Hockey East: Ranking each program’s goaltenders

Joseph Woll had a 2.48 goals against average and a .915 save percentage last year. (Richard Gagnon/Getty Images)

There should be no shortage of good goaltending in Hockey East this season.

Eight of the 11 league teams boast at least one NHL Draft pick at the position. Ten league goaltenders are property of a NHL organization. Four goaltenders have represented their country at the World Junior Championship and a fifth is likely to do so this December.

There's also a track record of Hockey East developing great goaltenders. Maine’s Jimmy Howard, Scott Darling and Ben Bishop; UMass’ Jonathan Quick; and Boston College’s Cory Schneider now ply their trade in the NHL.

There are some current Hockey East goaltenders who will most certainly make it to the NHL in the coming years. Boston University’s Jake Oettinger was a first-round pick of the Dallas Stars in 2017 and Boston College’s Joe Woll was a third-round pick of the Toronto Maple Leafs in 2016.

While save percentage, particularly even-strength save percentage, is a very good indication of the value of a goaltender, there are other factors. Some in analytics might argue, but a good defense can make a goaltender look better than he is and a bad defense or a team that plays more of a run-and-gun style can make a goaltender look worse than he is.

With that in mind, the following rankings aim to mimic how confident each Hockey East coach should be in his goaltending situation. For the purpose of these rankings, all goaltenders are evaluated as if they played on the same team. A strong goaltending duo or a legitimate backup gives a boost in the rankings. An argument could be made for most of the top six being interchangeable.