from Corey Masisak of Sports Illustrated,

The NHL has a goaltender problem.

More specifically, the NHL has a problem with how goaltenders are valued in the salary cap era. There are too many teams spending too much of their cap space on non-elite goaltenders and it's hurting their odds of winning the Stanley Cup.

There are two things to know about NHL goaltending in 2015, and the league’s general managers have yet to marry these two ideas.

One, there are more capable goaltenders available than ever before. Better coaching, earlier coaching, better athletes — it has led to a unprecedented wealth of talent at the position.

Two, advances in statistical analysis have shown that goaltender performance is fraught with variance and incredibly hard to predict. Beyond the very best goalies — a group that is no more than six or seven deep, possibly fewer — investing a lot of money in a goaltender who might be the eighth-best in the NHL one year, then drop to 18th or 22nd the next, doesn’t make a lot of sense. That continues to be the trend, though.

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