Save Percentage (SV%)

What counts as save percentage

Save percentage is saves divided by shots on goal faced, where shots on goal faced is saves plus goals against. A goalie who makes 120 saves and gives up 40 goals faced 160 shots on goal and saved 75 percent of them. It is the standard single number for a goalie, the way shooting percentage is for an attacker.

It is not the whole story. Save percentage says nothing about how many shots a goalie faced, how close they were, or how good the defense in front of the goalie was. Two goalies at 60 percent can be a backup behind a strong defense and a starter who faced forty shots a game. Read it next to shots faced and goals against.

How SquadProfile records it

Nobody enters a percentage. The app divides the goalie's saves by saves plus goals against, from the stats the keeper records during the game, and keeps the number current through the season. It is only as accurate as the goals against: every opponent goal that goes unrecorded makes the goalie look better than they were.

Common mistakes

• Skipping goals against. The denominator is wrong and the percentage is inflated.
• Counting missed shots or pipes as saves. A shot that was not on goal does not belong in either number.
• Judging a goalie on a handful of shots. Ten saves on twelve shots is 83 percent and tells you very little; wait for volume before reading much into it.
• Fixing the percentage by editing it. Fix the save or goal against behind it.

Where it shows up

Save percentage is the SV% column on the Goalies tab of every season leaderboard, which sorts by saves by default and can be sorted by save percentage. Public box scores show saves and goals against as counts, and the team's season stats in the app carry the percentage per goalie.

Related stats

• Save: the numerator.
• Goal against: the rest of the denominator.
• Shot on goal: what the goalie faced.