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Short-Handed Goaltender Rankings Since 2005-06

From 1-76, how do NHL goaltenders stack up on the penalty kill?

By Derek Zona
Encouraging signs for Dubynk
Encouraging signs for Dubynk
Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY Sports

The number at the left is the individual short-handed save percentage rank in the NHL since the 2005-06 season for qualifying goalies. In this case a "qualifying season" is one in which the goaltender played in 25 regular season games or more. The number on the far right is the goaltender's short-handed save percentage in those qualifying seasons only, and the numbers in between are the totals from those qualifying seasons. Using a 25 game cutoff eliminates one-offs, injury-filled seasons and eliminates anyone not eligible for the Jennings Trophy, a random cutoff to be sure, but, hey, at least it's consistent. Note that in 2012-13, a qualifying season was 15 games.

Only goaltenders with two more more qualifying seasons were considered.

SH Rank Player
 GP GS SH SA SH GA SH SV SH SV %
1 Cory Schneider 88 80 455 34 421 0.925
2 Niklas Backstrom 369 358 1727 190 1537 0.890
3 Craig Anderson 269 252 1552 171 1381 0.890
4 Henrik Lundqvist 511 504 2629 298 2331 0.887
5 Cristobal Huet 219 209 1311 149 1162 0.886
6 Jimmy Howard 225 223 1017 117 900 0.885
7 Chris Mason 242 223 1301 151 1150 0.884
8 Devan Dubnyk 120 112 636 74 562 0.884
9 Tim Thomas 374 359 1992 236 1756 0.882
10 Jaroslav Halak 198 194 920 109 811 0.882
11 Michal Neuvirth 86 75 388 46 342 0.881
12 Jonathan Quick 283 278 1360 162 1198 0.881
13 Ryan Miller 482 473 2538 304 2234 0.880
14 Tuukka Rask 110 100 448 54 394 0.879
15 Manny Fernandez 130 125 695 84 611 0.879
16 Roberto Luongo 481 473 2936 356 2580 0.879
17 Martin Biron 216 201 1285 156 1129 0.879
18 Joey MacDonald 70 63 395 48 347 0.878
19 Tomas Vokoun 421 410 2377 289 2088 0.878
20 Pascal Leclaire 121 114 830 101 729 0.878
21 Jason LaBarbera 117 97 637 78 559 0.878
22 Martin Brodeur 480 476 2155 264 1891 0.877
23 Ty Conklin 124 108 633 78 555 0.877
24 Dwayne Roloson 361 342 2034 251 1783 0.877
25 Marc-Andre Fleury 446 427 2352 293 2059 0.875
26 Evgeni Nabokov 388 385 1922 242 1680 0.874
27 Cam Ward 431 422 2230 283 1947 0.873
28 Miikka Kiprusoff 538 534 3015 383 2632 0.873
29 Jonas Hiller 253 240 1313 167 1146 0.873
30 David Aebischer 82 76 533 68 465 0.872
31 Brian Elliott 203 185 901 115 786 0.872
32 Mike Smith 218 209 1049 134 915 0.872
33 Carey Price 310 301 1611 207 1404 0.872
34 Olie Kolzig 167 162 1392 179 1213 0.871
35 Pekka Rinne 290 281 1148 148 1000 0.871
36 Jean-Sebastien Giguere 338 312 1961 253 1708 0.871
37 Antti Niemi 210 206 868 112 756 0.871
38 Antero Niittymaki 207 186 1396 181 1215 0.870
39 Manny Legace 219 209 1106 144 962 0.870
40 Ilya Bryzgalov 423 408 2180 286 1894 0.869
41 Kari Lehtonen 364 355 2175 288 1887 0.868
42 Ray Emery 212 195 1063 142 921 0.866
43 Ondrej Pavelec 212 204 1026 138 888 0.865
44 Josh Harding 88 77 423 57 366 0.865
45 Steve Mason 239 231 1194 161 1033 0.865
46 Alex Auld 169 156 1089 147 942 0.865
47 Scott Clemmensen 120 100 491 67 424 0.864
48 Rick DiPietro 214 213 1398 193 1205 0.862
49 Curtis Joseph 115 109 780 108 672 0.862
50 Jonas Gustavsson 84 75 331 46 285 0.861
51 Nikolai Khabibulin 289 282 1697 237 1460 0.860
52 Dan Ellis 173 151 809 113 696 0.860
53 Sergei Bobrovsky 121 114 515 72 443 0.860
54 Mathieu Garon 279 249 1462 205 1257 0.860
55 Corey Crawford 144 138 562 79 483 0.859
56 Johan Holmqvist 95 90 415 59 356 0.858
57 Jose Theodore 333 314 1793 255 1538 0.858
58 Johan Hedberg 196 169 939 134 805 0.857
59 Semyon Varlamov 141 133 656 94 562 0.857
60 Marty Turco 353 344 1893 272 1621 0.856
61 Brent Johnson 56 51 455 66 389 0.855
62 James Reimer 104 100 427 62 365 0.855
63 Patrick Lalime 63 59 383 56 327 0.854
64 Dominik Hasek 140 137 786 115 671 0.854
65 Brian Boucher 67 55 266 39 227 0.853
66 Chris Osgood 121 113 626 92 534 0.853
67 Martin Gerber 172 160 937 138 799 0.853
68 Ed Belfour 107 103 758 112 646 0.852
69 Fredrik Norrena 92 80 497 74 423 0.851
70 Curtis Sanford 101 89 511 77 434 0.849
71 Marc Denis 93 84 557 84 473 0.849
72 Peter Budaj 227 206 1118 174 944 0.844
73 Vesa Toskala 226 209 1132 180 952 0.841
74 Andrew Raycroft 133 126 773 129 644 0.833
75 John Grahame 85 76 401 67 334 0.833
76 Mikael Tellqvist 56 49 344 61 283 0.823
  • What craziness happens on the penalty kill in Toronto? If Jonathan Bernier gets a bit of luck while short-handed, he can be worse at evens, but look better than James Reimer overall. Raycroft, Toskala, Reimer, Belfour, Tellqvist, even Jean-Sebastien Giguere - without his time in Toronto, he's in the top 25 on this list. Tellqvist is sort of amazing, in a way. In 2005-06, he had a .920 ES save percentage in 25 games, 14th in the league of 51 qualifiers. His .824 SH save percentage was 48th.
  • Schneider will certainly come to earth more more games played, but interesting to see Rask in the thick of the goaltenders with more than 2000 shots against on the penalty kill.
  • As Cristobal Huet's even strength numbers wandered ever southward, his short-handed numbers stayed strong, even in Chicago. He posted .882 and .907 in Montreal, .870 between Montreal and Washington, .883 in his first season in Chicago and .886 in his second. He posted a .896 even strength save percentage in his second season in Chicago.
  • The Blue Jackets have slots 69-71 on lockdown.
  • Devan Dubnyk's name is a surprise entry at the top of the list. It's too early to tell, but it would be nice if he had talent on the penalty kill.