With that in mind, welcome Linus Ullmark to the chat.
One of the many faces of the Boston Bruins’ incredible resurgence was relatively unknown just six months ago. It was the summer of 2021 when things first shifted for the former sixth-round draft pick. As he blew out the candles on his 28th birthday, Ullmark had never topped 34 NHL starts in a season. His career to date had been spent with the lowly Buffalo Sabres, the root canal of goalie gigs at the time.
That July, Ullmark signed with Boston, an aging but competitive team hoping to keep its contention window open a little longer. He was joining a potentially crowded crease. Prospect Jeremy Swayman looked ready for prime time, while long-time stud Tuukka Rask was expected back from off-season surgery mid-season.
Few could anticipate that two years later Ullmark would be the betting favorite for the Vezina Trophy. Fewer yet could imagine he would headline a story about all-time great goalie seasons. But here we are.
On our quest to rank Ullmark’s 2022-23 performance in goaltending history, let’s meet Goals Saved Above Average. GSAA is the number of goals saved (or allowed) vs. league-average save percentage over the same number of shots.
Robin Lehner’s 2021-22 is the perfect example to illustrate the stat. The NHL’s average save percentage last season was .907. So was Lehner’s. On the 1,288 shots Lehner faced, an average NHL goalie would stop 1,168, for a .907 save percentage. Lehner stopped exactly 1,168. We would say Lehner saved zero goals above average. Had he saved 1,178, he’d earned 10 GSAA. Had he stopped 1,158, he’d have -10 GSAA. Simple enough.
Vezina winner Igor Shesterkin (.935 save percentage) saved an incredible 45 goals above average, the best in the league. Phillip Grubauer, meanwhile, welcomed the Seattle Kraken to the NHL by “saving” 26 goals below average, the league’s worst. While it doesn’t account for shot quality, GSAA allows us to go back to 1955-56 to compare goaltenders—the first season shots were tracked.
So, how does Ullmark rate historically by GSAA?
