Honestly, I rarely talk about goalies in the Wild West. I don't understand them and as I've said many times before, they are a mystery to me.

They don't follow the same path of development as skaters and they can be on top of the world one year and then crash and burn the next. Then six years later, they can rise like a phoenix from the ashes to go on an incredible run in the NHL after spending a few years in the AHL or ECHL.

Having said all that, I'm not here to dig too deeply into the current goalies in the Western Conference, but I thought we should at least check in with each team and see how things were going, especially splits between starters and the backups.

Connor Hellebuyck is head and shoulders the number one goalie in the NHL at the moment with Western counterparts Mackenzie Blackwood, Darcy Kuemper, Filip Gustavsson, Joey Daccord and Dustin Wolf all in the next tier. I think…

Anaheim Ducks

John Gibson – 23GP-9W-9L-2OTL, 2.65 GAA, 91.5 save %, Goals Saved Above Average (GSAA) 8.78

Lukas Dostal – 32GP-15-13-4, 2.86, 91.1, 9.59

Since Gibson returned in early November, he has started 23 of the past 40 games over Dostal, which is about a 57/43 split for Gibson.

Dostal is on a four-game win streak stopping 122 of 130 SOG for a 93.8 save percentage. He has started four of the past six games for the Ducks (67/33 split).

Calgary Flames

Dustin Wolf – 33-19-11-3, 2.63, 91.2, 9.92

Dan Vladar – 22-7-10-5, 3.07, 88.8, negative 8.42

Wolf has put himself into position to be a top-three Calder Trophy finalist, likely with Lane Hutson and Macklin Celebrini. He has started 21 of the past 27 games for Calgary after starting just 12 of the first 28 games.

Wolf and the Flames have cooled a little over his past six starts with Wolf going 1-4-1 with a save percentage of 89.3 and a GSAA of negative 1.55 before the break.

Vladar started well with a record of 4-4-3, a save percentage of 90.5 and a GSAA of 0.99. In his next 11 games, he was 3-6-2, with a save percentage of 87.3 and a GSAA of negative 9.41.

Chicago Blackhawks

Arvid Söderblom – 25-7-12-5, 3.01, 90.6, 3.44

Petr Mrazek – 31-10-18-2, 3.27, 89.6, negative 5.15

Drew Commesso – 2-0-1-0, 3.36, 84.6, negative 1.65

Soderblom has outplayed Mrazek a little in 2024-25 but the split remains 55/45 in favor of Mrazek. Mrazek is signed for 2025-26 at $4.25 million so I wouldn't expect the split to move too much the other way.

Colorado Avalanche

Mackenzie Blackwood – 41-20-15-5, 2.50, 91.6, 17.19

Scott Wedgewood – 14-6-5-1, 2.84, 89.8, negative 1.31

Trent Miner – 2-0-1-0, 2.62, 87.9, negative 0.77

Since coming to Colorado, Blackwood has started 22 of his 27 games with a record of 14-6-2, a save percentage of 92.2 and a GSAA of 12.25. His career-high is 47 GP, but he might end up playing 60-65 in 2024-25 and hit 35 wins if he's healthy.

Wedgewood will more than likely be back and healthy after the break and we should see the start split get closer to 60/40 or 70/30 for Blackwood.

Dallas Stars

Casey DeSmith – 17-9-6-0, 2.50, 91.1, 3.83

Jake Oettinger – 40-26-12-2, 2.35, 91.1, 9.53

The Stars will look to ease back the starts of Oettinger, so they don't tire him out before the playoffs. They have had a 70/30 split after 57 games, but I'd expect that to dip to 60/40 for the remaining games, especially with how well DeSmith has played when called upon.

Edmonton Oilers

Stuart Skinner – 37-20-12-4, 2.74, 90.0, negative 1.96

Calvin Pickard – 21-14-5-0, 2.52, 90.1, negative 0.57

The Oilers goalies have had a split of around 65/35 in favor of Skinner, with neither goalie playing much better than average on the whole. I have said that about Colorado and Edmonton, they both need their goalies to play at an average level and they will do just fine in the regular season. The playoffs are a different animal.

I think Pickard has played well enough that they could get this to 60/40 the rest of the way.

Los Angeles Kings

Darcy Kuemper – 29-16-6-6, 2.15, 91.9, 12.97

David Rittich – 25-12-11-1, 2.55, 89.2, negative 5.67

Erik Portillo – 1-1-0-0, 1.02, 96.6, 1.84

Pheonix Copley – 1-0-0-0, 4.37, 83.3, negative 0.82

The Kings have split the goalies to this point around 55/45 with Kuemper receiving more starts and outplaying Rittich by quite a margin. Kuemper will turn 35 in May, so the split is likely to remain as it is unless the Kings need to scramble for a playoff spot.

Minnesota Wild

Filip Gustavsson – 37-22-11-3, 2.63, 91.5, 14.47

Marc-Andre Fleury – 19-11-6-1, 2.57, 91.0, 3.98

Jesper Wallstedt – 2-0-2-0, 4.09, 84.3, negative 3.00

Gustavsson has matched his career-high with 22 wins and has enjoyed a resurgence in 2024-25 after struggling in 2023-24. The split in Minnesota has been about 65/35 in favor of Gustavsson and with Fleury still playing so well at the age of 40, this split might get closer.

Nashville Predators

Juuse Saros – 41-11-23-6, 2.92, 89.8, negative 3.97

Justus Annunen – 22-13-7-0, 3.07, 89.0, negative 6.24

Annunen has played 11 games with Nashville and has a record of 7-3-0, a save percentage of 89.5 and a GSAA of 0.50. In the 11 games prior to being traded his record was 6-4-0, with a save percentage of 87.1 and a GSAA of negative 6.73.

