What is World Class Goaltending?
In September, we had a chance to watch the best goalies in the world compete in the World Cup of Hockey. So what makes a world class goaltender and what is the difference between the best goaltender in the world and the other great puck stoppers? We took the WCH goalies career NHL statistics and created the average WCH goalie. Goalie stats and basic statistics included Age, Height, Weight, Games Played, Goals Against Average, Save Percentage, Shutouts as well as Minutes Played. Team North America goalies were omitted because of their age and lack of experience, as well as KHL goalie Mikko Koskenin, as their inclusion would skew the numbers.
The Average WCH Goalie:
The average WCH goalie is very much what you would expect. Goalies generally hit their prime in their late twenties and are above 6 feet tall.
They are stronger than the past generation of goalies as evidenced by the average weight of 202 and they all catch with their left hand.
The average goalie has played the equivalent starting minutes of five NHL seasons and has a solid career GAA of 2.46 as well as a strong .917 save percentage.
Team | World Cup Goalie |
---|---|
Name | Average WHC Goalie |
Age | 28.5 |
Height | 6'1.8” |
Weight | 202 |
Shoots | L |
League | NHL |
GP | 276 |
SA | 7,748 |
GA | 403 |
GAA | 2.46 |
SV% | 0.917 |
SO | 20.4 |
Min | 15,825 |
Carey Price, Canada:
Carey Price is currently regarded as the best goaltender in the world. For the sake of comparison, we put his statistics side by side to the average World Cup of Hockey goaltender.
Almost all the categories are comparable to the average WHC goaltender except for experience. Carey Price has played 201 more games, logged 10,521 more minutes, has allowed 662 more goals and made 5,516 more saves than the average WHC goalie.
Here are the side by side comparisons.
Team | World Cup Goalie | Canada |
---|---|---|
Name | Average WCH Goalie | Carey Price |
Age | 28.5 | 29 |
Height | 6'1.8” | 6'3" |
Weight | 202 | 216 |
Shoots | L | L |
League | NHL | NHL |
GP | 276 | 447 |
SA | 7748 | 13264 |
GA | 403 | 1065 |
GAA | 2.46 | 2.43 |
SV% | 0.917 | 9.2 |
SO | 20.4 | 36 |
Min | 15825 | 26346 |
Summary:
To be a world class goaltender it takes time as evidenced by the group’s experience. That is not to say there can’t be aberrations, but in general, games played plays a major role in getting to the top.
Carey Price’s experience supports the commonly held theory that the best way for a goaltender to develop in to play a lot.
Here are the results that the World Cup of Goalies had at this years tournament.
Team | Name | GP | GAA | SV % |
---|---|---|---|---|
Canada | Corey Crawford | 1 | 1.00 | 0.950 |
Canada | Braden Holtby | dnp | dnp | dnp |
Canada | Carey Price | 5 | 1.40 | 0.957 |
----- | ----- | ----- | ----- | ----- |
Czech Republic | Petr Mrazek | 2 | 2.98 | 0.925 |
Czech Republic | Michal Neuvirth | 1 | 6.00 | 0.880 |
Czech Republic | Ondrej Pavelec | dnp | dnp | dnp |
----- | ----- | ----- | ----- | ----- |
Europe | Thomas Greiss | dnp | dnp | dnp |
Europe | Philipp Grubauer | dnp | dnp | dnp |
Europe | Jaroslav Halak | 6 | 2.15 | 0.941 |
----- | ----- | ----- | ----- | ----- |
USA | Ben Bishop | 1 | 6.00 | 0.800 |
USA | Jonathan Quick | 2 | 3.56 | 0.863 |
USA | Cory Schneider | 1 | 0.00 | 1.000 |
----- | ----- | ----- | ----- | ----- |
Finland | Mikko Koskinen | dnp | dnp | dnp |
Finland | Tuukka Rask | 2 | 2.02 | 0.920 |
Finland | Pekka Rinne | 1 | 4.01 | 0.907 |
----- | ----- | ----- | ----- | ----- |
Russia | Sergei Bobrovski | 4 | 2.53 | 0.930 |
Russia | Semyon Varlamov | dnp | dnp | dnp |
Russia | Andrei Vasilevskiy | dnp | dnp | dnp |
----- | ----- | ----- | ----- | ----- |
Sweden | Jhonas Enroth | dnp | dnp | dnp |
Sweden | Henrik Lundqvist | 3 | 2.25 | 0.940 |
Sweden | Jacob Markstrom | 1 | 1.00 | 0.964 |