The Greatest of All Time Part III: Dominik Hasek

This is the third part in a multi-part series called “The Greatest of All Time.” Each piece will feature who we believe to be the greatest to ever play a sport or a specific position. This piece will feature Dominik Hasek. All stats courtesy of Hockeyreference.com

Dominik Hasek is the greatest goalie in NHL history. Because of the title of this series, this fact should go without saying. However Hasek is, for some reason, the only member of this series who isn’t widely considered the greatest ever. Perhaps this is due to his relatively short career or his prime mostly being wasted on mediocre Buffalo teams. Either way, the claim of him being the greatest will spark the most debate. But it shouldn’t.

The easiest way to illustrate Hasek’s greatness is by using the two most prominent stats for a goalie; save percentage (sv. %) and goals against average (GAA). Aside from six guys who were born before 1910, Hasek has the best goals against average of all time. He twice led the league in GAA even though he played for totally average Sabre teams both years. In fact, in 1993-94, Hasek’s GAA was 1.95. Between 1993 and 2008, Hasek posted only one season with a GAA above 2.27.

His save percentage stats may be even more impressive. Because of era-specific advantages, 18 of the top-19 highest save percentages of all time are active goalies including such mediocrity as Jonas Hiller and Craig Anderson. Yet Hasek still stands firmly at the top of the list. The only goalie of his era near him is Patrick Roy who sits tied with Chris Mason at 23^rd all time. This statistical oddity illustrates Hasek’s utter dominance over all eras.

Incredibly enough, Hasek began his career as a back-up to Ed Belfour on the Chicago Blackhawks. Even after signing in Buffalo in 1992, Hasek was still a no-name back-up. When he finally did earn the opportunity to become a full-time starter, he was 28 years old. And he turned out absolutely incredibly numbers. The 1993-94 season would begin a streak of eight seasons that rival the production of anyone in hockey history. Hasek led the league in GAA twice, save percentage six times, shutouts four times (including 1997-1998 where he blanked 13 opponents) and took home six Vezina trophies in that span.

All of his regular season numbers are quite impressive but carrying average Sabre teams in the playoffs may be an even more impressive feat. Hasek’s numbers (2.02 GAA and .925 sv. %) improved slightly in the playoffs as a whole but this doesn’t do justice to his ability to catch fire and carry the team. In 1994 he had a 1.61 GAA and .950 save percentage in a seven-game epic defeat to the mighty Devils. In the spring of 1999 he led the seventh-seeded Sabres on a run to the Stanley Cup and posted a 1.77 GAA and .939 save percentage. He finally carried a team to the Stanley Cup in 2002 while posting more incredible numbers (1.86 GAA .920 sv %). But much to the chagrin of Western New York, this team was the Detroit Red Wings, not the Sabres. After the season he announced he would go into the Hall of Fame as a Red Wing which should take away all suspicion of my bias in writing this piece.

Despite all he achieved in his career, the moniker of “Greatest of All Time” is often designated as Martin Brodeur or Pat Roy. Yet it’s rarely considered that all three were somewhat in their prime during Hasek’s incredible run through the nineties. Between 1993 and 2002, Hasek and Roy were 28-37 and Brodeur was 21-30. During that period, Hasek won six Vezina trophies and two MVPs while neither Brodeur nor Roy took home any hardware. Roy won all three of his Vezina’s before Hasek was a starter and Brodeur won all four of his after Hasek’s prime. Not even all-time greats could compare to Hasek in his prime.

Although Hasek’s prime was short, it is unrivaled in the annals of NHL history. He paced the league in statistical categories, lifted his teams in the playoffs, overshadowed the accomplishments of all-time greats and, somehow, led the Czech Republic to the gold medal for ice hockey in the 1998 winter Olympics. There is little doubt that Dominik Hasek is the greatest off all time.

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