New Jersey Devils player profile: Vitek Vanecek

The 26-year-old was brought in to provide some much-needed stability between the pipes.

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The New Jersey Devils have been busy this off-season, adding five established NHL players to the roster thus far.

I have already profiled newcomers Ondrej Palat, Erik Haula, and John Marino.

With Jesper Bratt and Miles Wood extended, and things quieting again, it felt like the perfect time to complete the rest of the mini-series.

Up next on the to-do list is Vitek Vanecek, who signed a three-year extension shortly after being acquired by the Devils.

Counting stats: 42 games played, 20-12-6, .908 save percentage

5v5 metrics: .926 save percentage, .850 high-danger save percentage

2021-22 review

Vitek Vanecek is coming off the best season of his young NHL career. Although his save percentage was exactly the same as the year prior, there were a lot more positives this time around.

Vanecek was quietly one of the league’s better goaltenders at 5v5. Among 55 netminders to play at least 1,000 minutes in that gamestate, Vanecek finished tied for 7th in save percentage and 10th in high-danger save percentage. The company he kept was quite good.

Perhaps more importantly than the raw numbers, Vanecek performed better than expected given the workload; at least at 5v5. He conceded 65 goals while facing 71.76 expected goals.

Vanecek trimmed off nearly seven goal while distinguishing himself as Washington’s best option in goal.

Although Vanecek’s numbers in other situations – like on the PK or 3v3 – were not great, those are smaller samples where variance can play more of a role.

Even if there is no noise in that data, we’re still talking about someone who finished with a .908 save percentage in a year where league average was .902.

Fun facts