Who's Winning the Hottest Goalie Battles in the 2013-14 NHL Season?

The first quarter of 2013-14 has featured a lot of battles for playing time in net. 

Some of those battles have been intense competitions between worthy competitors. Toronto, where incumbent James Reimer has faced a heavy push from the newly acquired Jonathan Bernier, is an example of that sort of fight.

Other contests have been less about two deserving candidates pushing for one job and more about a job being open and equally unqualified contenders being given chance after chance. Calgary, where three roughly third-string calibre goalies have all had chances to take the starting job, is an example of that sort of contest.

Read on to see who has emerged as the leader in Toronto and Calgary and elsewhere in the NHL.

Unless otherwise noted, statistics cited come from NHL.com or theahl.com.

Anaheim Ducks: Jonas Hiller

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The Contenders:

• Jonas Hiller: 7-3-2, .894 save percentage
• Viktor Fasth: 2-2-1, .885 save percentage
• Frederik Andersen: 6-1-0, .943 save percentage

The Battle: The best goalie this year in Anaheim doesn't currently play for Anaheim. 

Frederik Andersen was dispatched to the minors last week after being the next best thing to perfect in seven starts with the Ducks. Injuries opened the door and he did everything he could to secure a job, but ultimately, the Ducks opted to stick with Jonas Hiller and Viktor Fasth, both on one-way deals.

Presently, Fasth and Hiller are alternating time in net. Hiller won this battle last year and has the best long-term track record. At this point, he has an oh-so-narrow lead on Fasth for the starting gig. 

Calgary Flames: Reto Berra

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The Contenders:

• Reto Berra: 2-4-2, .889 save percentage
• Karri Ramo: 2-4-1, .882 save percentage
• Joey MacDonald:3-3-1, .885 save percentage
• Joni Ortio: 8-0-0, .921 save percentage (AHL)

The Battle: Bob Hartley gets to pick his poison in net each night, and that's an apt comparison, because regardless of his choice, the odds are good that his team will succumb to the ills of poor goaltending.

Reto Berra is the flavour of the week in Calgary. The big Swiss goalie was brilliant in a 42-save win in his NHL debut, and since then, he has cracked the .900 save-percentage mark as regularly as he's failed to hit the .800 save-percentage mark (twice each).

The alternatives aren't much better. Current backup Karri Ramo somehow looks worse than the mediocre goalie who left for Russia back in 2009. Third-stringer Joey MacDonald cleared waivers after delivering results in the same range. Joni Ortio's been good in the minors after a middling season in Finland; maybe he gets the next shot at fixing Calgary's problems. 

Edmonton Oilers: Devan Dubnyk

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The Contenders:

• Devan Dubnyk: 5-10-1, .892 save percentage
• Ilya Bryzgalov: 1-1-0, .880 save percentage (AHL)
• Richard Bachman: 0-2-1, .916 save percentage
• Jason LaBarbera: 1-3-0, .858 save percentage

The Battle: A goaltending crisis brought on by four terrible games from Devan Dubnyk opened the door for both backup Jason LaBarbera and third-stringer Richard Bachman, but poor play from the former and an injury to the latter forced the Oilers to look elsewhere.

Edmonton signed Ilya Bryzgalov.

Now there's a clear battle for playing time between Dubnyk and Bryzgalov. Dubnyk's play has improved dramatically since game four, and for the moment, he appears safe. But Bryzgalov is an excellent goaltender in his own right, and if Dubnyk falters even momentarily, the door will open again.  

Minnesota Wild: Josh Harding

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The Contenders:

• Josh Harding: 13-3-2, .939 save percentage
• Niklas Backstrom: 1-1-2, .874 save percentage
• Darcy Kuemper: 0-1-0, .625 save percentage

The Battle: It's not even a battle anymore.

Niklas Backstrom has been hurt off and on all season and hasn't had a chance to string any length of games together. In his absence, Josh Harding has been incredible.

Harding has been a sub-.900 goalie in all of one game this season. He's made it impossible for the Wild to do anything but start him. If the voting were done today, it's hard to imagine he wouldn't be a very strong contender for the Vezina. 

New Jersey Devils: Martin Brodeur

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The Contenders:

• Martin Brodeur: 7-3-2, .915 save percentage
• Cory Schneider: 1-5-3, .918 save percentage

The Battle: Martin Brodeur, one of the game's greats in the twilight of his career, has fought his way back into contention for the Devils' starting job.

It looked over for a while. Five games into the season, Brodeur was 1-2-2 with a .871 save percentage; since then, he has won six of seven games with a .951 save percentage. Understandably, Devils head coach Peter DeBoer has opted to ride the hot hand.

Cory Schneider's been good but often hasn't been supported by his team; his lone win was a shutout victory, and he's lost three games where he posted a .940 save percentage or better. 

This is a contest to keep an eye on.

New York Islanders: Evgeni Nabokov

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The Contenders:

• Kevin Poulin: 3-6-0, .898 save percentage
• Evgeni Nabokov: 5-5-3, .892 save percentage

The Battle: After a pretty decent start to the season, Evgeni Nabokov has slid badly in recent weeks. That has opened the door to a challenge from backup goalie Kevin Poulin, and the door opened wider with the news that Nabokov will miss significant time to injury.

Newsday's Arthur Staple reports that "According to several sources, Nabokov almost certainly will be out a minimum of four weeks, and quite possibly more." That gives Poulin a chance to either solidify his hold on the starting job or play his way out of it.   

Poulin hasn't been especially good of late, as his save percentage on the season reflects, so it will be interesting to see how much rope he gets as starter, especially with mediocre third-string goalie Anders Nilsson (3-6-1, .880 save percentage in the AHL) now his backup.  

Ottawa Senators: Robin Lehner

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The Contenders:

• Robin Lehner: 3-3-2, .939 save percentage
• Craig Anderson: 5-7-2, .900 save percentage

The Battle: Craig Anderson keeps getting starts, but with the Senators sliding out of playoff position and Robin Lehner outplaying the veteran incumbent, it's only a matter of time until that stops if the status quo continues. 

Anderson has struggled badly, going 1-6-0 in his last eight games played and posting a .872 save percentage. In the same span, Lehner has gone 3-1-2 with a .938 save percentage.

Worth noting: It may be that Anderson is still feeling the effects of being run over by Stars forward Valeri Nichushkin in early November, an incident that occurred midway through his current slump.

Toronto Maple Leafs: Jonathan Bernier

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The Contenders:

• Jonathan Bernier: 8-5-1, .939 save percentage
• James Reimer: 5-2-0, .942 save percentage

The Battle: There are no losers in this one.

Jonathan Bernier was highly touted but not especially NHL-tested when he arrived in Toronto to shore up a perceived weakness in net. He's been everything the team could have hoped for, stopping pucks at a Hasek-like rate 14 games into his Maple Leafs career.

Meanwhile, untrusted incumbent James Reimer has taken advantage of every opportunity he has been given, providing the Leafs with netminding every inch as good as Bernier.

Every team in the league wants one goalie who can play the way Bernier and Reimer have this season; the Leafs have been blessed with two. So far, Bernier's gotten a slight preference in number of starts.