Goalie tandem was one of best in NHL this past season, large reason team was in wild card race until Game 80
MARYLAND HEIGHTS, Mo. -- When laying out a blueprint and foundation for success, the St. Louis Blues have a very good understanding of where it all begins.
It most certainly starts and to a degree, stops with Jordan Binnington and Joel Hofer.
The Blues, who were 43-33-6 this season, good for 92 points, which was an 11-point improvement from 2022-23, had arguably the best goalie tandem in the league this past season.
Everyone knows the pedigree that Binnington, 30, brought from his experience going back to his Stanley Cup-winning rookie season in 2019 before taking a dip in numbers the next two seasons before having arguably his best full-season of his career. But then there's Hofer, 24, playing in his first full season. Nobody knew what to expect. But all he did was aid in a tandem with Binnington to provide a solid combined goals saved above expected (24.54) according to naturalstattrick.com, which was sixth-best according to their charts, and save percentage (.913).
Binnington was 28-21-5 with a 2.84 goals-against average and a .913 save percentage and was sixth according to naturalstattrick at 16.35 goals saved above expected. The save percentage was his best since the Cup-winning season when it was .927.
"I felt I was present throughout," Binnington said. "I checked in pretty often and put my best foot forward every day. So I feel good about that and definitely some evolution, some growth. Lots of things to take away and more experience."
Hofer went 15-12-1 with a 2.65 GAA and .914 save percentage with a 8.19 GSAx and proved something very valuable to himself.
"That I can play at this level," Hofer said. "It was obviously a good year for me. Obviously not the result we wanted as a team, obviously you want to make the playoffs. First time not making the playoffs for me. It sucks. I'm a competitor, I want to compete and I want to win. It definitely hurts and got to try to find a way to get better.
"It was good. I learned a lot, that's for sure. I learned it's a tough league. There's great players in this league. As soon as you think you've got a piece of the league, it'll bite you back, but yeah, it was good. I learned a lot and just looking forward to the next couple years."
There's no doubt this area of the game will get better for the Blues. This area is the least of their worries moving forward. It's other areas of the game that need improving, but knowing that this is a tandem that will give them a chance to win on a regular basis is so gratifying and makes the Blues thirst for higher goals moving forward.
"You need really good goaltending in this league to win or even compete," Blues center Robert Thomas said. "We've got two guys that are quite frankly up there for top tandem in the league. That's what you need, that's what we have. You're never going to be a bad team when you've got two goalies like that."
The Blues have had some of the best goalie tandems in the league in the past decade. Most recently, think Binnington and Ville Husso, Binnington and Jake Allen, Allen and Carter Hutton, Allen and Brian Elliott, Elliott and Jaroslav Halak, who won the Jennings Trophy for allowing the fewest goals during the regular season in 2011-12.
Hofer still has plenty to prove, but one thing's for sure: he and Binnington have a good relationship and push each other in the right areas.
"It was a lot of fun. He's a good kid, good guy and he's a good goalie," Binnington said of Hofer. "It was fun working with him. He's getting me playing with the puck more in practice handling pucks. I learned a little bit from him too just watching him play and on a day to day basis. You can take stuff from everywhere. It was fun being partners with him this year."
Hofer felt the same.
"It was great; he's amazing," Hofer said of Binnington. "It really is amazing watching him every night. The average person, when they watch him, they don't really see the little things he does. As a goalie, I can see those little things. He makes things look easy. He's great and I had a lot of fun working with him."
Not only did the two goalies put up solid numbers keeping the Blues alive in many games, they're also two of the best puck handlers in the game, which makes preparing for the Blues so much tougher knowing you can't just dump pucks in hoping they don't play it well.
It was such a luxury for the coaching staff to have.
"I have relationships with both 'Binner' and Joel," Blues interim coach Drew Bannister said. "'Binner' and I had a conversation (recently) about our evolution as him as a player and me as a coach. My first coaching (job) as an assistant coach was when he was at Owen Sound as a goalie. Once I came to the American [Hockey] League with St. Louis, I had 'Binner' in San Antonio and then as a head coach, I had 'Binner' here. I've seen the evolution of 'Binner', and I'm extremely proud of the person that he has become. I've seen a lot of growth, obviously, in him as a man, and as a goaltender."
If the Blues are able to get a couple other areas of the ice shored up, this could get interesting heading into 2024-25.
"To me, both [Binnington] and Joel are probably one of the best tandems, if not the best tandem, in the NHL right now," Bannister said. "I think it's up to us as coaches to start to modify our game a little bit and tactically to make it a little bit easier on them. Certainly all teams have to lean on their goalies at times, and I have no question that these two moving forward are going to be a big part of this team's success. Joel, I've had him since Day 1 in Springfield and what an outstanding person, and an outstanding competitor. For a young goalie, I'm really proud of the way he's come in. Him and 'Binner' have worked extremely well together and certainly gave us opportunities to win every night and sometimes stole some games for us. As I said before, I think this duo is going to continue to be one of the best in the league for quite a long time."
