Goaltender is widely thought of as the most important position in hockey. Who’s the best of all-time? It’s a topic that is always being debated, and Patrick and I take our stab at it this week…
Patrick Roy
By Ryan Porth
Patrick Roy is the greatest goalie in NHL history. This really shouldn’t be a discussion, but it is.
In 19 NHL seasons, Roy racked up 551 career wins (2nd all-time), played 1,029 games in net (2nd) and set postseason records, including playoff wins (151; 52 more than anybody else). He posted 23 shutouts in the ‘second season’, tied for first. He won four Stanley Cups; two with Montreal and Colorado each. ‘Saint Patrick’ is also the only player to ever win three Conn Smythe Trophies.
One of the most impressive things about Roy’s career is that he was equally great with the Canadiens and Avalanche. As noted, he won two Cups with each team. He won three Vezina Trophies and three Jennings Trophies in Montreal. With Colorado, he led the league in goals-against average in 2001-02 (1.94) and posted seven straight 30-win seasons, making the Avalanche one of the toughest teams to beat in that time. His #33 is retired in both cities.
Roy, who was a first-ballot Hall of Famer in 2006, made an impact beyond statistics. He is known for revolutionizing the butterfly style for goaltenders. Nowadays, the vast majority of goalies play that style, but it may not be that way if it weren’t for Roy.
The goalie Roy is often compared to is Martin Brodeur, and for good reason. They were arguably the two most dominant goalies of the 1990’s and set multiple NHL records. There are two reasons why I’ll take Roy any day over Brodeur, though.
Roy didn’t have the luxury of playing in a defensive trap system like Brodeur has in New Jersey. Additionally, Roy didn’t get a chance to pad his wins total in shootouts; Brodeur has won 35 games via the ‘skills competition’, as some people call it. If you take away those 35 wins, Roy has a better win percentage.
Roy also wasn’t afraid to wear his emotions on his sleeve. 30 years old at the time, Roy exited Montreal in unprecedented fashion. After being pulled out of a 1995 game where he allowed 9 goals, he told the team president he was finished in Montreal. Four days later, Roy was in Colorado. With the Avs, his competitive spirit was evident, especially when he decided to drop the gloves at center ice with Detroit’s Chris Osgood and Mike Vernon.
If I were a coach and I needed to win one game, Patrick Roy would be the guy I’d put between the pipes. Why? Because he’s the greatest goalie in NHL history.
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Terry Sawchuk
By Patrick Hoffman
When it comes to discussing the greatest goaltenders in NHL history, many names will be thrown out there whether it is Martin Brodeur, Patrick Roy, Jacques Plante, Dominik Hasek, Tony Esposito, Vladislav Tretiak and so on and so forth.
One name that deserves a long, long look is former Detroit Red Wings, Toronto Maple Leafs, Boston Bruins, Los Angeles Kings and New York Rangers netminder Terry Sawchuk. While he may not have made as many memorable saves as Roy, Hasek or Brodeur, he was one of, if not the best, goaltender in his time.
Looking at statistics, there is no question that Sawchuk should be considered the greatest NHL netminder of all time. He had 447 wins, a career goals-against average of 2.52 and a staggering 103 shutouts in the regular season. In the playoffs, Sawchuk was just as good. He posted 266 wins, had a 2.54 goals against average and 12 shutouts to go along with four Stanley Cups.
Sure, several of his records have been broken, but look at what he did in his time. Playing without a mask in a very open game, Sawchuk won a ton of games, stopped many, many, many, shots and was simply fearless between the pipes. Nowadays, goaltenders are like Michelin men with the bulky equipment and take up so much room between the pipes.
One can also say that like Brodeur, Sawchuk was the product of the great teams in front of him. While that may be true, he was still tested in net between the pipes and more often than not, passed with flying colors and often, the “W”.
Sawchuk is an NHL legend, a hockey legend and of course, a netminding legend. That is the way Sawchuk will always be remembered.
With that said, he should also go down as the best goaltender in NHL history.
Photo credit: Getty Images
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16 comments:
I agree Patrick Roy was the greatest! Great faceoff, great choice of topic.
Bernie Parent should also be given strong consideration. He single handedly put the 1973-1975 Flyers on his back and won back-to-back Stanley Cups with a team not as talented as the Bruins (1974) or Sabres (1975). An injury cut his career short, but he was dominant during his time (and still a beloved figure in Philly). Remember "Only the Lord saves more than Bernie Parent"
First off, Patrick Hoffman didn't do any research prior to putting his words in print. TRETIAK DID NOT PLAY IN THE NHL.
Even so, I don't like either choice. Not that they were not great goalies, but they did play on great teams. Roy won the Cup on teams where a below average goalie could have gotten to the second round. Same with Sawchuk, you can look at his gaa and tell how good the team in front of him was.
My pick would be the Dominator. No one did more with less in front of him than he did (some of those Buffalo teams shouldn't have made it to the post season, let alone winning a series). Aside from that, Roy and Hasek met in the playoffs with similar teams (DET VS. COL in '02) and Hasek won. Hasek beat out Roy for the Vezina 6times. His worst gaa for any complete season (40 + games) is 2.83. Roy had a few 3+ gaa seasons; he still won about 50% of his games those seasons, but wins are a product of the team in front of the goalie as well.
