One of the hot topics in any AIHL season is always goaltending.

In the first half of the 2024 AIHL season, we have seen some incredible goaltending – from imports and locals alike. If you feel like it has been even better than last year, you’re not wrong. The overall save percentage for AIHL goalies in 2024 is up significantly from 2023 – let’s look at how it has moved over the past decade.

How good is 2024 goaltending?

2023 season saw the second-lowest average save percentage in the period since 2013 (following the lowest in 2022) – 0.868. That gives a big contrast to the 0.892 save percentage that goalies have managed so far in 2024. To give some context to this, Figure 1 shows the average save percentage across the whole AIHL, and splits between imports and locals.

Figure 1: Goaltender save percentage across the AIHL, year by year.

What we can see in Figure 1 is that goalie performance (by save percentage) has moved a bit from year to year. After three straight years of the league-average save percentage being above 0.890, 2019 saw it fall to 0.878, with even import goalies running below 0.900. The shortened 2022 season saw only local goalies, and with Anthony Kimlin injured for most of the season, and Dayne Davis leading the charge in the PHL, the overall performance fell away. Interestingly, goalies in the PHL averaged 0.892 – which, considering all were locals, is the highest average save percentage for local goalies in any season over the period.

Those three years from 2016 to 2018 were led by strong goaltending from imports in the form of Thomas Heemskerk (2016, Perth Thunder), Peter Di Salvo (2015, 2017 & 2018, Perth Thunder) and Matt Hewitt (2018, CBR Brave).

While imports did sit atop the save percentage tables, all of these years saw strong local performances as well. Local goaltending had the highest save percentage of the period in 2016. This was led by the usual suspects – with Kimlin posting 0.909 and Davis 0.905 en route to his second of three Cups. However, neither of those stalwarts managed the highest save percentage by a local goalie in 2016. That honour went to the Northstars’ Nick Mizen, though it was only in 5 games.

Who drives the performance? Imports or Locals?

Consistently over the years, import goalies have led the AIHL in save percentage across the season – which is to be expected, that’s why they are brought in. However, the degree to which teams rely on imports varies a lot – see Figure 2.

The season with the highest average save percentage in the period is 2014 – and no surprise that it has the highest share of minutes played by import goalies, with 60%. That season saw Mathieu Dugas, Petri Pitkanen and even Harrison May at the Northstars take their spot between the pipes and backstop their teams.

However, the success lay with the locals. Local goalies also led the way in 2014 with the second best season for local goalie save percentage (0.881). Jaden Pine-Murphy posted the highest local save percentage, while leading the Ice to the Goodall Cup Final, where they were soundly beaten by Fraser Carson’s Mustangs.

Figure 2: Share of goaltending minutes played by imports and locals, by season

So what does that tell us about imports and save percentage?

The obvious – the greater the share of minutes played by import goalies, the higher the average save percentage across the league. With 9 of 10 teams playing at least some games with an import in net, 2024 has (so far) seen the second highest share of import goaltending – at 58%.

However, with those years with goalies having strong performances in the middle having between 22% and 44% import goaltending, local goalies are clearly still getting the job done in the AIHL. In 2016, the season with the third-highest save percentage in the period, the league had the second-lowest share of import goaltending.

If you want to dig deeper into whether import goalies are worth a slot – we already covered that in the offseason here.