I realize now that I've had four additional years of data added to my website since I last updated, so here's more of a data dump than anything.
Note that for the tables below, if a goaltender switched teams, then I didn't bother combining their teams here. I used a minimum 25 games played threshold for all tables.
Five Strongest Schedules, 1981-82 NHL:
Five Strongest Schedules, 1980-81 NHL:
Five Strongest Schedules, 1979-80 NHL:
Five Strongest Schedules, 1978-79 NHL:
Five Easiest Schedules, 1981-82 NHL:
Five Easiest Schedules, 1980-81 NHL:
Five Easiest Schedules, 1979-80 NHL:
Five Easiest Schedules, 1978-79 NHL:
Anyhow, I'm sure exactly what I intend for you to do with these data - it's nice to see Jim Bedard get some recognition; I always felt that he was underappreciated in his day.
The workload split between (rookie) Greg Millen and (veteran) Denis Herron, I've written about on the History forum.
Pete Peeters' appearance on the "easier" list in 1979-80 was also his rookie season; I have a theory about rookie usage that I haven't been able to fully test yet. Peeters/Myre's workload split is similar to the above, although not as extreme.
Of course, Millen and Peeters would both end up on the "strongest" list by the end of this exercise, which suggests that they gained something from their limited exposure period.
Eddie Mio went from the easy list (1980-81 Oilers) to the strong list (1981-82 Rangers). I would have expected his statistics to suffer, although they did not. I do calculate a separate schedule strength metric (average opponents' shooting percentage relative to the league) which should roughly influence save percentage (that's the intent at least), and although Mio's schedule got harder, the shooting percentages got easier.
Hands in the air if you expected to see an early-1980s Leafs goaltender on the easy list. It looks like they used Larocque and Tremblay in a sheltering fashion, with Tremblay getting the easier end of it.
Do you remember Richard Sevigny's stellar 20-4-3 record for the Canadiens in 1980-81? His schedule helped, while Denis Herron (6-9-6) took the tough matchups. It's rare for a team to simultaneously have the goaltender with the toughest schedule and the goaltender with the easiest schedule, but Montreal did in 1980-81.
Speaking of schedule disparity, Ed Staniowski (the lowest on the 1981-82 list) would have also been the lowest on the list in 1980-81, if I'd expanded the criteria to 19 games minimum. Mike Liut (+0.10) and Staniowski (-0.64) is perhaps the largest difference I've seen between a club's top two.