We will be looking at the very early dive of goaltending in SMJHL. Goaltending can win or lose games for teams, but it's not the only underlying stats to look for in a championship team. In all honesty, goaltending is well...weird. Stats are strange and the people behind their names are even stranger. Diving in, we will see some interesting cases where stats lie and players having great or not-so-great seasons.

Looking at the first team, Anaheim, they have two goaltenders with their number 1 being Vincent Mietitore and a rookie backup Zhen Roza. As of now, they have split 50% of their games. While they are both 5 and 3, Mietitore has had the bigger advantage in stats, posting a league-leading .944 save percentage and an equally impressive 1.75 goals-against average, which is helped by his 2 shutouts. Definitely one of the best in SMJHL right now the fear is he will get called up any moment now. While Zhen Roza has a promising start, he is a rookie and sits at 227 TPE. Eventually, we can see what he is made of but as of right now it's too early to expect a lot from him.

Moving on to Anchorage, there's an interesting dynamic going on this team. They did draft a rookie goalie in Guy Fieri (who is apparently better than a bean?) sitting at 209 TPE he has done a decent job to hold his own and keep Anchorage at 5th place. With a record of 7 - 3 - 2, a .905 save percentage, and a 2.39 GAA, so far he is not a liability for Anchorage. It seems Fieri is going to be the number 1 guy for sure, but who is to back him up? As of right now, it is Bean Gamble, is this the bean that Fieri is better? But there is also another Bean in Bean Beanman. No idea what's happening, but so far it's working for them. Bean Gamble seems to be one of three inactive goalies on the roster. Not much of a choice for Anchorage to go with Fieri, we’ll have to see the support he gets with his team.

Carolina has two dynamic goaltenders that they can roll out at any time. One of my favorite goaltenders in the league is Ragnar-Alexandre Ragnarsson-Tremblay and he has been stellar in net holding down an 8-4-1 record with a .910 save percentage. Another one that will be called up as he has a TPE of 409. But the backup kid is a promising young stud in Osada Tamura. Just like any other rookie in this goalie draft class, it's too early to tell but he does have a bright future. Plus he has a good veteran to show him the ropes.

Now Colorado, the team that has one of the best rotations of goalies. A young stud that was just drafted in Senji Seteki is going to develop nicely and already sits at 230 TPE, and has posted a 3-1-1 with a .908 save percentage and 3.4 GAA. But why is he getting such little stars? Well, their number one guy is one of the best in the league in Yanno Rosejac. Drafted in Season 57 he has turned into a really nice goaltender and has accumulated 831 TPE. A monster in net we will probably not see him around for too much longer as he like other big-time starters will be called up.

Detroit… one of the strange cases in their goaltending stats. Their number one Podan Podanovic, who has 340 TPE was expected to be the brick wall on a defense which at times can struggle. Unfortunately, that has not been the case, posting an 11-9-1 record and a .898 save percentage. Not bad numbers overall and I expect that further in the season we will see those numbers to get a lot better. Looking over at their young backup in Monster The Doctor, you have to think maybe they want to try to give him more games to see if he can steal some, and get their playoff chances a little higher. I say that because he has not lost yet, with a 4-0 and a .941 save percentage. It is small sample size for sure, but what if it's just one of those years in the sim engine?

Finally for the last team in this part, Kelowna. Almost a similar situation as in Detroit with their number one guy having a sub .900 save percentage and their young backup unbeaten. But the main difference between Benjamin Blue-II (Kelowna's number one) and Podan Podanovic is Blues record of 14-2. Kelowna is the best team in the league right now, and I don't expect that to change throughout the year. Benjamin Blue-II has been solid and stolen the few games Kelowna seemed off with. He is another goalie that I expect he will increase his numbers or just ride it out to the playoffs and become hot. For them keeping their best goalie in net and riding to the first seed is just the way it's going to be, and I don't think anyone can blame them.

Approved, +5 TPE for @Vikian