Vejmelka vs. Hart goalie matchup in Western Conference First Round

Goaltending is an integral part of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. To better understand the strengths and weaknesses of each at the position, NHL.com charted 100 goals against each goaltender late in the regular season to see what patterns emerged. Here is the comparison between Karel Vejmelka of the Utah Mammoth and Carter Hart of the Vegas Golden Knights.

The Western Conference First Round series between the Vegas Golden Knights and Utah Mammoth features two goalies on opposite ends of the workload spectrum.

Vejmelka, Utah's No. 1, played more than any goalie in the League this season with 64 appearances and 63 starts, though he will be making his NHL playoff debut. Hart, who is Vegas' likely starter, played in only 18 games in part because of a lower-body injury. He hasn’t played a postseason game in six years but did go 9-5-0 with a 2.23 goals-against average and .926 save percentage with the Philadelphia Flyers in 2019-20.

Hart and Vejmelka have very different approaches, and how each team attacks the strengths and weaknesses of those disparate styles could help determine this best-of-7 series.

Karel Vejmelka

Vejmelka set an NHL career high with 38 wins this season, finishing second in the NHL to Andrei Vasilevskiy of the Tampa Bay Lightning (39) despite an .897 save percentage that was only slightly above the NHL average (.896) and slightly below his career average (.899). Utah asks a lot of its goalie, including facing a lot of dangerous chances, so Vejmelka is comfortable playing in a more open environment. Whether that translates in the playoffs remains to be seen.​

Screens for rebounds, not goals: Vejmelka didn’t give up a lot of goals as a direct result of screens, but screens did play a role in his 18 rebound goals, which was higher than the average (11.7) for the more than 10,000 goals tracked for this project since 2017. He also allowed 24 goals off broken plays and bounces off Utah players, which was well above the average tracked (14). Those rebound totals were the second-most in the NHL and included a tendency for second chances to spill off to the weak side -- even on shots into the body. Vejmelka also tends to shift, or even slide, into long shots, which can catch him moving the wrong way on second chances. He has a tendency to chase shots wide of the net, which stranded him for four goals off bounces off the end boards. Those types of goals contributed greatly to the high goal totals along the ice outside of each pad.

East-west not easy: Plays across the middle of the ice are usually a great way to increase scoring odds against any goalie, but Vejmelka only gave up 12 goals on cross-ice laterals in this sample, way better than the tracked average (22.1). An excellent skater with powerful lateral pushes and good flexibility, Vejmelka only allowed three of those backdoor plays to go in along the ice outside his skates, further emphasizing those strengths. There were a couple notable trends among those 12 goals, though. Nine came on shots or second passes against the grain, and four went five-hole, highlighting the need to make that lateral power work against him by shooting back the way he’s coming from.

Breakaway dekes: The 12 goals on breakaways are only slightly worse than the average (10.2), but it may be worth noting that eight came on dekes rather than shots, with a couple of against-the-grain shots through his five-hole. Most were by pulling him wide and spreading him out.

High blocker, low glove: Vejmelka had better-than-average results on clean looks, even from good scoring areas in the slot this season. If there were trends among the goals off clean looks and breakaways, they included high blocker (six) and low glove (five).

Carter Hart

Adin Hill won the Stanley Cup with the Golden Knights in 2023, but he seems destined to start these playoffs watching Hart from the bench under new coach John Tortorella. After returning on April 2 from a lower-body injury that kept him out almost three months, Hart went 6-0-0 with a 1.66 GAA and .930 save percentage. That run coincides closely with the arrival of Tortorella, who replaced Bruce Cassidy as coach on March 29. Hart’s lack of games played makes for a much smaller tracked sample of 46 goals, but that doesn’t appear to have dulled the faith of Tortorella, who also coached Hart for two seasons with the Flyers (2022-24).​

Not many extremes: Hart holds his skate edges well, moves smoothly, is patient off releases and plays a mostly contained, somewhat conservative, game positionally. It’s probably not surprising there aren’t a lot of numbers that jump off the page on his goal chart.

Low glove?: It’s important to remember that goal totals are not save percentages for each location, but the nine goals (19.6 percent) under Hart’s glove are almost double the tracked average (10.4). Perhaps more of a tell is the fact that three of the seven goals off clean looks were scored under the glove. It’s not surprising, considering his “fingers up” glove position protects the top of the net (only one goal off a clean look and seven total), but it does make it harder to turn that pocket down over the pad, something shooters are taught to identify.

Against the grain: Five of those seven goals off clean looks came on shots against the grain, which is part of a larger trend across several chance types. Those included a couple from higher in the zone, including lateral carries across the middle, with 14 goals (30.4 percent) coming on shots against the direction of play, well above the tracked average (18.4).

East-west, low-high: Again, it’s a small sample -- and forcing a goalie to move from one side of the ice to the other is always a good way to increase scoring odds -- but 14 of the 46 goals (30.4 percent) came on these types of lateral plays, well above the average (22.1). There were also nine (19.6 percent) on pop passes from below the goal line, or low-high laterals from below the bottom of the face-off circles, slightly above the average (17.1). There weren’t any definitive trends in those two categories, beyond the need to elevate on the other end of those plays with only three being finished along the ice. Hart almost always gets a good push into those plays and seals the ice. Part of that comes with more conservative depth and good rotations back to the posts, which can also open a little more of the top of the net.

Wide alone in tight: All three breakaway goals came off net drives across the top of crease, which left Hart pitched forward, reaching from the midpoint, and unable to seal to the far post.