This is the 2022-23 edition — an archived read. Read the 2026-27 report →

Jake Allen

A .9047 in thirty-five games — 35th of the 53 who played twenty-five — on the club that allowed 319 goals.

Season	Team	GP	W	L	OTL	GA	GAA	SO	SA	SV%

2012-13	STL	15	9	4	0	33	2.46	1	346	.905
2014-15	STL	37	22	7	4	79	2.28	4	909	.913
2015-16	STL	47	26	15	3	101	2.35	6	1260	.920
2016-17	STL	61	33	20	5	138	2.42	4	1620	.915
2017-18	STL	59	27	25	3	152	2.75	1	1614	.906
2018-19	STL	46	19	17	8	121	2.83	3	1277	.905
2019-20	STL	24	12	6	3	48	2.15	2	655	.927
2020-21	MTL	29	11	12	5	76	2.68	0	817	.907
2021-22	MTL	35	9	20	4	107	3.30	2	1123	.905
2022-23 so far	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
Career	—	353	168	126	35	855	2.60	23	9621	.911

This Season So Far

The 2022-23 season has not started. The empty row above is his, and both it and this paragraph fill in on their own from the morning after he first plays: what he has done, what it is worth against his own last season, and the run he is on when the two disagree.

Last Season

35 games, 9-20-4, a .9047 save percentage and a 3.30 goals-against, two shutouts on 1,123 shots. That save percentage is 35th of the 53 goaltenders who played twenty-five games.

Thirty-fourth overall in 2008, ten seasons, 353 games, 168 wins, 23 shutouts, at 32.

The Physical Game

Career .9111 across 9,621 shots, which is a substantial sample and the number to price him on. Last season’s .9047 sits sixty-four points under it.

The five seasons before read .9148, .9058, .9052, .9267 and .9070 — a career that oscillates around .910 with one good year in it. He is what that average says he is.

The Mental Game

The context is severe and it does not fully excuse the number. Montreal finished 28th in the league in expected goals against per 60 at even strength and 25th on the penalty kill, and allowed 319 goals, the most in hockey. A 3.30 goals-against behind that is not the goaltender’s alone.

But the club-level model already accounts for shot quality, and Montreal still rated 23rd in goaltending at minus-13 goals saved below expectation. The crease was a net negative on top of everything else.

Nine wins in thirty-five starts is the plainest sentence in this chapter.

The Intangibles

He is 32, the senior goaltender on a rebuilding club, with Carey Price having played five games and gone off the roster.

A career .9111 is a serviceable NHL number and Montreal needs more than serviceable, because nothing in front of the crease is going to help. Nothing in this repo measures how a goaltender holds up across a season of that, and thirty-five starts at 3.30 is the only evidence there is.