from Raajan Aery of Sportsnet,
This off-season, the Leafs made no significant changes to their defensive corps. Other than the extra defensive help that should come from better depth down the middle, there is not much reason to expect Toronto’s skaters to be better in their own end.
If that holds true, the only other way the Leafs could prevent more pucks from going into the net is with better goaltending. In this article, we’ll dive into Frederik Andersen’s advanced metrics over the past two seasons and ask: Has Andersen hit a ceiling, or is there still room for him to improve?
Over the past two seasons, Andersen has played a total of 132 regular season games, an even 66 in each season. Over that time, he has faced more shots than any other NHL goaltender and the only goalie with more games played is Edmonton’s Cam Talbot.
Traditional statistics don’t always do a good job of evaluating how an individual goaltender impacts a team’s defence. Stats such as goals-against average and save percentage don’t tell you how much credit (or blame) should go to the skaters, and how much should go to the goalies.
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