Digging in the Crates: Baz to the Bone

“The Aldege "Baz" Bastien Memorial Award is presented annually to the American Hockey League's best goaltender. The award winner is chosen by AHL media and players.”

Introduced in 1983, the Baz has had some pretty significant winners, who went on to have good –to-great NHL careers. Most recently, Matt Murray (14-15) won the award and has a Stanley cup (16-17), a full season, plus 6 playoff rounds and he’s only 24. He is set up for the best career of a Baz winner since Ryan Miller (04-05) and Felix Potvin (91-92). In the LGAHL it only went back 2 years, Darcy in S29 and Granpapuff in S28, previously it was the Golden Gopher.

For the un-intiated: Primer Starters Flex


These articles are not necessary to understand what is at work here, but it does provide an in depth look at the actual factual work that is put into each ranking. Since this is for the “BAZ” trophy, there is a bit more weight given to the overall body of work, the counting stats, etc. Award winners typically have a few things in common, team success, individual success, numbers, and history. Also, a new statistic has been added into the formula, which results in 2 categories.

We have taken the Player Rating numbers generated by Tris’s LG formula, and we have averaged their scores to give the PR statistic which reflects the Quality of Teamates (Qt) and Quality of Competition (Qc). The total PR is a combination of a players overall performance across the season which gives us a larger sample size to account for hot streaks, cold streaks and EAids. Good teams have lots of players with higher PR ratings, bad team have lots of players with low PR ratings. Good teams have good players, Stockton's worse PR player @Coreymac27 is a slightly above league average player. Stackton is an apt name for them. Some average players are pulled up from being on a good team @Neil x 25 @ 56.72 is NOT a better player than @Farfadet92 52.27. Those are outliers, the PR trend really show's the talent level across the league.


Aritcle @Waxibono
Grahpics @Darcy Kuemper
4/5 Write ups @TheCheetahlo 33



1.) @Darcy Kuemper PR 69.15

The Gold standard in net. I love putting things up for debate and the what if's, but this is an award for best goalie of S30, and that is Darcy. It's not his fault Caruch bid him up and then traded him (but a Darcy/GRG Tandem would have been fucking nuts.) Either Caruch is secretly a genius, or more likely he's just an idiot, but making a top team pay a premium for a great goalie helped crunch Providence salary cap at the end of the season and forced them to move Horvat and Brodie.

#1 in wins by a wide margin, 6 over Cheetah at #2, less losses and second in Sv% and GA by .2 and .02 respecitvely, the numbers are elite across the board. Also as the defending Baz winner, and a long line of succesful seasons, it is clear its not a flash in the pan. There have been some rumbles by media members "Does success follow Darcy or does Darcy follow success' but the numbers are clear, Darcy is a clear cut tier above the rest of us when it comes to current play and career numbers, and this season has done nothing but added another layer to his story. Time to fuck off to the NHL now, ya prick, you're done with the A and have been done for awhile. Go be our Ryan Miller, our Felix Potvin.

Signature Game:

3 shutouts vs Utica : 2-0 3-0 and 7-0. Darcy put on a clinic against conference rival, and Eastern Conference winner Utica.



2.) @TheCheetahlo 33 PR 70.37

The number one thing that jumped out at me when I was doing research for the article was 99. 99 goals given up in 51 games. That is the only player in the starter category with less than triple digit Goals allowed and 7 lower than Darcy and 11 lower than Wax. The reason this stick out more than his 30-3-2 record with Stockton, is because it takes the 3 shitty weeks before where he was one of the worse ranked goalies via stats. The only reason he lost in regulation is because his team LITERALLY did not score a single goal. The only 3 regulation losses he took, was because his team was shut out! 1-0 2-0 and a 3-0 shutout against your favorite author, and they were all behind the 3rd line. Cheetah turned Stockton into a great team with lousy goal tending into a complete team, with a top caliber goalie putting up record numbers for efficiency.

Ranking 1st in Sv% with 83.8 and GA 1.87, as one of two to post a sub 2.00 GA, he is almost at the top of the mountain. But because of the 3 weeks in LHV and Ontario, his overall numbers were not as good as they could have been. The other reason I have him listed at # 2 is I believe Stockton would still be in the same position with even a league average goalie. They were always the superior team over Providence, and as a result there aren’t many games where the numbers pop out at you and say ‘Damn, he really stole one for his team” Also, Playing behind the highest rated offensive squad by PR, led by MVP candidates Krawch (71.965) and euro ( 77.

Signature Game:

vs Stockton 2-1 Ot Loss

In a harbinger of what he would bring to the table, Cheetah stands on his head against the Jiggle line behind a weak LHV line and literally earns a point for his team with his play. Before he was sent traded for the 2nd time, it was a night in and night out assault.



