It's important to note that many people (myself included) believe that the save percentage statistic does not appropriately reflect Brodeur's situation in New Jersey, including but not limited to conservative shot counting in his home arena, and Brodeur's ability to limit an opponent's primary method of entering the offensive zone.
And GSAA is a direct descendant of save percentage (weighted by time played).
It's also important to note that it's not appropriate to compare a goaltender to average, because then an average goalie has "zero value". Anyone reading these boards during playoff time will know that many fans would (rightly) kill just to get average goaltending.
The appropriate comparator is "replacement level", and in this aspect, Brodeur gets additional credit even when he's "only" average.
Agreed. There's significant value in a goalie being average, or slightly above average, for an extended period of time. If nothing else, it prevents the team from having to a play a backup-calibre goalie.
See
this thread. In terms of career value (looking at goals versus threshold), Hasek and Brodeur are nearly even. That tells me that, as a starting point, the initial poll is a reasonable question.
In terms of context - there are some factors, not included in the chart that I linked, that favour Brodeur. As you mentioned, it's been demonstrated that the Devils under-counted shots (which reduced Brodeur's save percentage, which is the basis for any GVT type calculation). It also doesn't take his excellent puckhandling into account. (I think Devils/Brodeur fans have tended to exaggerate these factors, but they're not trivial either). So Brodeur's 2% advantage in that table should really be somewhat higher.
On the other hand, it's very likely that Hasek would have been a good (or great) starting goalie, had he not been prevented from playing in North America by the Iron Curtain for most of his twenties. If we assume that Hasek was a league-average goalie from ages 20 to 25, playing 50 games per year, he would easily be the all-time leader in GVT (soaring past Martin Brodeur). This is based on speculation, of course, but it's obviously unfair to blame Hasek for geopolitical issues that prevented him from joining the NHL.
If I had to choose between drafting either goalie today? I'd take Hasek, and I wouldn't have the slightest hesitation. But if I had to make the decision 25 years ago, and I knew Hasek would be stuck in Europe until his late 20's, I'd probably go with Brodeur.
