Sports Reference Blog

SV%+ Is Now GA%-

Posted by Mike on October 17, 2013

After the introduction of SV%+ to goalie stats a little over a week ago, there was some discussion as to whether or not it was the best way to represent goals allowed relative to league average. After reviewing some poll results, we've decided to change things up a bit and switch the representation to Goals Allowed %- (the minus because lower is better). The formula is now 100*((1-player save %)/(1-league average save %)) -- this means that Semyon Varlamov, who currently has the best save percentage in the league at .965 (vs. league average of about .913), gets a 40 GA%- &emdash; on a per-shot basis, he allows goals at 40% of the league average rate. Conversely, Martin Biron has allowed 9 goals on 38 shots, which gives him a GA%- of 273 (yikes). This works out better for us because goalies who have not allowed a goal will get a 0 GA%- instead of getting an undefined value as they would have in the old system.

3 Responses to “SV%+ Is Now GA%-”

  1. garik16 Says:

    This isn't fixed in the leaderboards or yearly pages yet. http://www.hockey-reference.com/leagues/NHL_2013_goalies.html#stats::15

  2. Tangotiger Says:

    Excellent, thanks!

  3. Bill Says:

    I think you isolated the casual browser for the sake of 40 people. Should've just went with your first idea. Save%+ catches the eye as a Save% metric. GA%- looks like something completely different. It may be more accurately named and calculated but to the casual fan, it looks foreign. As a wise woman once said, Ain't nobody got time for that.

    Oh well. At least goals saved is untouched. Far better and more telling stat anyway. And it is calculated for every goalie.