Going into the season it was fair to speculate about who the starter would be at the end of the year. Waddell and Evason spent much of the offseason talking about how Elvis needed to be the starter for the team and spoke optimistically about the work he’d done off the ice. Elvis’ play the past few seasons had dipped, but it was fair to question the quality of the play in front. Tarasov had showed flashes of good play and many speculated he could push for the starting role. In the end, Tarasov and Jet did start games this season but Elvis was the unquestioned lead goalie when healthy.
2024-25 Stats
Games: 53
Wins: 26
Shutouts: 1
SV%: .892
GAA: 3.19
GSAx: -11.3
Contract
Elvis is entering the fourth year of a five year contract that pays him an average salary of $5.4 million. Each year of the contract carries a modified no trade clause.
High Point
Instead of the shutout against the uninspiring Islanders, I’m choosing the December 14th game against the New Jersey Devils. The Blue Jackets got out to a 3-0 lead in this game halfway through the 2nd period. From that point on the Devils (mainly the brothers Hughes) bombarded the CBJ until the end of the match. Elvis faced 35 shots in the final two periods and, although he ultimately ceded two goals against, his performance was critical in getting the victory.
Low Point
Dean Evason had gone all year without pulling a goalie until April 3rd when Elvis surrendered 7 goals against the Avalanche through 45 minutes on 28 shots. In a season with many low moments Evason had stuck by his starting goalie no matter what. This was the performance that could not be tolerated.
Report Card
D+
For much of the season Elvis was legitimately a quality starting goaltender. Unfortunately, the highs were not very high (one shutout) and the lows were disasters. Per NST at all situations, over the balance of the season Elvis finished with the 8th most goals allowed over expected amongst goalies who played in 30 or more games, a total of 45 netminders. He finished better than Swayman and Saros (!), but a goalie on a playoff caliber team should not be in the same neighborhood as the Flyers goalies, Alexander Georgiev, or Tristan Jarry who was sent to the AHL.
If this review had come out mid-season the grade would’ve been higher but Elvis had a poor finish to the season. As the games began to matter more the goaltending support faded. Looking at NST again, through January, Elvis had allowed only 2.3 more goals than expected in his 33 games played. But in his final 20 games he allowed 9 more than expected and was certainly a contributing part in the failed playoff push. This last stretch of schedule also included the injury woes and Elvis taking on a higher percentage of the starts. Could the additional wear have been a problem? If the tandem next year is Jet and Elvis it may be beneficial to split the work more evenly.
As a novice goalie watcher I can only really notice when things look different in the crease by comparison, and there is a clear difference in play style between Jet and Elvis. I looked at a few resources to try and capture the strengths/weaknesses of Elvis’ game.
From his NHL Edge profile there is not a lot of good. He’s in the bottom half of the league (NHL edge doesn’t specify lower, just “below 50%”) in nearly every category they list including shots from mid-range and long-range, referred to as low and mid danger chances on many sites. He does however grade well in saves against high-danger chances ranking at the 74th percentile in the league.
HockeyViz recently added in a level to their site that tracks the different results of shots and it highlights what shooters, and conversely goalies, create or allow with their shots or saves. Below you can see that unblocked shots against Elvis go in to the net more than average, hit him more than average, and that relatively he freezes far fewer pucks and creates more rebounds than average.
Both of these profiles align with my view that Elvis is an exceptionally athletic goaltender who loves to challenge the shooter. He’s quite good at facing down shooters to create a save, but what happens after that point is less certain. It also explains why he excels in shootouts. He does struggle to cleanly see pucks that come from farther away and frequently fails to put together a complete game.
Overall this year was an improvement over last year for Elvis and we heard far more positive things about his locker room presence but ultimately he didn’t stop enough pucks.