Ex-Caps goalie Pheonix Copley is crushing it with the LA Kings

January 30, 2023 12:22 pm

Pheonix Copley played his last game as a Washington Capital almost one year ago, a loss to Columbus Blue Jackets in which Copley allowed four goals on 19 shots. Copley’s contract expired that summer as part of the Caps’ total goalie overhaul, and for a while Copley seemed like an afterthought in the upheaval. He signed a one-year deal with the Kings near league minimum and started the season as the third man down in Los Angeles’ goalie depth chart.

Now, Copley has the third best win-loss ratio in the league — behind only Boston’s Linus Ullmark and Carolina’s Antti Raanta.

Here are the top-ten goalies by win-loss percentage:

Player	Wins	Losses	Starts
Linus Ullmark	25	4	31
Antti Raanta	12	2	17
Pheonix Copley	15	3	19
Vitek Vanecek	21	5	29
Jeremy Swayman	12	3	18
Ilya Samsonov	17	5	23
Frederik Andersen	10	3	14
Martin Jones	23	7	32
Tristan Jarry	16	5	27
Brian Elliott	9	3	12

Copley wasn’t supposed to be in this situation. Things had to go very badly with LA’s initial backup, Cal Petersen, for Copley to get the gig. In 10 games, Petersen put up a .868 all-situation save percentage, the lowest among any goalie with 500 minutes played, allowed 12 more goals than expected. At the start of December, the Kings sent Petersen to their AHL affiliate, the Ontario Reign, and didn’t look back.

The Kings won nine of Copley’s first ten appearances. After winning his 12th game, Copley celebrated with Kings superfan Will Ferrell. In his last three appearances, he has put up a .929 all-situation save percentage, all wins, including a 45-save outing against Florida on Friday night.

As of Monday, Los Angeles sit above Colorado, Edmonton, Calgary, and Minnesota in the West.

Like goals-against average (GAA), win-loss record is a team statistic pretending to be a goalie statistic. Copley is the best goalie the Kings have this season, but we also have to appreciate that they are one of the better defensive teams in the league. They are eighth-best at limiting opponent expected goals during five-on-five, and they are seventh-best during the penalty kill.

Goalies are best evaluated in context of their workloads, and that’s why in the table below I’m displaying the all-situation actual and expected goals for five goalies whom I have obviously selected at random: