NHL Pre-season Goaltending Predictions

With the NHL season starting in just a couple short weeks, we wanted to give some predictions for the upcoming season. Focusing on only five select goaltenders, we take a short look at some things we hope to see in the NHL 2019-20 season.

Schneider has had a rough couple of years. Becoming the starter of the New Jersey Devils in 2013 proved to be a great move as he posted constantly high stats in many starts with the most games being played in 2014-15 at 69 games. This past season in 2018-19 was his worst by far with the Devils, posting a .903 in 26 games and even playing 8 games in the AHL posting an .881. Looking back, Schneider did not win a single regular season game from December 27th, 2017 to February 15th, 2019 when he broke the streak in relief for Kinkaid. With the additions of Nikita Gusev, P.K Subban and Jack Hughes, we think the Devils are in much better shape to help Schneider get back on his game.

After an incredible season and a Stanley Cup ring, Jordan Binnington still has something to prove this next season. Things are looking very good for the young goaltender, but nothing is certain with long term St.Louis Blues goaltender Jake Allen. Realistically looking at the upcoming season, Allen and Binnington will be treated as a 1A 1B situation to see who will be the first choice starter. Binnington has looked nothing but solid since he started his run this past season so things are looking great for him. In combination with his young age, we think the Blues will begin playing him more than ever while potentially exploring trade options for Jake Allen.

This is going to be fairly brief because it’s less speculation and more facts but, Marc-Andre Fleury this past season reached 8th all-time on the goaltending wins list at 439 wins. The only active goaltender above him who we could also make this section about is Henrik Lundqvist (449) who should end this season at 5th overall on the standings above Curtis Joseph (454) and below Ed Belfour (484). We are hoping to see Fleury not only reach 450 total wins but also pass Curtis Joseph so that he can be 6th overall and in good position to shoot for Lundqvist if he retires, Belfour, and Roberto Luongo (489).

This past season we had the chance to see Georgiev in 33 starts for the New York Rangers against Henrik Lundqvist’s 52 starts. Overall, Georgiev had a slightly better season than Lundqvist with a 2.91 GAA and a .914 save percentage as compared to Lundy’s 3.07 GAA and .907 save percentage. We hope to see Georgiev prove himself to be the next long term starter for the New York Rangers, especially since King Henrik is approaching the end of his career.

The Florida Panthers had one of the best offensive teams in the league last year but just could not get a save to steal a game from Luongo, Reimer, Hutchinson, and Montembeault who all had losing records. With Quenville being hired to be the head coach of the panthers, we will hopefully see some core changes through out the team which will set up Sergei Bobrovsky to push the Panthers to the top of the standings.

We are super excited to see what will happen in the upcoming NHL season. The off-season has shaken up a lot of teams and we can only wait now to see yet another amazing season unfold!

This article was originally published on September 20, 2019, and has been updated with new information.