Want proof, look at Fuhr's stats and then look at his win% and Cup count. Same with Ozgood, neither of them did good on bad (or even average) teams.
Well I would agree that both patrick and sawchuck played on great teams but is that not what a great goalie does. Great goalies make teams great. In order for a goalie to be considered great they back stop that team for many consecutive years. So I would say Hasek is a great goalie as well but he is NO Patrick Roy.
Those teams would have been great with an average goalie. Every year that Roy played his teams were some of the best the league had to offer. How well did Roy do on a team that didn't have 3-4 other all stars? We don't know and will never find out. For example, Ray Bourque went to Colorado because he felt that they had a great team already established.
Certainly Roy gave his team a chnce to win most nights, but those teams gave him the same opportunity. Without Hasek, Buffalo wouldn't have made the playoffs, let alone advance. How many Hall of Fame players did Hasek play with prior to going to Detroit? If he had been playing with Detroit his whole career we probably wouldn't be having this debate.
As much as I like Patrick Roy, I believe the number one goalie has to be Martin Brodeur. His record speaks for itself.
Oh please. Roy was great, but not greater than Brodeur...Certainly not greater than Sawchuck or Dryden.
It's all era driven. Of the two, Roy and Brodeur, I'd prefer Brodeur(partially driven by my love of the Kansas City Scouts..if you have to ask, you lose), but also because statistically he outshines Roy in many areas...look it up.
You really can't choose the greatest ever though, it's not possible. Dryden, Sawchuck, Hasek, Roy, Brodeur, Laplante....there's so many that defined their era and team. Give me a break.
2 words glenn hall
Sawchuk, Plante, Brodeur, and Roy were great. That being said the best goaltender I ever saw was Glen Hall. He won a stagering number of games with teams that weren't really good, played something like 500 games straight (without a mask), and invented the butterfly tech. Saw him play in St. Louis against the great Canadians in the 60's. Blues lost 4 straight in the finals, but Hall was great and was MVP of the playoffs.
Sorry I am not a Patrick Roy fan at all.
Give him an average team and he would of fell flat on his face.
Patrick Roy sucked at the olympics.
And thank God no one has mentioned Luongo because he should be known as the best choke artist of all time.
Goalies better than Patrick Roy.
Too many to count.
Jaques Plante
Johnny Bower
Tony Esposito
Rogie Vachon
Ken Dryden
Martin Brodeur
Gilles Gilbert
Vladislav Tretiak
I would take Curtis Joseph before I take Patrick Roy.
And that night of nine goals scored against him when he cried like a baby to get traded to Colorado.
Patrick is a joke
Roy, Hasek, Esposito, Sawchuk, Fuhr, Hall, Billy Smith and Dryden have to rank at the top. Roy, Dryden and Smith have to rate becuase of their success rates while the others were the best reflex and acrobatic goalies I ever saw. Brodeur is strictly a product of Lemaire's protective system that allows him to post 6-save shutouts and go entire games without facing decent scoring chances. His biggest assets are his durability and the size of the equipment he was allowed to wear compared to all the others. (And if he WERE on the KC Scouts, he wouldn't even be mentioned in this article, more likely in a class with Ron Low). Smith, Dryden and Fuhr all played on great teams but always did enough to win which is the bottom line.
Someone said put Patrick Roy on an average team and he'd fall on his face? I guess you weren't watching the 1993 playoffs. That Montreal team was average at best, but yet they win 10 OT games and the Cup?
Patrick Roy was the sole reason that team had any business winning that year. Did Hasek carry an average Buffalo team to victory? No, he had to go to a monster Detroit team, loaded with stars upfront, to win.
Face it, go look up how many wins/shutouts that Brodeur has when he faces 20 shots or less. Roy played half of his career in the run and gun 80's. The guy just wons hockey games...Brodeur never even won a Conn Smythe. Roy revolutionized the position AND dominated in the playoffs. No question...Roy is the greatest of all time.
1993 Canadiens were average?
Vincent Damphousse
Mathieu Schneider
Patrice Brisebois
Lyle Odelein
Eric Desjardins
Kirk Muller
Mike Keane
John LeClair
Vincent Damphousse
Denis Savard (500 career NHL goals)
Guy Carbonneau
Average??? Try again. Hasek never had a team nearly that good in Buffalo.
Patty WAS the greatest.
Many of the old-time goalies WERE fearless - had to be to play without a mask - but didn't have to face wicked wristers from curved-bladed, composite sticks. The players today are much, much more conditioned and athletic.
Broduer has had a strong defensive team (i.e. boring trap) in front of him his whole career. Give Roy that kind of help and he would have won many more games.
Hasek the Flopper, Osgood the Joke, etc. can't hold a candle to Roy.
Sawchuck was great. Plante was great. Roy is the best.
266 playoff wins for Sawchuck? You sure about that one?
It's all about Hasek. The man is a legend and if he had been with Detroit his entire career this would be a different story!
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