Most overrated player in the NHL?

Felidae

Registered User
Sep 30, 2016
12,010
15,123
Vasilevsky.

People acted like he was unequivocally the best goalie in the league. I'm not sure he was ever the best goalie in a entire season.. looking a bit deeper.


2017-18

Finishes 3rd place as a Vezina finalist.

He had an incredible workload with 64 games played so it does put his sv% into perspective which was good for 16th best in the league. His team was also pretty awful defensively so it makes sense he was nominated over Bobrovsky and quick who had virtually identical stats and GP.



But..Gibson was 8th in sv% with 60 games played. Dude didn't even finish top 10 in vezina voting that year. Yeah, his team was defensively excellent, finishing 3rd in GA and 2nd in PK%. But that didn't stop Rinne from winning the Vezina with a nearly identical sv% and an even lower GAA. His team was 2nd in GA and 6th in PK%

And for those who like advanced stats, he was 46th in high danger shot attempt sv%. A ton of players who had overall better sv%s also ranked higher in this category like Quick, Bobrovsky, Luongo, Gibson, etc.


2018-19

Vasi was 6th in sv% playing 53 games

I dont think he deserved to win much less so decisively over the rest of the competition. Bishop led the league in sv% playing only 7 less games than Vasi. Same deal with Lehner. Both had a noticeable gap over Vasi in sv%. Kuemper also had a virtually identical GP and sv% to Vasi.

And this time around, the Tampa Bay Lighting were very good defensively. Finishing 1st in PK% and 7th in GA/GP. Bishop's team in comparison was 2nd in GA/GP and 5th in PK%. Lehner's team was 1st in GA/GP but 17th in PK%. Kuemper's team was 5th in GA/GP and 3rd in PK%. You get the gist, Not a huge team difference defensively.

And it's not like these guys had worse advanced statistics. They all had a better high danger shot attempt sv% than Vasilevsky.

2019-20

3rd place Vezina finalist, 16th in sv%, 3rd highest workload among goalies.

Don't really have any qualms about this one. Most goalies ahead of him in sv% didn't come close to his games played, and the ones that did were picked ahead of him. Although I think you could argue Markstrom who had identical stats on a worse team, or Bishop who finished 10th in sv%. Both just below 10 games short of Vasi's workload


2020-21

Runner up to vezina, 6th in sv%, 3rd highest workload.

I actually think this would have been a more deserving Vezina win than the one he actually won.

But again, it's far from being clear cut that he deserved being placed higher than Varlamov or Saaros, both of whom played just 6 less games but with higher sv%. Saaros was on a pretty bleh team that ranked 29th in PK% and 11th in GA/GP. It's pretty impressive he managed to finish 4th in sv%. Varlamov was 2nd in sv% and his team ranked 6th in PK% and 2nd in GA/GP. Just slightly better than Vasi's team finishing 4th in PK% and 6th in GA/GP.

I will say, the one thing he has over nearly ever other goalie this particular season is that he was 2nd in high danger shot attempt sv% and a pretty huge gap over the likes of Varlamov and Saaros who are outside the top 15 in that category.

To sum it up. While I do think he was one of the best goalies the past few seasons, he was never unequivocally the best goalie in the league. He has 2 top 10 sv% seasons, both 6th place. He never dominated other Vezina candidates in peak or consistency and a sizable portion of his Vezina record placements are highly debatable.
 
Last edited:

Jersey Fan 12

Positive Vibes
Nov 20, 2006
7,195
3,122
No votes for Ovie? I'd say either of the Devils' Hughes brothers. Would Taylor Hall also count?
 

Terry Yake

Registered User
Aug 5, 2013
28,162
16,800
zegras puts up back to back 60+pt seasons on one of the league's worst teams and he's "overrated"

lol
 

Kcb12345

Registered User
Jun 6, 2017
30,868
24,530
Roope Hintz

everytime I watch him he comes off as pretty meh but seems to be highly regarded around the league. Maybe i'm just not seeing the right games

Depends on what your expectations are for him. He's not a 100+ pt guy, just a solid two-way 1C with gamebreaking speed. He's not a game by game dominant presence though so he's not a superstar just a normal star who sometimes makes superstar plays
 

HenryBlake

Registered User
Jan 2, 2022
5
1
Absolutely! Can’t even pull his team out of this funk and their powerplay has been horrid all year.
He is injured curently and not playing so it's not that. I just always thougt he was overrated. Avs should have kept ROR and make him captain. But that's just me
 

MNRube

Registered User
Oct 20, 2013
6,616
3,713
Do explain how Tkachuk is overrated, please.
i don’t feel he is the Top 5 F many have said he is. Great player, obviously, but more of a Top 20 F than a Top 5 F.

Do accept my apologies, if that opinion upsets you

zegras puts up back to back 60+pt seasons on one of the league's worst teams and he's "overrated"

lol
He also takes more criticism than nearly any of his similarly accomplished peers. Hard to say guys like Caufield, Laine or Zegras are overrated when it’s so fashionable to hate on them. 🤦‍♂️
 

EdJovanovski

#RempeForCalder
Apr 26, 2016
30,008
60,287
The Rempire State
I raise you Artemi Panarin.

Softer than a fresh ciabatta and about as useful come playoff time. Not that my team knows what that’s like, but still.
Zibanejad is way softer than Panarin. Panarin has a few fights under his belt where he’s more than held his own, when Buch got attacked by Wilson Zibanejad was right next to Buch and glided away, while Panarin sprinted from 20ft away to jump Wilson and put him in a chokehold. Are you basing it off of that thread about who’s the softest player in the league and saw that Panarin doesn’t block many shots, hit or get hit? Hard to do those things when you always have the puck and are controlling play. He forechecks hard and carries the puck through traffic but is slippery and avoids contact, Zibanejad is scared to break a nail or mess up his hair.

Last playoff he was bad, the first one with NYR he had to carry a line with a brutally injured Andrew Copp on one leg & just as injured Strome. Then on CBJ Panarin carried them in sweeping Tampa. If you really think Panarin is more overrated than Zibanejad you clearly don’t watch many Ranger games. Zibanejad is legitimately one of the worst 5v5 players in the NHL. Johnny Brodzinski is way better than Zibanejad. I would legitimately trade a 1st round pick with Zibanejad for future considerations just to get rid of him & his contract.
 

Avsfan1921

Registered User
Oct 5, 2019
1,933
2,153
He is injured curently and not playing so it's not that. I just always thougt he was overrated. Avs should have kept ROR and make him captain. But that's just me
Neither of those players are most overrated in the nhl as the op question asks though.

As well this quote from you here is an interesting take, why would yo have kept ROR and made him captain above landeskog? O’reilly was a solid player and they both play the right way but the fact still remains that he signed an offer sheet knowing full well there’s a good chance he’d leave, that doesn’t scream team commitment to me. It’s not like the team hasn’t had success under Landeskogs time as captain either so this take seems odd to me.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Honest M

Ad

Upcoming events

Ad

Ad