The following is simply me wanting to start the conversation to a question a lot of people debate. Does investing into your goaltending lead to success? My simplest answer...YES & NO. I understand you can't simply just base it off cap, but at least for this post,...it is. Feel free to reply with criteria you would like to see that might help answer this age old question. Here are the #'s in a bit more organized form so you don't have to scroll through all the rosters...Enjoy! Playoff Teams: Rangers $2.25mil Hurricanes $2.5mil Bluejackets $1mil Penguins $2.25mil Average div = $2mil Sabres $1.5mil Canadiens $3mil Redwings $2.5mil Bruins $1.75mil Average div = $2.19mil Jets $2.25mil Coyotes $1.75mil Stars $4.5mil Predators $2.5mil Average div = $2.75mil Kraken $3mil Sharks $3mil Knights $1.5mil Canucks $3.25mil Average div = $2.69mil 11/16 teams spent $2mil or more 8/16 teams spent $2.5mil or more 5/16 teams spent $3mil or more Non-Playoff Teams: (5th) Islanders $2.75 Capitals $1mil Flyers $2.5mil Devils $3.5mil Average div =$2.75mil (5th)Lightning $2.5mil Leafs $2mil Panthers $2mil Senators $2mil Average div = $2.13mil (5th)Wild $3mil Blues $1mil* only have 1 500k g rostered so i added league minimum for ghost g slot Blackhawks $1.25mil Avalanche $3.25mil Average div = $2.13mil (5th)Oilers $2.5mil Kings $1mil Flames $2mil Ducks $1.5mil Average div = $1.75mil Average Playoff team: $2.4mil Average 5th place: $2.69mil Average 6th - last place: $2.55mil League Average: $2.54mil Total League Average: $2.54mil 7/16 PLAYOFF teams are at or above the league average for goaltending cap investment. (Rounding down to $2.5mil as the criteria for this as you can't be paid 2.54mil) 11/16 Non playoff teams are below the league average for goaltending cap investment. So based on these numbers it would appear that spending more on your goalies doesn't necessarily lead to succeess. There are many other factors obviously. Not only the team in front of the goalie, but also a goalie on a DP contract could theoretically go for more or less if they were a free agent. This is strictly cap based. And as we know a good team can hide a bad G while a bad team can be saved by a good G. Not here to give examples....However.... @Vaynx is one goalie who really fascinates me. At $4 mil he is not only the highest paid goalie in the league, but he is the 4th highest contract all together on his team. Furthermore, there is only one defenseman on his team that has a higher contract than he does. I have have come to the conclusion that Vaynx is indeed his own defensemen. I hope you all enjoyed this write-up. I was actually just personally curious about this and thought I'd share my curiosity. This will be interesting to look at once more once the regular season is over how much the numbers change. This is my first write-up so feel free to critique...I take criticism well.
Correlation =/= Causation. Appreciate the write up and you can crunch the numbers all day long but you're not going to find causation anywhere, perhaps the notable exception is @Vaynx . I think nhl 21 fits vayn's playstyle better than any previous title... they basically made this game for him. I also think @Denisov x 42 is the other guy you want between the pipes in this game. I haven't watched enough goalies to give anymore thoughts. Back to retirement for me. I'll give one more shot some day...
