Tuukka Rask has the highest save% in the history of the game

[Revelation]

If Hasek had Brodeur or Roy's teams/systems in front of him it wouldn't be a debate who the GOATender is. Or, conversely, if either of them had to backstop 90's Buffalo for their prime.

 

[GeeoffBrown]

I don't know how any anyone who saw Hasek play in the 90s could say Roy or Brodeur were better. Hasek is the most dominant player I've seen.

 

[ponder]

This just goes to show how insane Hasek was. Obviously not a coincidence that all other goalies are either still playing or (for Thomas) were very recently playing.

Indeed. Bigger equipment, refining of the most effective goaltender techniques, and better team D (IMO better at strategically taking away the really high percentage opportunities than they used to) has meant that nearly all modern goalies have way better save percentages than nearly all older goalies. Hell, look at the top 25 all time, it includes some pretty mediocre modern goalies like Bernier, Reimer, Halak, Dubnyk, Howard and Hiller. Also, look at 36-38: Manny Fernandez, David Aebischer and Manny Legace, LOL.

Rask is a top notch goalie, but he's basically tied with a bunch of other goalies from his generation in terms of career save percentage, and like others I expect his save percentage will come down a bit over time - Hasek's seasons in his late 30s/early 40s certainly brought his sv% down significantly - his career sv% with Buffalo was .926!

Hasek playing solidly into his 40s, mostly in an era when save percentages were a lot worse than today, and still being #2 on this list is crazy impressive. He was such a beast, so unconventional but so effective. It's a bit of a shame that he played his whole prime on some pretty "meh" Sabres teams, he still managed to carry them impressively far in the playoffs a few times, but he'd have a lot more cups if he'd played on strong teams during his prime. IMO he's the top goalie ever.

 

[Lempo]

The Finnish superstar the Leafs never had. I bet Toronto Finland relations would have been better if we had been able to enjoy Rask...

Again, the non-Finn guy was a Calder winner.

... and played the 2004 lockout in Tappara, SML of all possible teams, where they apparently ruined him so that Leafs in the end chose to replace him as starter.

With Vesa Toskala.

 

[Los Patos de Anaheim]

SV% is strongly correlated with shots faced. The more shots you face, the higher your SV% tends to be.

With low SA numbers, SV% is dictated by randomness and chance. The more shots you face, the less powerful randomness becomes. This SV% can be strongly inflated or deflated by the quality of the defense you play behind.

This, combined with no good way to control for shot quality, makes SV% a painfully incomplete metric for player evaluation.

I prefer to pair Save Percentage with High Danger Corsi Against

 

[Daximus]

Hasek was a scramble God. I don't think there has ever been a goalie with better puck awareness. His mind was stapled to it.

 

[Karl Eriksson]

Rask

Hasek
Brodeur
Roy

 

[Howboutthempanthers]

You've got to be kidding with this, it's Roy and it's not close. Hasek was the desperation save god of the dead-puck-era, Roy was who you wanted in the post-season when things mattered.

Not close you say? Ok...

Anyway, I'd like to see Roy drag around those Buffalo teams in the playoffs.
And people only focus on those highlight saves of Hasek, but many more times he made great scoring chances look like routine saves. He wasn't just flopping all over the ice all the time, he made most of his saves in a routine way, and like I said, a lot of them were very good scoring chances.

 

[blundluntman]

I think its important to remember when Roy played, sv % was significantly lower (just like how we accept scoring is lower today. Direct correlation.) As far as how well he outperformed his peers in particular seasons, he has a few that can stand to Hasek's.

 

[Jumptheshark]

1 1987 FI Tuukka Rask 395 2.24 0.923
2 1965 CZ Dominik Hašek 735 2.20 0.922
3 1986 US Cory Schneider 330 2.28 0.922
4 1989 CA Braden Holtby 307 2.31 0.922
5 1987 CA Carey Price 509 2.40 0.920
6 1974 US Tim Thomas 426 2.52 0.920
7 1988 RU Sergei Bobrovsky330 2.45 0.920
8 1982 SE Henrik Lundqvist742 2.32 0.920
9 1979 CA Roberto Luongo 966 2.50 0.919
10 1986 US Ben Bishop 270 2.32 0.919


So amazing, so good

http://www.quanthockey.com/nhl/records/nhl-goalies-all-time-save-percentage-leaders.html

Come back when he has played 500 games

 

[nmbr_24]

1 1987 FI Tuukka Rask 395 2.24 0.923
2 1965 CZ Dominik Hašek 735 2.20 0.922
3 1986 US Cory Schneider 330 2.28 0.922
4 1989 CA Braden Holtby 307 2.31 0.922
5 1987 CA Carey Price 509 2.40 0.920
6 1974 US Tim Thomas 426 2.52 0.920
7 1988 RU Sergei Bobrovsky330 2.45 0.920
8 1982 SE Henrik Lundqvist742 2.32 0.920
9 1979 CA Roberto Luongo 966 2.50 0.919
10 1986 US Ben Bishop 270 2.32 0.919


So amazing, so good

http://www.quanthockey.com/nhl/records/nhl-goalies-all-time-save-percentage-leaders.html

I'm a Bruins fan and I like Rask a lot but Hasek was on another level. He was on another level than anyone. Guys maybe have attained that level for one season like Price and Thomas but Hasek did it for a much longer period of time.

