NHL History Murky About When Goalie Use Becomes Overuse

Seattle Kraken fans, see if this sounds familiar.

Coach Dave Hakstol started the same goalie in eight straight games and 11 out of 12, partly because of an injury to his other goalie.

“Our team has confidence in him,” coach Hakstol said . “That’s a real position of strength for our bench and guys out on the ice. They know he does the work. He is prepared. I think that gives everyone a level of confidence.”

Here's the twist: the year is 2017, the team Hakstol coaches is the Philadelphia Flyers, and the netminder keeping his team afloat is Brian Elliott.

Hakstol's use of Elliott does have relevance for how the now-Seattle Kraken coach is leaning on goalie Joey Daccord in 2024. We won't know what, if any, impact Daccord's heavy workload will have for another year or three.

But in 2019, Elliott reflected on how shouldering the load affected him. “Nowadays there's a lot more work for a goalie: a lot less hooking and holding up for the D-men, so there's a lot more chances or a lot more in-zone time that you're actually working,” Elliott said to Yahoo Sports . “Even if you're maybe not getting shots, you're looking through screens, you're doing a lot of work.”

Tale Of Two Glenns

The demands on a goalie may have increased "nowadays," but Glenn Hall is Exhibit A that goalies can thrive no matter how much they play. Over eight straight seasons in the 1950s and '60s, Hall played 502 consecutive games.

Overworking goalies has been a recurring topic ever since. In 1982-83, Glenn "Chico" Resch started 30 of the first 34 Devils games. "He has a right to be tired," GM-coach Billy MacMillan said to UPI . "He puts in more minutes than any other goalie. All I can do is ask him before the game if he's tired, and if he says yes, I don't use him."

73 Regular Season Games - And A Stanley Cup

Hall of Famer Martin Brodeur is the closest thing to a modern-day goaltending iron man. As Larry Brooks pointed out in the N.Y. Post , "Brodeur is the last goaltender to win the Stanley Cup after a season of 70 or more starts. That was in 2003, when he recorded three shutouts for the Devils in the final against Anaheim that followed a 73-start season."

“Goalies who are athletic rather than robotic can handle a 70-game or a similarly large workload,” said Brodeur. “The mental game is so huge and it can be draining. But when you’re playing every night, you can overcome a bad game by going on a roll."

Though Brodeur's comments weren't specifically addressing Daccord, the Kraken netminder fits into the athletic category that suits more starting assignments.

"We Played Him Too Much"

In 2015, Devan Dubnyk went an eye-popping 27-8-2 with a .938 save percentage in 37 consecutive starts for the Minnesota Wild. Still, Sports Illustrated's Allan Muir wondered , "Even as things are going better for him than at any point in his career, there’s a mental and physical toll to all this action in the thick of a playoff race."

Occasionally, teams even admit as much. Lightning goalie Anders Lindback in 2012 played 14 of Tampa Bay's first 18 games. "We played him probably too much," Coach Guy Boucher said to the Tampa Bay Times . "We wanted to make him experience all the pressure getting game after game. That's fine, but we have to manage him the same way we manage forwards and defensemen: give him some but not too much to chew on."

Lindback agreed the season had been taxing both physically and mentally.

John Gibson, star goalie of the Anaheim Ducks, knows exactly what Lindback was referencing. Gibson appeared in 58 games in 2018-19, after having played in 60 the season before.

“Let’s face it, we were pretty bad and he was carrying the load and he got overworked,” general manager Bob Murray said to the Orange Country Register . “We’re going to have to be very cognizant of that. He lost a lot of weight. He was carrying the team and we can’t allow that to happen again."