By JD Lagrange – This is a topic that’s been in the back of my mind for a while. More and more, we see NHL teams taking taking chances on smaller players at the forward and defense positions. The success encountered by smaller players like Quinn Hughes, Alex DeBrincat and Cole Caufield, just to name a few, shows that the way the game is being played (and called by officials) opens some space for smaller, skilled players. But what about goaltenders?

No worries, I’ll save you the trouble to do the research. And what I found is surprising in a way. Not by the tendencies, but rather by how overwhelmingly one-sided the results are.

Teams have played anywhere between 32 to 37 games so far this season, so I have set a minimum of 15 games played to qualify, or between 41-47% of their team’s games played. This leaves us with 34 goalies at this point. Note that those stats are from December 28th, prior to the games that night.

NAME	TEAM	HEIGHT	WEIGHT	GP	W	L	OT	GAA	Sv%
Carter Hart	PHI	6’2″	181	27	10	11	6	2.89	.911
Igor Shesterkin	NYR	6’1″	189	27	17	6	4	2.47	.915
Jake Oettinger	DAL	6’5″	220	26	15	5	3	2.43	.919
Ilya Sorokin	NYI	6’3″	195	26	12	11	1	2.32	.926
Jusse Saros	NSH	5’11”	180	26	11	10	5	2.82	.914
Connor Hellebuyck	WPG	6’4″	207	26	16	9	1	2.38	.927
Jordan Binnington	STL	6’2″	172	26	12	11	3	3.20	.895
Logan Thompson	VGK	6’4″	205	25	16	9	0	2.68	.913
Jacob Markstrom	CGY	6’6″	207	25	11	9	4	2.81	.894
Alexander Georgiev	COL	6’1″	178	24	15	7	2	2.48	.921
Karel Vejmelka	ARI	6’4″	224	24	10	9	4	3.09	.910
Ville Husso	DET	6’3″	200	23	12	6	5	2.72	.912
Tristan Jarry	PIT	6’2″	194	23	15	4	4	2.77	.918
Linus Ullmark	BOS	6’5″	212	23	19	1	1	1.94	.936
Andrei Vasilevskiy	TBL	6’4″	220	23	13	9	1	2.53	.917
Martin Jones	SEA	6’4″	203	23	14	5	3	2.99	.888
Jake Allen	MTL	6’2″	195	23	9	13	1	3.26	.900
Stuart Skinner	EDM	6’4″	206	22	11	9	1	2.81	.916
Vitek Vanecek	NJD	6’2″	184	22	12	4	2	2.41	.909
John Gibson	ANA	6’2″	210	22	5	14	3	3.99	.896
Darcy Kuemper	WSH	6’5″	215	22	10	9	2	2.40	.920
Jonathan Quick	LAK	6’1″	220	22	8	8	4	3.41	.885
Sergei Bobrovsky	FLA	6’2″	182	21	7	11	1	3.29	.895
Marc-Andre Fleury	MIN	6’2″	185	21	12	7	1	2.85	.901
Cam Talbot	OTT	6’4″	201	20	9	8	1	2.66	.915
James Reimer	SJS	6’3″	205	20	7	10	3	3.14	898
Spencer Martin	VAN	6’3″	191	19	11	5	1	3.57	.886
Charlie Lindgren	WSH	6’2″	179	17	10	4	2	2.60	.913
Anton Forsberg	OTT	6’3″	193	17	5	8	2	3.23	.906
Spencer Knight	FLA	6’3″	192	16	8	5	3	2.93	.909
Arvid Soderblom	CHI	6’3″	180	15	2	10	2	3.45	.894
Pyotr Kochetkov	CAR	6’3″	205	15	10	1	4	1.94	.928
Thatcher Demko	VAN	6’4″	192	15	3	10	2	3.93	883
Jack Campbell	EDM	6’3″	207	15	8	6	1	4.02	876

Those 34 goalies average at 74.94” tall (or 6-foot 3-inches) and 197.9 lbs. On this list of the top-34 most utilized goaltenders in the NHL today, four of them are under 6-foot 2-inches tall and only one is under 6-foot 1-inch.

So as we can clearly see, while more teams are starting to select smaller skilled players at the forward and defense position, this has yet to translate into the goaltending position. In fact, the trend is the taller the better, and they are, for the most part, very lean as well.

Canadiens’ depth chart

In goal for the Canadiens, we notice the same tendency. Jake Allen and Cayden Primeau are the “shorties” of the group, standing at 6-foot 2-inches tall, while Joe Vrbetic looks down at his peers from his 6-foot 6-inches, very lean frame of 194 lbs. Samuel Montembeault seems to be carrying a little bit more weight on his bones at 214 lbs.

NAME	HEIGHT	WEIGHT
Jake Allen	6’2″	195
Sam Montembeault	6’3″	214
Cayden Primeau	6’2″	199
Joe Vrbetic	6’6″	194
Jakub Dobes	6’4″	200
Frederik Dichow	6’4″	192
Emmett Croteau	6’3″	195

Trade rumour

Last week, we reported a trade rumour to the effect that the Canadiens were in negotiation with the Buffalo Sabres to get the rights to goaltending prospect Devon Levi. We should note that the Dollar-des-Ormeaux native only stands at 6-feet tall, tipping the scale at 181 lbs.

A seventh round pick by the Florida Panthers, I’m not sure that resting the Canadiens’ hopes on him is such a good idea, seeing that the best goalies in the league are much taller. So he would be a project at best, and the price in a trade must reflect that, even with his very good stats in the NCAA.

When looking at the future of the Canadiens in net, we notice that all of those goalie prospects were selected in the later rounds. All of them are projects who are long shots at becoming good NHL starters. Oh I’m not saying that it’s impossible, but when Pittsburgh selected Marc-André Fleury, when Toronto picked Tukka Rask or when the Canadiens picked Carey Price, we had a pretty good idea that they would become great NHL goalies.

It will be very important for the Canadiens to focus on getting a good pick, or trading for a top-end goaltending prospect if they don’t want to repeat the mistake made by the Philadelphia Flyers (since Pelle Lindbergh), and the current Edmonton Oilers and Toronto Maple Leafs, wasting away their window to win because of sub-par goaltending. I’m not suggesting that they need to select one on the first round, but in the top-three rounds would be better odds.

More reading…

• The Case of The Broken Sticks by JD Lagrange
• Barron Joins Richard With The Big Club by JD Lagrange
• Habs Boxing Day Sale by JD Lagrange