One of the guys worthy of being added is
Tom Paton. The case for him is clear. Is this an all-time list? If so, why is there no goalie from the 19th century? I am somewhat disappointed that Paton is all we got. Was I the only one expecting either Frank Stocking or Whitey Merritt as well? Paton has nine relevant seasons, so it's not like voting for Bouse Hutton, a goalie who may have been great too, but only over a stretch of seasons that could be counted on one hand.
Lorne Chabot is also a goalie with good case. Reconstructed save percentages of 1927-1935 revealed him in the best possible light. He was
above the league SV% average every single season between 1927-1935. On top of that, Chabot was
above SV% average also every single playoff between 1931-1935. When I made that
series of posts a month ago, I thought it will force Chabot to the list immediately...
I realize how easily those SV% can be questioned. If a person distrusts even todays SV%, counted by (hopefully) the same method in all arenas, why should we occupy our minds with incomplete save percentages gathered from multiple newspaper sources ca. 90 years ago...
But if a goalie has literally zero statistically below average seasons over the span of 9 seasons, across 4 different teams and various coaches, along with a playoff record in harmony with the regular seasons stats, we should pause, reflect and come to the conclusion that goalie was likely doing something right...
Frustratedly, most of my 27-35 SV% and GSAA tables have been destroyed. So below, I'll just post screenshots of my excel sheets with Chabot row marked.
We did the right thing voting in Connell and Roach before Chabot in spite of superior stats of the latter, absolutely... But it would be a mistake to end up with a top-60 list without Chabot completely.
Chabot played 22 playoff games in 1931-1935 timeframe. 21 out of these 22 PO games have been recorded statistically. Chabot went cumulatively 0.949 in the recorded 21 PO games. Prorated by SOG/60, Chabot ends with 0.950 in 22 PO games, and with ca. +7.30 GSAA.