Today the Arizona Coyotes took care of some house-keeping by signing goaltender Antti Raanta, who would have become a free agent in July, to a three-year extension worth $4.25 million per season.
On the surface, it seems odd for a 29-win team to race and extend its starting goaltender before the season even concluded.
When you dig a little deeper, it’s easy to see why the Coyotes felt the need to so.
Raanta started the year slowly – he posted a .903 save percentage over his first 10 appearances and also missed some time with an injury – but has been one of the best goaltenders in the league since the middle of November. Perhaps even *the* best.
In 36 appearances since November 17th, Raanta has posted a remarkable .937 save percentage. That’s good for 1st among 26 eligible goaltenders (35+ games played) and puts him well ahead of the rest of the pack.
Raanta owns a rock solid 19-11-5 record during that time, which is remarkable when you consider the team playing in front of him. They’ve been a complete disaster without Raanta. With Raanta, the Coyotes legitimately win at the rate of a playoff team. They say goaltending is the great equalizer and his play is just another example of that.
This is Raanta’s first year as a starter but it’s not like performing at a high level is new to him. Since entering the league in 2013-14, he has posted a .922 save percentage. Among 44 goaltenders with 7,000 minutes of work in that time, only John Gibson and Carey Price have stopped a higher percentage of the shots they’ve faced.
He has quietly been one of the better puck stoppers in the league for years now and the Coyotes didn’t have to commit much in term or dollars to get him locked up.
This was a tidy bit of business by John Chayka and the Coyotes.
Numbers via NaturalStatTrick.com and Corsica.Hockey.
Written by Todd Cordell (@ToddCordell)