After three seasons in a row playing 64 games or more and winning 33, 35, and 38 games, I'm not sure many people saw Saros with just 11 wins in his first 41 games in 2024-25.

Since Annunen was added to the roster, Saros has played 20 of the 31 games since and Annunen 11, for a split of around 65/35.

I wonder if there are some regrets in trading Yaroslav Askarov at this point?

San Jose Sharks

Alexandar Georgiev – 32-10-18-0, 3.66, 87.5, negative 22.46

Vitek Vanecek – 16-3-9-2, 4.01, 87.8, negative 11.23

Yaroslav Askarov – 13-4-6-2, 3.10, 89.6, negative 2.01

Georgiev has played 14 games with the Sharks with a record of 2-11-0, and a save percentage of 87.5, and a GSAA of negative 10.61. With Colorado, he went 8-7-0 with a save percentage of 87.5 and a GSAA of negative 11.85.

Vanecek returned to the Sharks after missing about six weeks with a broken cheek. He was shelled for eight goals against in his last start and was left in for the whole game.

Askarov was sent back to the AHL with the return of Vanecek. He did struggle in his last five games before being sent down, going 1-3-0 with a save percentage of 85.8 and a GSAA of negative 5.55.

I expect the Sharks to trade one of Vanecek or Georgiev before the trade deadline.

Seattle Kraken

Joey Daccord – 38-19-14-3, 2.46, 91.6, 15.53

Philipp Grubauer – 21-5-15-1, 3.83, 86.6, negative 19.90

Daccord has started 18 of the past 20 Kraken games and has a record of 7-8-1 with a save percentage of 91.7 and a GSAA of 7.56.

Grubauer was sent down to the AHL on January 29th and cleared waivers. The backup option currently for the Kraken is Ales Stezka who has an AHL record of 8-12-0 and a save percentage of 90.2.

At this point, one would think that Grubauer and his $5.9 million contract for this year and next would be a buyout candidate.

St. Louis Blues

Joel Hofer – 20-10-7-1, 2.88, 90.3, 0.70

Jordan Binnington – 39-15-19-4, 2.89, 89.6, negative 6.18

Binnington is still maintaining a 65/35 split even with Hofer slightly outplaying him after 56 games. The split was 65/35 in 2023-24 as well.

Binnington is one of three goalies named to Team Canada and might start a game or two with Adin Hill and Sam Montembeault being the other two.

Hofer probably deserves a better split ratio, which might come if the Blues are out of the playoff race and start selling some assets.

Utah Hockey Club

Karel Vejmelka – 34-13-15-4, 2.57, 90.9, 6.04

Connor Ingram – 21-9-7-4, 3.23, 88.3, negative 9.86

Jaxson Stauber – 4-2-1-1, 2.23, 92.5, 2.76

Ingram had to leave the game on Sunday afternoon against the Washington Capitals just 12 minutes into the first period. Vejmelka came into the game and got the win in the shootout.

It's just another step in the wrong direction for Ingram in 2024-25 after such a good showing in 2023-24 where he played 50 games and won 23 games with a 90.7 save percentage.

Vejmelka has had his best NHL campaign in his four years in the league. His save percentage is above 90.1 and his GSAA is positive for the first time. He has had a well deserved 61/39 split at the break.

Vancouver Canucks

Kevin Lankinen – 34-19-8-7, 2.53, 90.5, 2.81

Thatcher Demko – 17-6-6-3, 2.87, 89.1, negative 4.62

Arturs Silovs – 7-1-4-1, 4.11, 84.8, negative 8.93

Demko had to leave Saturday's game in the first period and Lankinen took over and got the win over the Maple Leafs.

The hope is that the injury to Demko is not serious and they were being cautious and will use the break to get his advantage. We have heard that before with Demko though.

Lankinen has been a feel-good story and has set a career-high with 19 wins, but his overall play has been slightly above average in 34 games. Canuck fans might be getting ahead of themselves with talk about trading Demko and re-signing Lankinen as the starter moving forward.

Vegas Golden Knights

Adin Hill – 34-20-10-4, 2.64, 90.0, negative 1.37

Ilya Samsonov – 22-13-7-2, 2.72, 89.6, negative 3.26

Akira Schmid – 1-0-0-0, 0.00, 100.0, 1.18

It's hard to believe that Adin Hill set a career-high with 20 wins and is one game short of matching his career-high of 35 games played. He should battle Jordan Binnington for the crease on Team Canada over the next few weeks.

Hill's play has been average at best overall in 2024-25 and he is fortunate that Logan Thompson is in Washington now or he wouldn't have a 60/40 split in his favor.

Samsonov has been decent for the Golden Knights but his overall play has been somewhat average. There is an opportunity for him to take some starts away from Hill down the stretch, especially if they want to rest Hill for the playoffs. At that point, we know anything can happen in the net for Vegas.

Winnipeg Jets

Connor Hellebuyck – 43-34-7-2, 2.06, 92.5, 27.62

Eric Comrie – 13-5-7-1, 2.58, 91.2, 3.75

Kaapo Kähkönen – 1-0-1-0, 4.12, 80.0, negative 2.04

Hellebuyck goes into the break as the number one goalie in the NHL and the expected starter for Team USA in the Four Nations. I have a feeling that this tournament won't be on the same intensity levels as others involving nations and that goalies might not get more than a game or two in goal. I really hope I'm mistaken.

With 34 wins in just 43 games, Hellebuyck might threaten his career high of 44 wins in 67 games in 2017-18. He now has 309 career wins.

The current split for Hellebuyck is 77/23 and the Jets would surely like to bring this down to 70/30 if not a bit lower, especially with how well Comrie has played in relief.

Thank you very much for reading and if you have any comments, please leave them below or follow me on Twitter @gampbler15