Quote:
Originally Posted by GioforPM
Numbers aren't really my thing for whether a goalie is elite or not. Kipper regularly vacillated between barely above .900 to above 9.20. Look at his numbers between 2007-12. The save% varied widely, but nor the wins, for the most part. I just want consistency, and healthy Markstrom is consistent.
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Fair. I don't have a particular issue with Markstrom, I'm just not convinced he is or will be consistently 'elite' (whatever that means for goaltenders). I think he's in the same tier as Andersen (at least until recently) - consistently very good with flashes of brilliance.
I don't mind the signing, though it's contrary to the 2-3 yr re-tool I would have preferred.
I think it's an interesting discussion though. My definition for 'elite' skater is that they could play for Team Canada on their own merit (not Kunitz or Muzzin). I'm not sure that works so well for goalies...maybe could 'start' for Team Canada?
For a couple decades we had 3 generational talents overlap: Roy, Brodeur, Hasek. There probably wasn't more than a year or two in each of their careers where they weren't considered top 3 in the league.
I'm not sure anyone has come close to that standard, but perhaps we can parse the next tier of 'elite'. I suppose my criteria is to be Top 5 in the league for at least 4/5 years, or 7/10.
Somewhat chronological:
Fuhr?
Hextall
Belfour
Joseph
Luongo
Miller
Kipper
Thomas
Lundqvist
Fleury
Quick
Price
Hellebuyck
Vasilevskiy*
Vernon?
Vanbiesbrouck?
Richter?
Barrasso?
Kolzig?
Vokoun?
Nabokov?
Khabibulin?
Giguere?
Theodore?
Backstrom?
Anderson?
Rinne?
Dubnyk?
Bobrovsky?
Rask?
Gibson?
Then there's the consistently good, but rarely great tier: Osgood, Burke, Turco, Crawford, Holtby, Mike Smith, Elliott, Ward? Bishop?...Freddie Andersen?
I think there are several current guys who are hard to slot, and have to do more to secure their spot: Markstrom, Kuemper, Binnington, Lehner, Varlamov