Nashville Predators' Juuse Saros barely cracks Top-10 in NHL Network rankings

There is no doubt that Juuse Saros had a down year by his standards, and while the Nashville Predators surged forward to return to the Stanley Cup Playoffs, Saros wasn't his usual dominant self.

The NHL Network released their top-10 goalie rankings going into 2024-25, and Saros comes in at No.9 on the list. That's a drop from No.5 in the rankings last season.

Redemption year incoming for Juuse Saros?

Look, it is incredibly difficult to ranks goalies in this era of NHL hockey. There are so many high quality goalies and the gap isn't that wide between elite and really good. You can argue without bias that Saros regressed from elite to just really good in 2023-24, so I can't be too angry about this ranking to be honest.

Igor Shesterkin claims the top spot after having a really strong 16-game performance in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. He posted a 13.1 Goals Saved Above Expected and a .926 save percentage.

For comparison, in six playoff games for Saros his save percentage was ordinary at .900 while facing minimal shots, but did finish in the positive with a 3.5 Goals Save Above Expected. He was in the negative for the regular season after leading the NHL in that important category in 2022-23.

The only qualm I have about where Saros sits on the list is one player who is ahead of him, and that's Jake Oettinger. Don't get me wrong, I've been a outward proponent of Oettinger's bright future for a while now, but he hasn't proven enough yet to put him ahead of Saros.

Ilya Sorokin is another goalie I would put behind Saros, just due to the length of their track records. One "off year" for Saros shouldn't undo what he's accomplished before that which has largely been carrying the Predators on the back end of the John Hynes coaching era.

Even with Saros not performing at his normally elite level, he still finished 5th in the Vezina Trophy voting.

Sorokin had a down year this past season as well with a GAA above three goals and a save percentage just barely above Saros'. Saros has 350 NHL games under his belt to Sorokin's 192, and they both have almost identical numbers. I'm going with Saros, but of course it's close and you can make an argument for either one.

The rest of the goalies ahead of Saros I can't push back against. I wonder how much gas is left in the tank for about to be 36-year-old Sergei Bobrovsky, and Connor Hellebuyck had an absolute horrendous playoff showing finishing as the worst of all 27 qualified goalies in Goals Saved Above Expected. But his regular season was one of the best.

Alexander Georgiev and Filip Gustavsson exit the top-10 from the previous year's rankings, and Jeremy Swayman and Sergie Bobrovsky are the newcomers to the top-10.

Saros is entering the season with a ton of pressure on him after getting the long-term investment from the Predators at eight years and totaling $61.92 million. He is ranked as my player facing the most individual pressure on the Predators entering 2024-25.

Honestly this ranking is pretty fair, but I'd stick him at No.7 ahead of Bobrovsky and Oettinger. I agree with Shesterkin at No.1, but I'd go Andrei Vasilevskiy at No.2.