 

[Legionnaire11]

That first response of being the "desperation save" king... They weren't desperation saves, he just made it look that way, it was his style. All of the rolling around, throwing limbs out wildly, etc. That was all by design, he did it with propose and he was highly effective with it.

Plus he played more and more conservative and traditional styles as he aged and he was still a top goalie.

 

[SirQuacksALot]

Budapest

Gary, IN

 

[lomiller1]

Seems like SV% goes down based on the number of games played.

That's because sv% typical peaks at around 26 and then declines gradually. For goaltenders with a lot of games played, most of them will come after 26.

 

[COHawk]

Updated with ages list:

And here is if you bump Brodeur and Roy to compare starting at age 22:

 

[BruinsFTW]

I'm a Bruins fan and I like Rask a lot but Hasek was on another level. He was on another level than anyone. Guys maybe have attained that level for one season like Price and Thomas but Hasek did it for a much longer period of time.

By no means do I think OP is comparing Rask to Hasek, Roy etc...I hope not at least

 

[COHawk]

By no means do I think OP is comparing Rask to Hasek, Roy etc...I hope not at least

Seems like the intention considering the overall stats and those 3 being considered the best ever. Different eras though, like everyone is saying.

 

[Kuhta]

I am not suggesting that Rask is better than Hasek

Just that Rask is elite and good to play in this league for another decade.

 

[Hockey Outsider]

SV% is strongly correlated with shots faced. The more shots you face, the higher your SV% tends to be.

How strong is the correlation?

(EDIT - what I'm trying to do is see if there's a way to quantify this. So if it's true that a goalie is at a disadvantage because he faces more shots than average, can we quantify the impact? I'd rather adjust save percentage if there's a specific factor that affects it, rather than throw it away entirely).

 

[COHawk]

How strong is the correlation?

(EDIT - what I'm trying to do is see if there's a way to quantify this. So if it's true that a goalie is at a disadvantage because he faces more shots than average, can we quantify the impact? I'd rather adjust save percentage if there's a specific factor that affects it, rather than throw it away entirely).

I only looked at a small sample size, but this doesn't seem to check out. Rask's 4 seasons of lowest shots faced (in ascending order) are as follows:

.929
.918
.928
.931

 

[BraveCanadian]

Note: This does NOT account for age. It is simple a look at their first 8 NHL seasons. One interesting thing is their peaks, where Hasek peaked earlier in his career, and Roy much later.

Peak as defined by save percentage?

Because if you're going strictly by save percentage than no way is late 30s Roy better than mid-20s Roy.

You have to keep in mind that the equipment, predominant play style etc. were changing around them through this time.

 

[COHawk]

Peak as defined by save percentage?

Because if you're going strictly by save percentage than no way is late 30s Roy better than mid-20s Roy.

You have to keep in mind that the equipment, predominant play style etc. were changing around them through this time.

Going by SV%, yes. First 8 years for Hasek were higher than his his career SV% and Roy's first 8 years were much lower than his career SV%, meaning Roy played better in the last 12 year of his career than the first 8.

 

[AfroThunder396]

How strong is the correlation?

(EDIT - what I'm trying to do is see if there's a way to quantify this. So if it's true that a goalie is at a disadvantage because he faces more shots than average, can we quantify the impact? I'd rather adjust save percentage if there's a specific factor that affects it, rather than throw it away entirely).

http://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/nhl/nhl-goalies-better-with-high-shot-volumes/
http://ingoalmag.com/analysis/shot-volume-affect-save-percentage/
http://hfboards.mandatory.com/showthread.php?t=1632645&page=3

This post from Deathstroke really caught my attention:

Here is the "29 or fewer" vs "30 or more" splits for the current Eastern Conference starting goalies. This is only including the games where the goalie played at least 55 minutes, and also does not include games played from this season.

Goaltender | <=29 shots SV% | >=30 shots SV%
Frederick Andersen|.922|.928
Craig Anderson|.899|.928
Ben Bishop|.912|.937
Sergei Bobrovsky|.910|.930
Marc Andre Fleury|.909|.924
Jaroslav Halak|.915|.931
Braden Holtby|.920|.931
Jimmy Howard|.911|.929
Robin Lehner|.899|.930
Henrik Lundqvist|.916|.933
Roberto Luongo|.913|.932
Steve Mason|.901|.929
Carey Price|.910|.931
Tuukka Rask|.916|.936
Cory Schneider|.920|.938
Cam Ward|.899|.927

WESTERN CONFERENCE

Goalie | <=29 shots SV% | >=30 shots SV%
Jake Allen|.919|.928
Corey Crawford|.915|.933
Devan Dubnyk|.903|.928
Brian Elliott|.917|.932
John Gibson|.917|.937
Connor Hellebuyck|.902|.955
Martin Jones|.913|.940
Kari Lehtonen|.909|.923
Ryan Miller|.905|.928
Jonathan Quick|.912|.933
Pekka Rinne|.907|.938
Mike Smith|.902|.929
Cam Talbot|.915|.934
Semyon Varlamov|.906|.931

 

[BraveCanadian]

Going by SV%, yes. First 8 years for Hasek were higher than his his career SV% and Roy's first 8 years were much lower than his career SV%, meaning Roy played better in the last 12 year of his career than the first 8.

Yeah, I'm gonna have to go ahead and disagree with you on that one.

Roy was not better individually at 35+ with worn out hips than he was earlier.

 

[COHawk]

Ah my mistake, I thought you meant more shots in a season, not game. That makes a lot more sense.