Active NHL goaltenders and their tendency to earn shutouts

Jonathan Quick recently recorded his 300th career win after 575 games played. As if that milestone wasn’t enough to earn applaud, his 300th win was also his 51st shutout. That’s works out to one shutout for every six starts over his career, which equates to earning a shutout in 17.0% of all his wins.

A few days later, Nashville Predators’ goalie Pekka Rinne recorded his 328th career win and 54th career shutout, good for a shutout in 16.5% of his wins. These two goaltenders earn both wins and shutouts quite often, but for an average NHL goaltender, just how often does it actually happen? Which goalies tend to get shutouts more often than not?

The bigger picture

Among all active goalies, there are currently 34 goaltenders with at least 100 career wins, ranging from Roberto Luongo with 479 to Connor Hellebuyck with 102.

For these 34 goaltenders, the average percentage of wins that are shutouts is 13.5%, with a standard deviation of 2.6%. Seven goaltenders are at or above one standard deviation for shutout efficiency. Leading the way at a phenomenal 18.4%, or nearly one shutout for every five wins, is Jaroslav Halak. This season, he’s posted three shutouts in thirteen wins, which is above his career average rate.

On the flip side, Thomas Greiss earns shutouts the least often, with only 8.2% of his wins being shutouts. Just ahead of him is Cam Ward at 8.3%. In a league that touts parity, it’s fascinating that there’s such a discrepancy among goalies for shutout wins. Greiss and Ward, for example, require twice as many games to earn a shutout as Halak. Of course, earning a shutout is an accomplishment in itself, but it’s clear that there are goalies that do it much more often than their NHL peers.

The young stars

The three youngest goaltenders here are Andrei Vasilevskiy, John Gibson, and Hellebuyck. All three are earning their reputations as excellent goaltenders, but when it comes to shutout rate, Gibson sets himself apart from the other two.

Gibson has received a ton of credit as to why the Anaheim Ducks are even in the playoff race at all, and the argument could be made that he is the best goaltender in the NHL this season. He’s backstopped the Ducks to victory many times, and frequently earns shutouts. However, he only has one shutout this season, despite sitting at 15 wins.

Vasilevskiy floats at about average on this list with two shutouts, whereas Hellebuyck is below, currently without a shutout through 34 games. Both playing for some of the best teams in the league, it’s surprising that these numbers are not higher this season.

The 100 win club

It’s interesting to see where these goaltenders rank among themselves, whether they’re nearing the end of their illustrious careers, or if they’re just getting started. With the league making efforts towards higher scoring games, shutouts should theoretically occur less and less often.

The full list of active goaltenders with more than 100 career wins is shown below, sorted in decending order of highest ratio of shutouts to wins.

Name	GP	GAA	SV%	W	L	SO	SO/W %
Jaroslav Halak	472	2.49	0.916	245	156	45	18.4
Brian Elliott	429	2.45	0.913	220	135	38	17.3
Jonathan Quick	575	2.3	0.916	300	205	51	17.0
Tuukka Rask	471	2.26	0.922	250	145	42	16.8
Pekka Rinne	599	2.37	0.919	328	178	54	16.5
Mike Smith	552	2.71	0.912	232	229	38	16.4
Roberto Luongo	1022	2.51	0.919	479	385	77	16.1
John Gibson	215	2.34	0.923	108	68	17	15.7
James Reimer	326	2.81	0.914	139	115	21	15.1
Antti Niemi	459	2.56	0.912	241	138	36	14.9
Craig Anderson	595	2.8	0.914	275	220	41	14.9
Cory Schneider	379	2.4	0.919	161	145	24	14.9
Cam Talbot	277	2.56	0.916	135	107	20	14.8
Martin Jones	256	2.4	0.914	137	87	20	14.6
Henrik Lundqvist	836	2.39	0.919	443	286	63	14.2
Braden Holtby	390	2.45	0.919	241	99	34	14.1
Carey Price	591	2.48	0.918	302	213	42	13.9
Ben Bishop	351	2.35	0.919	189	107	26	13.8
Andrei Vasilevskiy	178	2.6	0.918	102	53	14	13.7
Devan Dubnyk	457	2.54	0.916	220	166	30	13.6
Jake Allen	253	2.55	0.91	131	85	17	13.0
Marc-Andre Fleury	776	2.56	0.913	429	239	54	12.6
Jonathan Bernier	307	2.73	0.913	133	118	16	12.0
Semyon Varlamov	425	2.65	0.916	204	158	24	11.8
Connor Hellebuyck	182	2.61	0.915	102	53	12	11.8
Ryan Miller	747	2.61	0.915	374	270	43	11.5
Peter Budaj	368	2.7	0.904	158	132	18	11.4
Sergei Bobrovsky	427	2.47	0.919	236	142	26	11.0
Michal Neuvirth	256	2.71	0.91	104	93	11	10.6
Jimmy Howard	491	2.5	0.915	232	163	24	10.3
Corey Crawford	432	2.42	0.918	236	138	24	10.2
Frederik Andersen	287	2.54	0.918	168	72	16	9.5
Cam Ward	687	2.73	0.908	325	251	27	8.3
Thomas Greiss	232	2.68	0.913	110	75	9	8.2

So, what does this mean?

Shutouts are a statistic generally reserved for the best goalies in the league. Those who lead the NHL in career shutouts are some of the best goaltenders ever to play, including several surefire hall-of-famers. That being said, they’re still mostly a random statistic, and a high number of shutouts is not necessarily indicative of a good goalie. Take Calgary Flames goalie Mike Smith, for example. This season, he sits tied for the third most amount of shutouts in the league, but ranks 70th in save percentage. Take that for what you will.