Retro v Modern Goalies

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I spent this whole week struggling to figure out what I was going to write that would fit the theme of Retro. Having only been here for a few seasons, I don’t know much about the old VHL and any of its players. So I figured I would try comparing stats from the Top 10 Goalies from S66 and S86. With the change in the STHS post-meta, I thought I would compare the 20 season difference and see what, if anything, has happened to goalie performances over this time. Note that I will be looking at the Goalie Leaders stats which is based on the Top 10 Goalies with at least 36 games played during that season.

 

Season Record

 

In S66, the top goalie JB Drift had a season record of 47-10-7 with 4 shutouts which compared to S86 and top goalie Cole Pearce, who had a record of 43-18-3 with 6 shutouts, I think it’s safe to say that not much has changed at the top. Only a few games shuffled around and the two seasons are pretty comparable when it comes to the top spot.

 

However, when you look at the 10th place goalies, things seem to change. In S66, Kolur Bjoernsson finished with a 7-32-3 record with 0 shutouts and in S86, Augustus Kennedy had a 31-31-4 record with 1 shutout. I think it’s interesting to see how the top to bottom difference has changed to where the new system allows for a tighter race. This can especially be seen in the save percentage.

 

Save Percentage

 

Back in S66, the swing of save percentage between 1st and 10th was 0.927 and 0.886 while last season, in 86, it was 0.933 and 0.918. Not only is the difference tighter, unlike in S66 where the top and bottom goalie were the same, in S86, save percentage wise, the goalie at the bottom was Brandt Fuhr. Which is interesting because when the goalies are in record order, Brandt Furh was in third overall. This definitely shows the impact of the post-meta fixes. We all know that goalies still work on the old system so I think it’s more of a result of the change to skaters than it is to goalies. With the meta being removed, goalies seemed to have a better chance at stopping pucks, but also the tight range means that a goalie could be top in one category and bottom in another.

 

Goals Against Average

 

Another stat that has tightened up is the goals against average. In S66, JB Rift dominated with a 2.30 gaa while Kolur Bjoernsson had 4.22. In S86, Cole Pearce lead by a lot with a 2.05 and Brandt Fuhr was once again at the bottom with a respectable 2.59. Once again, it’s easy to see just how much the changes have impacted the ability of a goalie to properly do their job. If the top 10 are so tight in their stats, then it’s always a race to see who can eek out that extra little bit.

 

I know I didn’t dive too deep but I do think that this surface level look at the difference between retro and modern goalies stats does show the major changes that had affected the ability for a goalie to do their job.

 

555 words for week ending 4/30/2023