Ranking the top-6 goaltenders in the Metro Division

The New Jersey Devils now have a star goaltender on their team. Where does he slot in among Metro starters?

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In the dog days of each off-season I like to rank the best players in the Metro Division by position grouping. It’s fun to see how the New Jersey Devils’ top players stack up to competitors and, well, there isn’t much else going on.

With that in mind, let’s kick things off with the goaltenders.

1. Ilya Sorokin (last year: No. 1)

Sorokin was not his best this past season. Even so, he still ranks 4th in total save percentage and 2nd in high-danger save percentage over the past two seasons. This while playing the 4th most minutes in the league.

No Metro Division goaltender has stopped pucks at a higher clip than Sorokin in that span, nor has any goaltender been tasked with the same kind of taxing workload.

We have come to expect so much from Sorokin that finishing 6th in high-danger save percentage, and posting a total save percentage well above league average, was considered a disastrous season for him.

Although I think the Islanders are a mediocre team, they will no doubt once again be in the thick of the playoff hunt – and Sorokin will be the biggest reason why.

Even after an underwhelming 2023-24 campaign by his standards, Sorokin still sits 3rd in GSAx and 1st among Metro goaltenders over past two years.

2. Igor Shesterkin (LY: No. 2)

I thought about giving Shesterkin the top spot but it says a lot that Sorokin could have by far the worst season of his career and still be right there with Shesterkin despite drastically lesser surroundings.

Shesterkin beat Sorokin in save percentage by a few points (.913 vs. .909). The latter ranked 6th in HDSV%, though, and was light years ahead of Shesterkin in that regard. Sorokin managed a .839 HDSV% while Shesterkin posted a .810 HDSV%.

Sorokin kept company with the likes of Jacob Markstrom, Jordan Binnington, and Thatcher Demko whereas Shesterkin was sandwiched by the likes of Jake Allen and Petr Mrazek.

That’s not to say Shesterkin was bad. He just didn’t perform anywhere close to his reputation against truly dangerous shots.

I’d rather have the guy making the big save more consistently; especially playing for a team that gave them up in bunches.

Shesterkin is an awesome goaltender who always seems to be at his best come playoff time. I just can’t give him the top spot after he was outplayed by his tandemmate, Jonathan Quick, for a healthy chunk of the season.

3. Jacob Markstrom (LY: N/A)