SV% isn't very accurate. When you're losing by 5 goals with 5 minutes left, is allowing 5 more goals on 5 shots going to affect anything even though it will sink your save%? No. Goals allowed aren't all of the same value.
I actually really dislike that it's the go-to stat. Even wins/losses are better than save%.
The best stat would be importance-adjusted save % but I'm not sure if that even exists.
Another thing to track would be "amount of stolen games" or "amount of games kept close when shouldn't have", etc.
It depends on so many things.
This.
Not only that, SV% is unfavorable to goalies who play on strong shot suppressing defensive teams. As I said EVERY GOALIE has a lower cumulative SV% in games they face a lower number of shots than they do when they do in games when they face a higher number of shots.
And that's for games they played 50 minutes or more.
How is W / L the stat we should watch? Remember when Hotlby won 48 games yet Price took home all the awards the year prior with a .10 higher sv% and won less games..?
1% is not that much. I've seen cases where a goalie actually can have a 1% lower SV% than another goalie and still allow fewer goal despite playing in more games.
No hate on the Islanders but Halak and Greiss have a bunch of wins but hold one of the leagues worst SV%... That would mean the rest of the team is scoring to make up for the lack of rubber stoppage.
Save percentage is indicative of how a goalie plays, but there are more outlying variables we as fans don't really take into account.
This actually isn't true.
What defenders and forwards are injured or traded year to year from any given team. Those can fluctuate a goalies stats. Schneider going from Vancity to Newark was a big change in sv% in the initial year and many people were calling Schneider bad, but since then he's solidified himself as a top ten goalie due to his stellar play with a poor team defending in front of him for the first couple of seasons. Even now the Devils don't have a "great" defense but the pieces are working together and Schneider has once again a great save percentage.
How was there a big difference? He had a career .925 SV% when he got to the Devils, and he posted a .921 in his first year here.
Look at Price when he was "allegedly" trying to get Therrien fired last season. He played poorly and let his save percentage fall well below the .900 mark. When he decided to care again he boosted it to what a .923 by season end, and the back half nabbing upwards of .937(didn't do the math).
To help support you, look at the cup run the pens made and MAF save percentage in the two red wings series. The series they lost he had .933 vs .908 the following season which the pens won. Adjusted save percentage isn't even really what happened so its a completely useless statistic to help people create a story line for their objective argument.
If i make 90k a year but adjust it to 95k a year its either a bonus or stealing, either way its not whats been earned. So why would you try to do the same for a goalie?
IMO goalies should never really make more than $6m. Their position is just too limited, and the gap for what is considered elite and mediocre is not that big.
What people don't realize goalies CAN influence GAA. Rebound control, puck handling, positioning, etc. can affect it. Rinne for example has good everything and thus always has a high expected save percentage, so if he does allow a goal it looks a lot worse on him. Like wise PAvelec sucks in just about everything and if he allows a goal it doens't look as bad on him because everyone knows and expects that he's basically asking to get scored on. Like wise if Rinne makes a great save it's not as highlighted, whereas Pavelec always makes highlight reel saves while allowing terrible goals.
So much this. Marty Brodeur was the goalie who was responsible for deflating his SV% the most. It also didn't help that he played on elite defensive teams. People try to argue that he doesn't belong on the same tier as Roy and Hasek, however he absolutely does when you break his career down.
That's true for sure. There's no such thing as a stat that perfectly describes a player. No matter how advanced the stats will go the best way will always be to just watch the players.
Exactly. Hockey is just too fast paced.