2011-12 Top 3 Underpaid Goalies

There aren’t that many surprises in the most underspaid goalies of 2011-12 based on how things went in the playoffs. What is a slight surprise is that Ondrej Pavelec is at the top of the list.   This mostly has to do with him having such a low cap hit of $1.1M.

Here are the numbers:

		Team	Wins	OTL	Cap Hit ($M)	True Value ($M)	Amt Underpaid   ($M)
1.	Ondrej Pavelec	WPG	29	9	1.15	3.81	2.66
2.	Jonathan Quick	LAK	35	13	1.8	4.33	2.53
3.	Mike Smith	PHX	38	10	2	4.31	2.31

Ondrej Pavelec is an RFA this summer, while Quick and Smith are in entering the final year of their deals before becoming UFAs. Both Quick and Smith should expect huge increases next summer.

As always, it is important to point out that the Puckonomics methodology sees the True Value of goalies as being significatnly lower than the actual salaries of the top goalies in the league. Essentially this means there is significant inefficiency in the goalie salary market which results in high-end goalies being disproportionally over-compensated for the value they contribute.

Note: Players with significant injuries are not included in this analysis. A separate analysis of the Rick Dipietro will shed light on the challenge of his situation.