Who should win the Richter

[Iwearpurple]

I know that the talking heads on USCHO podcasts have anointed the award to either of the Eastern goalies, and keep saying that McKay will not win it, but I believe that Dryden McKay should absolutely win the Richter. All 3 top choices are very very good goalies, but based on the following, McKay has faced much tougher competition. Yes, Levi and Perets GAA and Save% is higher than McKay's, but McKay is clearly better if factoring in the strength of the opponents.

Winning %:
McKay .895
Perets .808
Levi .717

Average Pairwise Ranking of Opponents:
McKay 24
Levi 31
Perets 34

Average Goals per Game of Opponents:
McKay 3.03
Levi 2.75
Perets 2.72

Average Pairwise Ranking of Opponents Shut out by each goalie. (If they have shutout an opponent twice, I have doubled the ranking for shutouts): McKay has shutout St. Thomas twice, and Perets has shutout Yale twice and Levi has shutout LIU twice.
McKay 32
Levi 41
Perets 42

Average Goals per game of Opponents (Again doubling for shutting out an opponent twice):
McKay 2.70
Levi 2.51
Perets 2.37

I firmly believe that if either Levy or Perets had been the goalie for Minnesota State, there numbers would be nowhere near McKay's

[Liveatjrl]

Clearly you're a sour Mankato fan with McKay losing it year after year.... Sorry to say but you'll once again be disappointed.

I'll be shocked if Levi doesn't win it. Perets could but he faced like half of the shots than Levi did.

[J.D.]

Suggesting Levi would have nowhere near the numbers of McKay is some take. Idiotic, really. Levi should win but considering the undeserved love Bobby Trivigno has gotten as an upperclassmen maybe McKay finally wins it at age 30 for a career achievement award.

[Bale]

Full disclosure, I'm an MSU fan and I think McKay is underappreciated outside of the Mankato fan base.

That being said, it is obvious that the committee is going to reward goaltenders that don't have good defenses and still perform well. I expect Levi to win the Richter this year and I don't expect Perets to ever win it (even if he ends up being a 4 year player) as long as he faces <20 shots a game. If he faced 30 shots a game, would his save percent go down? Who knows, but he's going to be discounted because he doesn't.

It doesn't matter whether your team changes the way it plays because of the way the goalie plays or not. I really wish college hockey would have some advanced stats as my suspicion (based upon my eye test which I know is likely very flawed) is that things like McKay's Rebounds Per Save, Rebounds Above Expected, Puck Freezes Above Expected, etc. would be really good. Alas, that isn't the case and this discussion comes up every year.

As I said on another site, I'm just glad I got to see most of McKay's career. He's been fun to watch even if he doesn't get the awards outside of the conference that he probably should. His overall book of work has been pretty astonishing. 109 wins (an .850 win pct), 1.46 GAA and a .933 save percentage in 135 games. I'd just encourage Maverick fans to just enjoy it while you can, because we likely won't see another performance in Mankato like it and not worry about the awards.

[Bale]

To be clear, I actually do think that if you go simply off of numbers, Levi SHOULD win the award. I haven't seen him play, much like I suspect most of the people in the east haven't seen McKay play. Most people can only go off of the number and that being the case, Levi should win.

[J.D.]

If Minnesota State keeps fielding teams light years ahead of the rest of the CCHA, the next goalie might not have McKay's numbers but he probably won't be far off.

I have an idea though. Scrap the name "Richter" and rename the award the McKay award. That can be his career achievement acknowledgment.

[SkinsFan09]

1. Perets sees 17 shots a game he shouldn't be in this.

2. Devon Levi has the No. 2 save percentage in NCAA history for a modern season right now behind Jimmy Howard's legendary 2003-04 (though he only played 25 games that season). He's also made more saves than either of the other goaltenders.

3. Minnesota State has out shot its opponents by a staggering 546 this season. Quinnipiac has out shot opponents by a whopping 580. Meanwhile ... Northeastern was outshot by 172 this season including 160 in 24 Hockey East games and won the regular season title.

Levi was by a mile the most valuable goalie in the nation, and should win the Richter and should be the only goaltender in the Hobey Hat Trick. The others are on loaded teams that outskate opponents and minimize high danger chances, and Levi dragged an otherwise decent Northeastern team - potentially into the NCAAs and already to a season title.

[SkinsFan09]

Also not sure the "can't take the heat against these opponents" argument works as Levi had one of the best World Junior performance ever against the best U-20 hockey players in the world. I don't think he would be overwhelmed in any NCAA conference.

[MarkEagleUSA]

1. Perets sees 17 shots a game he shouldn't be in this.

That's not his fault and an argument can be made that he had to make more meaningful saves.

Personally I see McKay getting the nod because he's an upper classman.

[J.D.]

NU isn't an offensive juggernaut either so I don't buy the Perets making more meaningful saves. Just a matter of how individual voters approach this. The nod to Levi for a spectacular season or the career achievement nod to McKay.

[SkinsFan09]

Also not sure the "can't take the heat against these opponents" argument works as Levi had one of the best World Junior performance ever against the best U-20 hockey players in the world. I don't think he would be overwhelmed in any NCAA conference.

When the team in front of you can only score 98 goals in 38 games, every save you make is more meaningful than 128 in 39.