Starting goalie games played per season

[seventieslord]

Does anyone (pnep, maybe?) have a spreadsheet that can calculate this easily?

I was curious what the year-by-year average was, for the average number of games played by a starting goaltender. As in, look at the roster of every team, determine which goalie played the most games, call him the starter, add up the GP of all the starters in the NHL, and divide by the number of teams.

I was thinking of the possibility of an "adjusted wins" stat for goalies that takes into account certain eras (like the 70's and 80's for example) where many starters played 45-55 games just because that's what the ideology of the time was. Nowadays, a bonafide starter plays 70 games which puts players from those years at a disadvantage.

Since I am going that far, I suppose I could adjust the win totals for OT and shootouts too, which won't be nearly as difficult.

Click to read more...

 

[Hank Chinaski]

Maybe I'm stating the obvious...but wouldn't win percentage be the best way of comparing goalies from different eras?

Unless your trying to establish some kind of benchmark for each season...

 

[pnep]

Season | GAMES
1917-18|16,00
1918-19|17,33
1919-20|21,00
1920-21|23,00
1921-22|23,50
1922-23|24,00
1923-24|23,25
1924-25|28,50
1925-26|35,00
1926-27|42,89
1927-28|43,44
1928-29|42,60
1929-30|41,33
1930-31|39,40
1931-32|43,25
1932-33|43,89
1933-34|46,38
1934-35|44,22
1935-36|45,75
1936-37|41,38
1937-38|47,75
1938-39|43,00
1939-40|44,67
1940-41|42,43
1941-42|44,43
1942-43|45,50
1943-44|37,00
1944-45|42,83
1945-46|39,00
1946-47|55,17
1947-48|56,83
1948-49|58,67
1949-50|66,83
1950-51|63,33
1951-52|67,17
1952-53|64,83
1953-54|65,83
1954-55|57,00
1955-56|64,83
1956-57|62,17
1957-58|57,00
1958-59|61,33
1959-60|57,67
1960-61|52,50
1961-62|56,67
1962-63|54,67
1963-64|61,00
1964-65|47,67
1965-66|48,17
1966-67|44,83
1967-68|48,58
1968-69|53,25
1969-70|53,82
1970-71|46,93
1971-72|47,86
1972-73|48,19
1973-74|50,19
1974-75|51,67
1975-76|52,83
1976-77|50,50
1977-78|52,94
1978-79|47,88
1979-80|48,62
1980-81|47,24
1981-82|51,95
1982-83|49,14
1983-84|46,71
1984-85|48,75
1985-86|48,60
1986-87|49,29
1987-88|51,19
1988-89|48,00
1989-90|48,24
1990-91|51,52
1991-92|54,48
1992-93|56,00
1993-94|58,56
1994-95|36,19
1995-96|56,20
1996-97|57,39
1997-98|59,32
1998-99|55,63
1999-00|58,13
2000-01|56,43
2001-02|61,40
2002-03|57,21
2003-04|56,52
2005-06|54,61
Total|50,72

 

[seventieslord]

Maybe I'm stating the obvious...but wouldn't win percentage be the best way of comparing goalies from different eras?

Unless your trying to establish some kind of benchmark for each season...

Thanks, but it has nothing to do with winning percentage.

It's more like, goalie A played 53 games in 1988 which looks low but is actually more than the average for a starter in that season, whereas times had changed by 1998 and 59 games was the standard. If comparing his win total to that of a goalie who played in 1998, I would adjust his win total up by 16% for that season as it's not his fault he played in a league that thought starters should play 51 games.

Thanks, pnep, for this excellent info. It was kind of an obscure request, so I wasn't sure you'd be able to pull through. I will use this, and throw in the OT/shootout adjustment too, and see what I come up with.

 

[Hank Chinaski]

Thanks, but it has nothing to do with winning percentage.

It's more like, goalie A played 53 games in 1988 which looks low but is actually more than the average for a starter in that season, whereas times had changed by 1998 and 59 games was the standard. If comparing his win total to that of a goalie who played in 1998, I would adjust his win total up by 16% for that season as it's not his fault he played in a league that thought starters should play 51 games.

Thanks, pnep, for this excellent info. It was kind of an obscure request, so I wasn't sure you'd be able to pull through. I will use this, and throw in the OT/shootout adjustment too, and see what I come up with.

Oh I see, so an "adjusted" win total, in other words. Cool.

I'd be interested to hear some theories as to why the average games played seemed to drop in the 80's, before gradually rising in the early 90's. Any chance that there were alot of home-and-home or two-game homestands during this era (similar to the AHL now)?

 

[Bear of Bad News]

I'd be interested to hear some theories as to why the average games played seemed to drop in the 80's, before gradually rising in the early 90's. Any chance that there were alot of home-and-home or two-game homestands during this era (similar to the AHL now)?

My theory on why the two goalie system evolved in the first place - schedule burden. With teams all across the continent and long travel schedules, plus the overall quality of the game getting better, it became infeasible for one goaltender to play every game in a season.

Remember that the conditioning for goaltenders didn't really start to take off until about twenty years ago, and here's where I will segue into the next topic. With lower salaries, hockey players usually had to work "real jobs" in the offseason, and couldn't spend a lot of time on conditioning. Now with higher salaries, players can afford to spend the offseason conditioning - and now that some do, everyone else has to, or they'll get left behind in terms of ability.

My theory on why it's rised over the last twenty years - increased salaries. When both of your goalies (and all of your players, in fact) were making a relative pittance, it was easier to sell the benefits of a two-goalie system. Now that salaries are so high, and salaries are based so much on past statistics and accolades, there's a lot more pressure from top goaltenders to get more playing time. And there's a lot more pressure from fans and ownership saying "hey, we're paying this guy six million - why doesn't he play all of the time?). And because of the increase salaries, the top goaltenders are in the condition necessary to handle the load.

How's that for a blind stab in the dark?

 

[Hank Chinaski]

How's that for a blind stab in the dark?

It will suffice for now

I think you nailed it, particularly with the rapid inflation of "number 1" goalie salaries relative to their backups. Another theory I considered (also a stab in the dark) is that during the high-scoring eighties, there was maybe a bit less emphasis on goalies being able to "shut teams down"...it would be absurd to say simply "there was less emphasis on goaltending" during the eighties, but I think there might have been more margin for error, in comparison to the more recent tight-checking years, where a soft goal can often prove the difference. Hence, teams during the latter era are more hesitant to rotate goalies, and would prefer to stick with one guy and build up his consistency.