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Adjusted Goaltender Stats

Roberto Luongo's performance in 2006-07 was nothing short of brilliant. In 76 games he led the Canucks to victory 47 times and recorded 5 shutouts. His record seems to indicate that this was the best season ever by a Canuck goaltender.

But how do you make a fair comparison? Rules have changed over the years that may have given Luongo an edge when comparing him to goalies from the past. By making a few assumptions and crunching the numbers, we can come up with a chart comparing five amazing seasons.

First, let's look at the five goalies that have recorded 30 wins in a single season for the Canucks. They are:

* Dan Cloutier hit the thirty-win mark three times as a Canuck (2001-02, 2002-03 and 2003-04), but I believe 2002-03 was the best of these three seasons.

Now, we will make some adjustments to these five seasons:

Games in a Season: Up to and including 1991-92, the Canucks only played 80 games, while today they play 82 games. We will adjust the stats to remove the goalie's results from any games played after the 80 game mark.

Overtime: In 1974-75, there was no overtime. If a game was tied after 60 minutes, it went into the books as a tie. Between 1983-84 and 2003-04, games that were tied after 60 minutes would continue for up to five minutes of sudden-death overtime. We will adjust the results to assume that every game ended after 60 minutes (wins and losses in overtime become ties).

Shootouts: Since 2005-06, every game is either a win or a loss, although the goalie is not credited with a loss if he loses in overtime or the shootout. We will adjust the results to assume that an "overtime loss" is treated as a tie (since the game was tied after 60 minutes). Overtime and shootout wins are also treated as ties.

Decisions: Goalies play in games where they are not credited with a decision. We will ignore games played where another goal got the win, loss or tie. This number will be used to calculate the winning percentage.

Points: To calculate points earned, wins are worth two points, ties are worth a single point and losses are worth no points. The winning percentage will then be calculated based on the total points earned divided by the number of games where the goalie either won, lost or tied.

These adjustments result in the following records:

Now we can rank these seasons a few ways:

Most adjusted wins in an season:
34 - Kirk McLean (1991-92)
32 - Gary Smith (1974-75)
31 - Roberto Luongo (2006-07)
29 - Dan Cloutier (2002-03)
26 - Alex Auld (2005-06)

Most adjusted points in a season:
83 - Roberto Luongo (2006-07)
81 - Kirk McLean (1991-92)
73 - Gary Smith (1974-75)
68 - Dan Cloutier (2002-03)
65 - Alex Auld (2005-06)

Best adjusted winning percentage in a season:
.633 - Kirk McLean (1991-92)
.630 - Dan Cloutier (2002-03)
.562 - Gary Smith (1974-75)
.561 - Roberto Luongo (2006-07)
.508 - Alex Auld (2005-06)