Credit: War-On-Ice
NHL Goalie Power Rankings: The Average To Above Average
Frederik Andersen of the Anaheim Ducks is young and very talented. He has the potential to be something special, but thus far hasn’t been too special for the Ducks (though he’s certainly above average). In 105 NHL games over the past three seasons, he has the 17th best even-strength save percentage (92.37%) and the 20th best even-strength adjusted save percentage (92.92%). He’s a perfect goalie for the Ducks – cheap and good enough to put Anaheim in a position to win most nights.
Marc-Andre Fleury is the quintessential NHL goalie of this category. Is he good enough to usually not cost you games? Yes. Can he be counted on to put his team on his back for extended periods of time and still win? Probably not. Which is fine, if you consider that Corey Crawford and Ben Bishop were the two goalies who made the Stanley Cup finals last season. Over the past three seasons, he ranks 20th in even-strength save percentage (92.32%) and 15th in even-strength adjusted save percentage (93.09%). He’ll be turning 31 in November, so keep that in mind.
Devan Dubnyk of the Minnesota Wild proved for the first time in his career that he can be a very good starting goalie in the NHL. However, even when you take his clear outlier 2013-2014 season out of the equation, he’s still an above-average goalie. He’ll have to prove that last year was not a fluke. Over the past three NHL seasons, Dubnyk has the 20th best even-strength save percentage (92.32%) and the 19th best even-strength adjusted save percentage (92.95%). I like his chances of replicating his numbers from last season (over the full season) because he’s just 29 years old.
Semyon Varlamov has struggled with consistency (and injuries), but when he’s on his game, he’s a borderline elite goalie. Sadly, he’s not on his game enough to be considered in the upper echelon of goaltenders. Still, a very good goalie. Also, it’s hard to believe this, but he’s only 27 years old. Feels like he’s been around forever, hasn’t it? Over the past three NHL seasons, Varlamov has the 18th best even-strength save percentage (92.36%) and the 14th best even-strength adjusted save percentage (93.24%). He’s done quite well considering he tends to face a lot of shots.
Jonathan Quick of the Los Angeles Kings represents my cut off point for this tier and the next. He is a talented goalie, but he just hasn’t done quite enough to get into the next tier. He tends to get a bit overrated because of his impressive playoff performances, but when you look at the numbers, you can’t deny that he’s not as good as you probably think he is. Chalk that up to an awesome Kings team that tends to not allow many shots on goal (second fewest shots against per 60 minutes at even strength). Over the past three NHL seasons, he’s played in 202 NHL games (including the playoffs). He ranks 16th in even-strength save percentage (92.43%) and ranks 13th in even-strength adjusted save percentage (93.28%). He’ll turn 30 next January.
Next: Tier 3: The Better Than Above Average But Not Quite Quasi-Elite