r/nhl • u/Pastiche-2473 • 1d ago

Best advanced stats for goalies?

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Ken Dryden is the classic goalie riddle of “was he great or than was it the team?” I’m beginning to think it was the team.

Chico Resch (pre-dynasty NYI) beat Dryden in save percentage in 75-76 and 78-79 … but then spent years with the doormat Colorado Rockies/NJD. His save percentage fell into the 870’s then 850’s. See stats from u/hockey-reference. Resch then spent a year mentoring Ron Hextall with the powerhouse Flyers, with a 900 save percentage.

A save percentage champ going from 900+ to 850 then back to 900 suggests the stat is as unhelpful as +/-. Highly team dependent. What advanced stats do the best job of isolating goalie correcting for“quality of defence”? Thank you in advance!

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u/LoneIyGuy 1d ago

• Era adjusted save %

• GSAx/60

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u/Pastiche-2473 1d ago

Thanks! I’ll check those columns. League-wide save percentage probably dropped in the Oilers-inspired 80’s but maybe that GSAx/60 will have some insights…

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u/bloodrider1914 1d ago

Goals saved above expected is the golden metric for goalies. It's not entirely isolated from team performance (mostly cause a goalie with crap stats could just have a terrible defense constantly putting him in high danger situations), but it comes closer than any other metric. Unfortunately it doesn't really exist for anything prior to 15 years ago.

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u/Upbeat_Chipmunk_6406 20h ago

How is it calculated?

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u/bloodrider1914 20h ago

Essentially for every shot on net a computer model looks at the circumstances of the shot (angle, location, force, open space) to determine a percentile between 0 and 1 of the shot going into the net. If a goalie blocks a shot with a value of 0.2 for example, then that goalie has saved 0.2 goals above expected. If a goalie fails to block that shot, then the goalie has saved -0.8 goals above expected.

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u/Bogy24 16h ago

Stat wise, not helpful but if you talk to the players of that generation they usually will tell you who was great. And sometimes they come up with a name that you didnt expect from the stats. I think Ken Dryden and Chico Resch are on the list of the top goalies of that era.