Better goalie..........?

Question

Jacques Plante or Dominik Hasek. Plante has won the Vezina the most, but Hasek has a more complicated playing field.

Which one would you consider to be a better goalie? Why?

Answer 1

Jacques Plante

He revolutioned the position with the introduction of the goalie mask.

He won 5 consecutive cups
He won 7 vezina trophys
Led the leaque in GAA 8 times
Took expansion Blues to the finals

Hasek was and is good but few have come close to Plante.

Answer 2

Its hard to compare two of the greatest of all time.They are from different eras.Both are legends and extremely talented.Plante had to defend against weaker shooters.By this I mean less nutritional,exercise,sports science. The forwards used wood sticks and had slower shots.Todays guys are bigger and stronger and therefore I think Hasek gets the nod.Think about the future and whats to come.Imagine saying the same thing about Hasek someday. And how "slow" the shots were back at the turn of the Century.

Answer 3

Having seen both play, I'm going with Plante. He lugged around 50lb pads, Hasek lugs around 23lb pads.

In his equipment, Plante covered 35% of the net. In his equipment, Hasek covers almost 50%.

Plante faced the cream of the crop every game, Hasek faced teams which had 4-5 good players on them and the rest were player who would be considered borderline to play in the AHL let alone the NHL.

Plante had to face the Bobby Hull slapshot 14x a year. Hasek never had to face anything like that.

Personally, I feel Bernie Parent was better than both of them, but that's just my opinion.

Answer 4

Plante played in a better league where the third lines were better than many teams first lines today and where back to back games included a train trip not a plane flight. He also never wore a mask. Hasek wouldn't strap on the pads without one. Without Plante there is no Brodeur or Roy or Potvin or Villemure or Luongo to name a few. He blazed a trail that young French Canadians would follow.

Answer 5

Plante won 5 of his Vezinas in a 6 team league. Hasek won all 6 of his Vezinas in a 30 team league, it was harder for Hasek, he faced more competition with other goalies. Plante played on one of the best teams of all time, the Canadiens, when he won his Vezinas. Hasek played on the Sabres when he won his Vesinas, the Sabres sucked real bad, Hasek was the only thing making them look good.

Hasek led the league in SV% 6 times, SV% is a much more important stat than GAA. He had the highest SV% ever in a season when he had .937 back in 98-99. I think he also has the highest career SV% ever. I never saw Plante play though. I have seen many of Hasek's highlights, and from what I've seen, and from what the stats say, he was unreal for the Sabres. I think Hasek was better than Plante.

~

Indeed I do LITY, indeed I do, lol. See, I told you that I like Hasek.

Answer 6

Plante will surely be remembered for his contributions to the game (including the goalie mask), but I'd say that his statistics, etc. were greatly helped by playing for a Montreal Canadiens dynasty. When he went to the Rangers after the 1962-63 season his GAA jumped by nearly a goal.

Hasek on the other hand, carried an otherwise weak Buffalo team to the Stanley Cup finals (and the Czech national team to the Olympic Gold). During his prime he was unquestionably the greatest goaltender in the league, winning the Vezina trophy 6 out of 8 years. In the modern NHL era he had far more competition for that individual honour than Plante did in the original 6 era.

Answer 7

Domininik Hasek

Answer 8

Let me see.............where should I start?

I could start with Vezinas........Plante wins
I could start with Stanley Cup rings..........Plante wins
I could start with shutouts..............Plante wins
I could start with shutouts/GP ratio...............Plante wins
I could start with the equipment debate..........Plante wins
I could start with WPCT........Plante wins

Plante had to play the BEST players on the planet 3 times a week. Hasek only had to play the best players on the planet at World Championships, Olympics and Canada/World Cup tourneys.

I have no doubt that had those tournaments been available to Plante, he would have kicked *** in those too.

The final nail for me is Great Goalies win Stanley Cups. Plante has 6 rings...............Hasek has 1.

The other tough thing is that shots on goal and Save Percentage were not official NHL statistics until later...so unless somebody wants to manually go back and watch all the games, we'll never know who really had the best save percentage.

Mike knows where my vote goes. I need to continue teaching him hockey history though!

Answer 9

Two different eras. Back in Plante's days, there were fewer teams and no europeans in the NHL like today. It's sort of like comparing Babe Ruth and Hank Aaron in baseball. Ruth never had to hit at night when, statistically, batting averages are much lower (look it up).

I'd go with Plante though only because today's goalies have way more padding.

Answer 10

Patrick Roy