 and 7.

His play in that series doesn’t take points off his career overall, but he seems to be a darling among a small but vocal group. He’s performed well in his career, but hasn’t really been the guy on his teams for more than a year in his pretty long career.

I think it's valid to say he's never been the guy, except for one season in Arizona, despite putting up good numbers. I think the biggest reason for that is injuries as opposed to how he plays. I think if he was able to stay healthy, he would be ranked higher than 30. I think he could be ranked top 15, but staying healthy matters a lot.

 

[Mike C]

Yeah. Is there anything else to talk about?

Yes, Devon Levi is to talk about right after we talk about how Sorokin belongs up top

 

[SnowblindNYR]

Sorokin has improved his consistency a lot over the years, but if you look at their whole hockey careers since they started, Shestyorkin has better more consistent year to year.

Feels like you are holding the worst season of his hockey career in what is so far a small sample size NHL career of like 3 or 4 NHL seasons against him in saying that when we have their whole hockey career data to look at.

And I think it remains true that Sorokin's best games are better, but Shestyorkin plays well or not bad more often, last season notwithstanding. They are 27 and 28, so I don't think looking at one season gives us an accurate picture

He also was good not great in his sophomore season, so far he's been elite every other year, and just good every other year. Maybe it's recency bias since Sorokin's 0.925 were the last two seasons.

 

[Pavel Buchnevich]

He also was good not great in his sophomore season, so far he's been elite every other year, and just good every other year. Maybe it's recency bias since Sorokin's 0.925 were the last two seasons.

That year I thought he was actually pretty good, and then we started playing Hajek the last week or two of the season with a few players injured and the team pretty much out of the playoff race. Remember when Hajek was on the first pairing with Fox? Yeah, that tanked his SV%, which was above .920 like that whole season.

 

[Czechboy]

Dostal is on his way. He get no love and might have the best contact in NHL. I like Gibson but was surprised to see him so high. Not that vlejmelka is better than Vanecek.

 

[Aurinko]

If I recall, his SV% for that stretch of games was something like 0.97. Complete and utter insanity how good he was performing. He damn near single-handedly carried the Canucks through Vegas. What's crazy is it wasn't even everyone else was bad. Horvat was fantastic. Demko was just on a whole different level.

He came back down to earth more recently but he's also been playing through a lot of injuries. Not to mention, Vancouver may have had the worst defense in recent memory. Been interesting to see where he ends up now that they have something decent in front of him.

Looks like it might have gone even higher than that

It felt like I was watching a dream. It looked like he knew where the puck was going all the time.

I don't know the current issues of all goalies, but I give Demko a top 10 spot easily just because of that run. Every fan hopes for a goalie that can steal a game or two in the playoffs, but stealing the whole series is something else.

 

[Conbon]

Flames really were behind the curve with that Markstrom signing eh?

Raanta is actually one of the most low key overrated goalies there is.

Because he posts good numbers as a (mostly) career backup and mostly always has.

But he has a penchant for letting in some of the softest, leakiest, bull shit goals. He killed the Canes in game 6 of the 2022 series against the Rangers with two killer softies in the opening 10 minutes of the game at MSG. And then another killer softy early in game 7. Those three goals were worse than anything Shesterkin has ever allowed in the playoffs. Shesterkin wasn’t allowing goals like that and Raanta did. That was the difference in that series. I was waiting for the Devils to get a chance to play him that series, which the Canes kept saying he would get a start that series but he never did lol.

Raanta has a history throughout his career or either just not being good enough to be a starting goaltender or getting injured and losing it by the time he finally gets a starting job, like in Arizona, which he quickly lost to Kuemper after he got injured (which is the one constant in his career, getting injured) and never got it back.

Raanta may be the most overrated goaltender that isn’t universally overrated.

He's certainly up there for softest goalies. Dude is injured almost as often as Letang!

 

[Clint Eastwood]

I guess elite goalies like Rask, Price, Lundqvist, Quick, Rinne, Bishop, Holtby, Bobrovsky all either regressing, having their careers cut short, or retiring all in a short span is showing its effect on the league. Even Fleury, Crawford, Schneider, and Craig Anderson as well even if they're a tier below.

Makes it more interesting though. Teams with elite goaltending really stand out more.

 

[Bourne Endeavor]

Looks like it might have gone even higher than that View attachment 737142

It felt like I was watching a dream. It looked like he knew where the puck was going all the time.

I don't know the current issues of all goalies, but I give Demko a top 10 spot easily just because of that run. Every fan hopes for a goalie that can steal a game or two in the playoffs, but stealing the whole series is something else.

What's funny is I initially put .98 but thought that was a bit high. Good lord what a run

I think OP's spot of 8th is fair given last season. Need to see if him going into the season healthy will bring him back to where he was.

 

[MasterMatt25]

I guess elite goalies like Rask, Price, Lundqvist, Quick, Rinne, Bishop, Holtby, Bobrovsky all either regressing, having their careers cut short, or retiring all in a short span is showing its effect on the league. Even Fleury, Crawford, Schneider, and Craig Anderson as well even if they're a tier below.

Makes it more interesting though. Teams with elite goaltending really stand out more.

We were really blessed with the goaltending situation of the early-mid 2010s

 

[La Bamba]

Damn this list is pretty trash outside the top 10 lol

Adin Hill should be in the top 25 if Grub is there

 

[Bear of Bad News]

Damn this list is pretty trash outside the top 10 lol

Feel free to post your entire list for others to scrutinize.

 

[Leonardo87]

Will be interesting how Gibson does next season. Eakins is gone, and Anaheim has improved their D and brought in guys who can kill penalties and clear the crease.

 

[MasterMatt25]

Damn this list is pretty trash outside the top 10 lol

Adin Hill should be in the top 25 if Grub is there

It was a vote