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Ranking Each NHL Team’s Starting Goaltender

By Dave Stevenson

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CREDIT: War-On-Ice

NHL Power Rankings: The Unproven Ones

There are several goalies who will start in the NHL this year who will look to prove themselves as legitimate NHL starters. To be fair to them and to be fair to the rest of the starting goalies, I’ve decided to put these goalies in a completely separate category. They don’t deserve to be compared to more experienced goalies at this point in their career.

  1. Jake Allen of the St. Louis Blues figures to be getting more starts this year than he has in previous years. He’s a talented, relatively young (25 years old) goalie, but he has a huge hurdle to overcome: Brian Elliot. Though he has just 58 games of experience, his 92.01% even strength save percentage in 37 games last season and 92.45% ES save percentage in six playoff games suggest that he could be a starting goalie in the NHL. However, as long as Elliot is with the Blues, Allen faces an uphill battle. He should still start roughly 30 games.
  2. The Buffalo Sabres made a bold decision by paying an expensive price for Robin Lehner. The Sabres haven’t had a franchise goalie since Ryan Miller. While Lehner hasn’t delivered so far in his career, he has the upside to be a legitimate NHL starter. The 24-year-old goalie has 79 NHL games under his belt. His 91.93% even strength save percentage ranks 33rd among 45 goalies with at least 3,482 minutes at even strength since 2011. It’s hard to get a good read on Lehner because he’s still young and hasn’t gotten a chance to really prove himself, but the Sabres are handing him the keys to the franchise nonetheless.
  3. Cam Talbot of the Edmonton Oilers is by far the most intriguing name on this list. He has only played in 59 NHL games, but his 93.32% even strength save percentage and 93.65% even strength adjusted save percentage are very attractive. He has made the most of the opportunities handed to him thus far. This season, he’ll have to prove that he’s for real because he will be Edmonton’s go-to guy in net, something that he has never been in his career.
  4. Petr Mrazek of the Detroit Red Wings could be Detroit’s starter in 2015-16. Even if he isn’t, he figures to get a fair bit of playing time, as he had a 92.38% even strength save percentage and 92.8% even strength adjusted save percentage. Both of those numbers are above average. He has just 47 games of NHL experience, but he’ll definitely challenge Jimmy Howard for the starting job.
  5. Michael Hutchinson figures to “plan B” for the Winnipeg Jets, as they seem to be going with Ondrej Pavelec as their primary starter in net. Hutchinson will likely get roughly 20-30 NHL starts next season. Hutchinson played in 41 NHL games in 2014-15, putting together an even strength save percentage of 92.8%.
  6. Martin Jones will be San Jose’s starting goalie in 2015-16 after two seasons of being Jonathan Quick‘s backup in Los Angeles. He’s hard to get a read on because in 34 NHL games, at times he’s been really good (94.67% even strength save percentage in 2013-14) and at times he’s been not so good (91.57% even strength save percentage in 2014-15). We’ll find it what he really is in 2015-16 and the next few years.

Next: Tier 6: The Worst Of The Bunch

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