3.) @Waxibono PR 63.79

10th in wins overall is a huge hit to the counting stats, but 3rd in Sv% GA and Shutouts after only spending 3 weeks on a winning team, is a big indicator of the individual talent regardless of team. I was at the same sv% behind the likes of need too p00 (35.52 PR) MLG Comeback (35.8.25) Roba Tussin (35.33) Stealthy Whales (21.71) as 4 of my 6 defenseman which are well below league average.
Extrapolating my Ice Hog stint over a full season: 30-6-9 12 SO 83% 1.6 GA 73.44 PR, which is MVP caliber, not just Baz caliber.

Once I got to a decent team the wins and shutouts piled up. With a 3 game shutout streak in the final week of the season it catapulted me back into the Baz discussion, I ultimately fell short based on counting stats versus the top 2. All told I would have to think this is a pretty good follow up sophomore season in the A after getting bombed my first go round behind a bad bad Texas team in S29 (shout out to GRG) and I am proud to be amongst the elite tendys.

These numbers are also backed up from a 2.98 Goal Support which is a full goal below Darcy and .65 below Cheetahlo. GAA W 1.3 is tied with Cheetah and .1 better than Darcy. SPG 13.5 ( a full 2.5 drop from my week 6 article) is a full 1.5 spg higher than the other 2. These advanced statistics help paint the overall picture of a goalie who was the reason the team won more often than not, and almost never cost his team a game. Also I am 2-0 head to head vs Darcy and Cheetah on the season.

Signature Game:

Syracuse vs Milwuakee 3-2 2OT Win 33 Shots 31 Sv 2 GA 99:49 Minutes

With trade rumors swirling, this game kicked off the strongest string of starts I would turn in for S29. This was a blood bath for Syracuse. With 3 ECU’s and 2 of our weaker forwards, this game, should have been a laugher. Unfortunately for Milwuakee, I was in the zone. A late power play goal sent the game into overtime, where it was the sweatiest of regular season games.




4.) @GRG allstarbear PR 64.34
21-15-8 82.7 SV% 2.19 GA 2 SO

An All-Star and deservedly so, GRG played on a team that wasn’t even in contention until the final two weeks. He willed his, honestly pretty ass team, into the playoffs. He then went on to win two games against Stockton which neither San Diego or Rockford could achieve. In one of those games he gave up 2 goals on 28 shots for a 92.9 SV% in a triple OT Win.
Underrated throughout the season, possibly because of the team he played for, GRG will be a force to reckon with in the upcoming seasons. The guy had a 82.7 SV% and 2.19 GA on TEXAS. TEXAS!!!!!!






5.) @zBLINDZy PR 60.81
25-16-2 SV% 82.5 GAA 2.54 SO 4

Blindzy started the season off on San Antonio.. So those of you who aren’t the BS Paintrain, Darcy Keumper type (alcoholics) can remember that San Antonio was one of the better teams in the league to start the season. After getting dealt to Belleville, San Antonio started heading downhill. Which shows how much of an impact this guy can make. Blindzy continued to be a consistently good goalie who would STEAL a game or two for Moisty and the boys weekly. Finishing with an 82.5 SV% on TWO not particularly good teams is just one of the reasons why this guy is in the Top Tier of goaltenders in the league.

6.) @Tatar l21l PR 66.37






7.) @Slippery In Net PR 62.39




8. @danlizhot PR 64.11 (shout out for his work behind the scenes!!)






9. @I Crease Fire I PR 62.93



10. @FriskyBeaverr PR 63.38



Apologies to 5-10 the writer of yours was unable to complete them, still you got some sweet frikin' graphics. Special shoutout to @mochez18 and @Bottomless Pit For great seasons that fell outside the starter category.

Thank you all for a great year!

 

I’m below average at best @Waxibono ... great article tho!

 

I’m sorry but @Neil x 25 is the best by far. Please adjust. Otherwise great stuff!

 

write in vote : all star buck

 

Apologies to the 5-10, had like a binge drink week and kept putting it off, I’m bad sorry, you’re all ELITE, there’s my write up.

 

^^^ The mans just turned 21. Had to teach him how to case race.

 

Wow thanks for the mention guys it was really cool

 

Great writeup by all involved.. let’s make sure these boys listed get that Darcy money in s31 bidding

 

@Too Much Twoco @mochez18 robbed

 

Cheeta GOAT

 

After seeing how Slippery played against us in the Ploffs. I gotta vote for Slippery.

 

Baz is based on regular season statistics. There'd be a way different thread if it was post season. There have been some amazing performances from all the tendys that merit a mention!

 

Regardless great write up

 

Great stuff as always @Waxibono

 

Thanks for the mention wish I wasn't so underrated tho.

 

Well I know the LSB war room you aren't! Keep it up bud.