How Many Players Have a Claim to Being the GOAT at Each Position?

[tinyzombies]

Now compare something that actually adds context value to the stat, like goals saved above average.

Roy: 47.15, 46.99, 35.09, 34.31, 28.27, 27.24, 24.97, 20.07, 18.11, 17.54, 16.77, 15.80
Price: 36.70, 23.51, 22.04, 17.25, 14.94, 13.46, 5.49, 1.38, -1.31, -4.55, -7.37, -17.49

Price is not that good, he's an above average goalie living off of 1 outlier season and Habs hype.

GSAA is a stat that also has to be placed within context, you can't just take raw numbers, same as for SP% (which now most would concede is an anachronistic stat). You have to adjust for era, but again that just compares him to his peers and we know the goalies are better now and so is the parity. You have to adjust for his teammates and we know Roy played on vastly better teams than Price. And you have to adjust for rebounds (Price gives next to none) and shot volume (Price has faced tons of shots). Price was in the second most difficult position of any starter last season and ended up 7th in raw numbers. When it all comes out in the wash, only Hellebucyk had a better season (maybe) even though this was an "off-season" for Price.

That's how you would compare stats.

Carey Price Had an Amazing Season with the Montreal Canadiens

But that's just stats. Again, I've seen tons of Roy and Price games. Price doesn't make very many mistakes. Roy let in TONS of bad goals. Goaltending is probably the worse position to compare over time. I would venture to say that Tuuka Rask is better than Patrick Roy as well.

 

[Fixxer]

I don't think any player was able to play every position, at the NHL level, so no one was the GOAT at each position...

Maybe Sergei Fedorov qualifies.. he didn't play goal, but it proved that emergency goalies can do the job, so he could have held his own for maybe 20 minutes...