I rarely write about goalies in the NHL, because quite frankly they are all a little strange and usually unpredictable. Every season, there seem to be one or two goalies who were playing in the Swedish 3rd division or the league below the ECHL and emerge to win 10 games in a row and propel their team to the playoffs. I'm exaggerating a little, but the position of goaltending is by and far the most difficult and demanding in hockey and prone to big swings in performance level and subject to injury.

I assume almost everyone has been in a position where they are sitting beside someone watching a game and that person says with authority that a goalie should have had that stop, while the opposing player had a breakaway from the center line on in. I'm pretty sure that goalies are second only to referees in terms of unfounded criticism. The mental aspect to keep their confidence level high is a huge challenge and not something every goalie is equipped for. Add in fatigue for a goalie to play 50 or more games and even fewer goalies can put up consistent numbers year in year out.

I can't avoid goalies any longer, so we will look at the goalies in the West and see how they are faring early on this year.

Anaheim Ducks:

John Gibson has struggled a little but has played better than backup Anthony Stolarz. Gibson has managed three wins in seven starts with three quality starts while posting a 2.93 GAA and a 90.6 save percentage and negative goals saved above average (GSAA) of -0.39.

Stolarz has managed one quality start in his three games but has yet to get a win. His GAA is 3.63 and his save percentage is 89.8 with a GSAA of minus 1.06. Stolarz will need to be a little better to hold on to 30 percent of the starts in Anaheim, which equals about 25 starts. Gibson has played 60 and 58 games before, but I'm sure the Ducks would like to have him in the 50-55 range.

Current split: 70/30

Arizona Coyotes:

What a few people saw happening has happened, with Karel Vejmelka emerging as the 1A in Arizona, as Carter Hutton struggled mightily and then was injured after three games. Ivan Prosvetov has entered the picture as well with one start so far. Vejmelka has been a little shell-shocked at times but has been coming on and although still winless in seven games he has lowered his GAA to 2.63 and raised his save percentage to 92.0 with a positive GSAA of 2.31.

The bigger issue is how bad the Coyotes have been and whether this team will even win 20 games this year.

Current split: 70/30

Calgary Flames:

With three shutouts in his past four starts, Jacob Markstrom is back on form from two seasons ago and the Flames will need to ensure that he isn't overworked as he can be prone to tiring and losing his form. Markstrom boasts a GAA of 1.33 with a save percentage of 95.7 and trails only Frederick Andersen in Carolina with a GSAA of 9.11 in his six starts. Daniel Vladar has played a few games and even though he has won both games he will need to be better. We should expect Markstrom to see 50-55 starts and Vladar 25-30 starts. Markstrom did have back-to-back seasons of 60 starts in Vancouver, but 50-55 would be ideal in Calgary this year.

Current split: 75/25

Chicago Blackhawks:

It appears that everything, including goaltending, has been disastrous in Chicago this season. Marc-Andre Fleury has one quality start in five games, which unfortunately is matched by Kevin Lankinen in his five games. Neither goalie has a win in the Blackhawk's first nine games, while Lankinen has been slightly better than Fleury with a save percentage of 88.2 compared to 87.2 and a GSAA of minus 3.75 compared to Fleury and his minus 5.29. Collin Delia and/or Malcolm Subban could be an option at some point this year.

Current split: 50/50

Colorado Avalanche:

Losing Philipp Grubauer was going to hurt the Avalanche this season, but bringing in Darcy Kuemper was hopefully a sideways move. So far, Kuemper has struggled slightly but appears to be getting better. After seven starts he has four wins, a 2.87 GAA, a 90.4 save percentage and a negative GSAA of -0.86.  Jonas Johansson had a decent game in his one start but failed to win even though he had a quality start. Although Kuemper did manage 55 games in 2018-19 he has never been able to play more than 31 NHL games in any other year. The current pace that the Avalanche has him starting is unsustainable.

Current split: 87.5/12.5

Dallas Stars:

Anyone that saw Brayden Holtby play over the past two seasons, probably wouldn't have predicted Holtby's fabulous start to this season after his first six starts. Holtby has a 2.40 GAA, a 92.6 save percentage and a positive GSAA of 3.30. Holtby hasn't seen a positive GSAA since 2018-19.

With Jake Oettinger in the AHL and Ben Bishop still on LTIR, the backup has been Anton Khudobin who has started three times and not been good enough with a save percentage of 88.9. It seems unlikely that Holtby will continue to post his gaudy numbers, so there is still the possibility that Oettinger or Bishop will see some games this year.

Current split: 67/33

Edmonton Oilers:

Mikko Koskinen and Mike Smith are the inspiration for this article as one is a 39-year-old who some thought would have been retired by now and the other is a 33-year-old who struggled last year. I thought the Oilers would need to upgrade at goalie this season if they hoped to improve. The season is long and the form that both goalies are playing with will be hard to maintain over 82 games. Not to mention, staying healthy as Smith has already been injured and missed a few weeks. Smith should be back this week.

In the first seven games between them, they have six wins, five quality starts and both have a save percentage above 92.0, while Koskinen has a GSAA of 3.89 in five games and Smith a GSAA of 1.20 in three games.

