The NHL’s Pacific Division boasts an intriguing array of quality goaltenders and declining veterans.
Enter Braden Holtby and Devan Dubnyk, exit Cam Talbot, and swap Jacob Markstrom. That is the brief rundown of the goaltending changes featured in the Pacific Division this upcoming NHL season. Despite the maneuvering, the crop cream in this division remains unchanged, albeit the logo next to one of the goaltenders has changed.
As a reminder, here are the statistics I will be using in these rankings:
- GAA (Goals Against Average)
- SV% (Save Percentage)
- QS% (Quality Start Percentage)
- GSAA (Goals Saved Above Average)
- RBS (Really Bad Starts)
- HDGAA (High Danger Goals Against Average)
- HDSV% (High Danger Save Percentage)
In case you missed our previous rankings…
Let us get these final rankings underway!
Martin Jones finished the 2019-20 season with career-worsts in GAA (3.00) and SV% (.896), capping off his second-straight disappointing campaign. The injury-riddled San Jose Sharks didn’t provide much help for Jones, but the number of bad goals he allowed put the Sharks behind the eight-ball too often.
Only 38.5% of Jones’s starts were QS, while 11 of his outings qualified as RBS. His GSAA was a lackluster -15.01, creating way too many lopsided scores for San Jose last season. “Softies” were constantly getting through the 30-year old, who will be relegated to a tandem role with newly acquired Devan Dubnyk next season.
Jones’s high-danger numbers were not bad considering his overall performance, finishing with a .829 HDSV% and a 1.49 HDGAA. The Sharks are hoping that lessening the load between Jones and Dubnyk will rejuvenate both goaltenders in 2021.