There’s a lot of work involved in being a modern netminder, constantly dropping into the butterfly position and getting back up to contest the next shot. With teams attempting an average of nearly 60 shots per night, that’s a lot of effort even if only half of them require saves.
The majority of NHL teams run with one goaltender for most of an 82-game schedule, but the starter can’t play every night, especially with so many back-to-back games in a season as networks look to capitalize on weekend audiences. As critical as it is for teams to have a quality netminder to man the crease for about 60 games per year, the other quarter to a third of a season’s contests are nearly as important.