Jonathan Quick of the Los Angeles Kings and Corey Crawford of the Chicago Blackhawks are the past two Stanley Cup-winning goaltenders.
Quick won the Conn Smythe Trophy in 2012 after leading his underdog Kings to an improbable championship, and Crawford erased the doubts of his critics after an incredible season in 2013.
The roles of both Quick and Crawford are fairly different.
Quick is regarded as arguably the best goalie in the world and his team leans on him to lead them to success. Crawford’s high-scoring Blackhawks need him to stand his ground in net and allow the high-powered offense to score enough to earn victories.
Before 2013, Chicago’s defense was regarded as mediocre, as Crawford had trouble preventing goals in 2011 and 2012.
Los Angeles’s defense, on the other hand, has been considered one of the best in hockey in the past few years.
Last year, however, the Blackhawk defense stepped up big-time, and so did Crawford.
Quick’s reputation as a goaltender is better than that of Crawford due to his consistently impressive history, but Crawford ended up with better numbers in the lockout-shortened 2013 campaign.
This year, look for Quick to be the better of the two. The Kings play a defensive style of game beneficial to Quick’s numbers, and it would not be surprising to see him cement his status as one of the world’s best goalies.
The reason the Blackhawks won the Stanley Cup in 2013 was that they put more emphasis on defense and goaltending, which was beneficial to Crawford. This year may be a different story.
Picking Crawford could be extremely risky. If he has a year like 2013, you’re in luck. But remember, he also had a spectacular backup in Ray Emery and also benefitted from a shortened season.
2013 was also Crawford’s only “good” season by most people’s standards. Quick, on the other hand, has been one of the NHL’s elite goaltenders time and time again.
Jonathan Quick is easily the safer and overall better choice as a starting goaltender if you are debating between the two. He may be the best fantasy goalie in all of hockey, while Crawford has the potential to regress back to his 2012 state.