NHL Network released their top-10 goalies of ‘right now’ and one thing that stood out was the preponderance of goalies within the division for the Penguins. Half of the teams in the division can be found in this league-wide ranking.
The two NYC-ish based Russian goalies of Igor Shesterkin and Ilya Sorokin are generally understood to be the top talents in the division at the position as known quantities. Goaltending performances from year-to-year are notoriously variable and all over the map, aside from the handful of elite goalies that almost always bring their A game. Shesterkin and Sorokin are accepted as those rare goalies good enough to be above the fray and provide consistently strong play.
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Logan Thompson in Washington should arguably be even higher than the sixth place position he was placed for this list, considering that he’s finished fourth in Vezina voting for the last two years. Those finishes in the voting might even be lower than deserved considering that Thompson held up statistically very well coming in second across the NHL in 5v5 and overall GSAA, tied for third in save percentage and shutouts, fourth in wins and fifth in GAA. Thompson doesn’t tend to get a lot of shine or outward accolades but there’s little doubt that he has been playing at an impressive level recently, placing him in the sixth spot could easily be seen as too low for what his resume has indicated.
Rounding out the list for Metropolitan goalies was Dan Vladar at eighth, who the Penguins know all too well was good in the moment. Vladar went 12-6-1 for the Flyers after the Olympic break and his play was a big reason why Philadelphia made the playoffs and then advanced through the first round of the playoffs posting a .937 save% and 1.61 GAA in the first round against Pittsburgh. The Flyers rewarded Vladar with one of those contracts that seemingly always bite NHL teams to give a mid-level goalie a long term and a decent-sized salary ($5.5 million in Vladar’s case, and the contract doesn’t even kick in until the 2027-28 season) so that could be one to watch as a player that potentially could be more on the roller coaster for ups and downs. Recently, however, Vladar’s arrow has been pointing up.
All these opponent goalies being on the list serves to underscore the difficulty that next season could have for a team like the Pens, who don’t go into the year with an advantage in net against many of their closest rivals. It doesn’t help that with the perfected system of puck possession that Carolina has that it doesn’t even matter that they don’t have a top goalie and can have average netminders perform very well behind a team that doesn’t ask too much of their shot stoppers. That formula works for them and should be continuing into the future just the same.
None of this are new revelations but just underscore the reality that teams like the Penguins find themselves in when it comes to competition levels isolated to the goalie position. Between having four top-10 goalies (plus the overall great situation in Carolina) there’s a strong challenge in the season ahead for most of the division games that Pittsburgh is going to play.
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