Current split: 62.5 Koskinen/27.5 Smith

Los Angeles Kings:

Cal Petersen's stats are a little misleading as he has had three quality starts and one really bad start in his four games. The RBS has skewed his overall numbers to give him a GAA of 3.28, a save percentage of 89.5 and a GSAA of negative 1.59 (the GSAA in the RBS was minus 3.32 alone).

Jonathan Quick has started five games with two quality starts and one win while showing slightly better overall numbers than Petersen with a GAA of 2.60, a save percentage of 90.8 and a GSAA of 0.06.

It is only a matter of time until Petersen takes over the majority of starts from Quick.

Current split: 55 Quick/45 Petersen

Minnesota Wild:

Cam Talbot just needs to be good, not great and he will get 70-75% of the starts this season over Kaapo Kahkonen. So far that is exactly what he has done in his seven games, while Kahkonen had a bad start in his only game so far. Talbot has five wins, a GAA of 2.55 and a save percentage of 91.2 while being slightly in the positive with a GSAA of 0.77. Talbot has played 73 and 67 games with Edmonton in 2016-17 and 2017-18 but has not seen more than 35 games in a season since.

Current split: 87.5/12.5

Nashville Predators:

Much like Talbot in Minnesota, Juuse Saros needs to be good to keep his percentage of starts on pace to get 55-60. Connor Ingram is the backup now and has one start, where he played very well. In seven games, Saros has three wins, five QS and a GAA of 2.45, a 91.7 save percentage and a GSAA of 1.86. Saros has a career-high of 40 games which will test his consistency for anything over that.

Current split: 87.5/12.5

San Jose Sharks:

Perhaps our first goaltending controversy of the year is in San Jose? Adin Hill has struggled as the 1A after five starts while James Reimer has been excellent in his four starts to date. This duo might be closer to 40/40 in the end as well, especially as neither goalie has any experience playing even close to 50 games.

Name	GP	W	L	OTL	GA	SHA	GAA	SV%	GSAA	SO	QUAL	QUAL%	RBS	RBS%	MIN
ADIN HILL	5	3	2	0	13	122	2.96	0.893	-2.51	1	1	20.0	1	20.0	263
JAMES REIMER	4	2	1	0	4	111	1.13	0.964	5.55	0	3	75.0	0	0.0	212

Reimer is clearly outplaying his younger counterpart so the split below might change, although Hill does have three wins in five games.

Current split: 55 Hill/45 Reimer

Seattle Kraken:

Philipp Grubauer was expected to come into Seattle and steal some games. He hasn't done that yet, but he should improve and will continue to eat up enough starts to play 55-60 games if healthy. Chris Driedger and Joey Daccord have each had one start so far.

Grubauer has three wins in eight starts, with three QS, a 2.82 GAA and a save percentage of 89.6 and a GSAA of minus 2.51. He will need to be better but will have a long leash.

Current split: 80/20

St. Louis Blues:

Jordan Binnington is in year one of his six-year $36 million contract and will need to be a little bit better than he was last season if he wishes to provide good value for the Blues. So far, he has been very good with five wins in six starts, three QS, a 2.52 GAA and a save percentage of 92.6 with a GSAA of 3.68. Ville Husso is hoping to have a better season than last year as well and he couldn't be any better after posting a shutout in his only start and already has a GSAA of 3.13. Binnington has started 50 games in a season as recently as two years ago, so I would think that 50-55 starts are in his wheelhouse.

Current split: 85/15

Vancouver Canucks:

Thatcher Demko is in the first year of his five-year $25 million contract and when compared to Binnington, it looks like a bargain so far. He has started seven of the nine games and he has been very good. Jaroslav Halak is a veteran and will need to be at the level he has shown so far for the 20-25 games he should play.

Demko has been excellent with three wins, four QS, a 2.55 GAA and a save percentage of 92.4 with a GSAA of 3.71. Not an easy task on a Canucks team that gives up a lot of quality chances.

Current split: 78/22

Vegas Golden Knights:

With the departure of Marc-Andre Fleury, Robin Lehner has been gifted the 1A role on a very good Vegas team. Lehner has played 59 and 53 games in seasons with Buffalo, so there is little concern that he can do it and do it well. He will need to be a little better than what he has shown so far. In seven games, he has three wins, three QS, a GAA of 3.00 and a save percentage of 91.0, while his GSAA is just slightly above zero at 0.42.

Laurent Brossoit is still an intriguing backup in Vegas as Lehner has had injury issues the past two seasons and only dressed 19 games last year. In his two games, Brossoit has one win and one QS.

Current split: 78/22

Winnipeg Jets:

It is far too early to have any concerns about Connor Hellebuyck who has struggled overall in his first seven games this season. Hellebuyck has managed three wins, three QS, but has a GAA of 3.42 and a save percentage of 89.9, with a GSAA of negative 2.20. He has been one of the most consistent goalies in the NHL over the past four seasons, so he should come around. He is a workhorse in the net and has played 67, 63, 58 of 70 and 45 of 56 games the past four years.

Eric Comrie was very good in his one game and will need to continue that play to be the backup for the Jets and get in 20-25 games.

Current split: 87.5/12.5

If things seem certain and set on any given team in the goalie position. They probably won't remain that way if history has any say.

Thanks for reading, and let me know if you want me to focus on any players or topics by messaging me below or following me on Twitter @gampbler15.