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Kari Lehtonen: Bad Season or Bad Goalie?

By Allison Scott |

In 2010 then Dallas Stars General Manager Joe Nieuwendyk spearheaded a trade for second-overall draft pick from 2002: Kari Lehtonen. Over the next five seasons Lehtonen was the go-to guy in net. Despite the various coaches and all of the changes in management he was the guy. Last season, however, that notion was challenged.

From the outside looking in it seems as though Lehtonen performed nearly the same last season as he had in his 2013-2014 campaign; however, anyone who watched him play can attest to that not being the case.

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Although he played in the same number of games and had nearly the same record, Lehtonen was a much better goalie two seasons ago than he was last year. He let in significantly more ‘soft’ goals and was more chaotic than ever in his career with the Stars. The statistics that stand out are his goals against average and his save percentage being that he gave up just over half a goal more on average and his save percentage went from 0.919 to 0.903.

While those may seem small in the grand scheme of things, they become increasingly more significant when you consider that Dallas missed the post-season by only seven points. That means four more wins would have made them a playoff team, a fact that is certainly hard to swallow.

Lehtonen’s goals against and save percentage aren’t what is most concerning, though. What should alarm Stars fans and Lehtonen alike is that his ranking when compared to the other goalies in the league went down a significant amount in nearly every important category.

He had one more win and went down two spots, he dropped fifteen spots in goals against rankings, went down twenty-four places with a 0.903 save percentage and played sixty-five games which was still fewer than five other guys in the league.

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Those drastic negative changes in his NHL rankings are more telling than anything because they go to show just how much better every other goalie in the league has gotten and comparatively just how average Lehtonen is as a starter. In the NHL, though, average isn’t anywhere near good enough.

In the world of professional sports it is imperative that players get better with each passing season because that’s the only way to keep up with the opposition. So while Lehtonen had a similar result last season compared to his 2013-2014 year, it proved to not be good enough for the Stars this season.

The question now becomes: who is the “go-to” guy in Dallas? The answer is that it’s complicated. Lehtonen is the only steady goalie the Stars have had over the last five years and it looks like they’ll be adding another new back-up before the start of next season. It’s unknown whether or not the new goaltender will actually serve the back-up goalie role, or if he’ll replace Kari as the number-one guy.

Lehtonen has had a rather successful run with the Stars and he’s a well-liked player for the organization, but if he proves to be incapable of improving season after season Dallas will have no choice but to the cut their ties to the high-price goaltender and look for a new direction.

What do you think of Lehtonen? Do you think he got worse or his peers just got that much better? Leave your thoughts in the comments. As always, thanks for reading!

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