Save percentage, goals saved above expected, and rebound stats show how well a goalie stops the puck and what kind of shots they face.
SV%
Saves divided by shots on goal faced. It is the traditional baseline goalie stat, but it does not account for shot difficulty.
Calculation
Saves / Shots Against
Note. Two goalies can post the same SV% while facing wildly different chance quality. Use GSAx for the cleaner comparison.
GAA
Goals allowed per 60 minutes. It is useful as a rough screen, but it heavily reflects team defense and game context.
Calculation
GA x (60 / TOI)
GSAx
Expected goals against minus actual goals against. Positive values mean the goalie allowed fewer goals than the shot-quality baseline.
Calculation
xGA - goals against
Note. Always read GSAx with the denominator. A strong number over 1,500 shots means more than the same number over 200.
GSAx/100
Goals saved above expected normalized to 100 shots faced. It is IceSheet’s primary goalie ranking rate stat.
Calculation
GSAx x (100 / shots against)
Note. Above +1.5 is strong, above +2.5 over a large sample is elite, and below -1.5 over time is a real concern.
HDSV%
Save percentage on high-danger shots only. It focuses on the most difficult and game-defining chances a goalie faces.
Calculation
HD Saves / HD Shots
Note. League-average HDSV% is roughly in the low-to-mid 80s. Small samples are noisy, so use caution.
MDSV%
Save percentage on medium-danger shots. It helps complete the zone-by-zone picture of goalie performance.
Calculation
MD Saves / MD Shots
LDSV%
Save percentage on low-danger shots. NHL goalies should stop almost all of these, so a lasting weakness here is a red flag.
Calculation
LD Saves / LD Shots
QS%
Share of starts where the goalie clears a backup-level save threshold. It is useful for thinking about consistency rather than pure peak performance.
Calculation
Quality Starts / Starts
Note. A goalie can have strong average performance but weak start-to-start reliability. QS% helps surface that tradeoff.
REB%
The share of shots that lead to a rebound chance. Lower is better because it reduces second-chance danger around the crease.
Calculation
Rebounds allowed / shots on goal faced
Save percentage treats every shot the same. GSAx compares the goals a goalie allowed with the number the shots were expected to produce. It accounts for how hard the shots were, but it can’t separate out every defensive or goaltending effect.
GSAx measures how many goals a goalie saved above what the shots were expected to produce. The grade shows how much that result stands out, given how much those shots normally vary.
Grade index = stopping residual / expected standard deviation of shots faced
| Ten shots, each with… | 10% chance | 50% chance |
|---|---|---|
| Expected / allowed goals | 1 / 0 | 5 / 4 |
| GSAx | +1 | +1 |
| Variance | 0.90 | 2.50 |
| 0.95 goals | 1.58 goals | |
| Game index | +1.05 | +0.63 |
The first result stands out more. A shot near 50% is the hardest to predict; very low or very high probabilities are more predictable. With the same GSAx, more variance lowers the index. Stopping harder shots also earns more GSAx, which can offset that.
This measures verified 5v5 shot-stopping only, not a goalie’s overall play. The variance math treats each shot as independent, so it won’t capture every real-world link between shots. It describes how much shot results vary — not how confident we are in the goalie’s ability. It needs verified shots and variance to compute; if inputs are missing, no grade is shown.
Save percentage, wins, shutouts, and danger-tier stats don’t add bonus points to the grade. This explanation stays fixed no matter what situation or adjustment is selected elsewhere. Its verified model totals can differ from the xGA and GSAx shown in a game breakdown.