First the Leafs and their executive search:

What to make of buzzy Maple Leafs GM target Sunny Mehta

Sunny Mehta is a hot name that’s popped up among the Maple Leafs general manager search. Luke Fox dives in to see what he could potentially bring to Toronto.

Hearing Maple Leafs using Neil Glasberg and PBI Sports to search for Leafs new head of hockey operations.

PBI was used to find execs in Vancouver, Anaheim and Philadelphia.

— luke fox (@lukefoxjukebox) April 7, 2026

Of note:

Potential conflict of interest surfaces in Philadelphia Flyers’ executive search

Should someone who represents coaches and executives as an agent also be tasked with consulting on searches to fill those…

PBI Sports details their representation services on their About page. Digging further there is a page on their executive and coaching search services, run under a different name.

NCAA Coach Search | North America | PBI Sports & Entertainment

PBI Sports is a boutique representation agency working with Pro Coaches in the NHL, NFL, NBA and NCAA. We also work diligently on personal brands.

While “Executive Search” firms tend to offer services in coaching and sports team management searches as an add-on to corporate Management jobs, we have consistently found that sourcing and hiring a coach or team manager does not mirror the typical executive or management level search process.   Coaches need to be motivators, proven performers, fantastic recruiters, and most importantly, fit properly within each school or professional programs’ priorities.  Team management talent needs to be properly sourced, properly vetted, and evaluated based on competencies, qualifications and accomplishments,  rather than by the breadth of their network of contacts.  In other words, “who you know” and “hire a friend” mentalities should be a thing of the past. Working with amateur and pro Coaches, as well as team management personnel on a daily basis as an area of specialization and focus, is the key differentiator for The Coaches Agency.

Someone needs to tell them it’s “bro you know” in hockey.

Enough of corporate speak! Onto the sudden interest in what is usually an offseason sort of topic – weird things in the NHL season stats.

First of all, this tweet came to my attention, and what he’s saying a little unclearly is that the process of scoring shots, and here this is entirely Shots on Goal, has changed, and there are fewer of them this season because they used to just call stuff shots that weren’t.

One reason save percentages are down is because the NHL finally came up with a uniform system for shots, and it’s essentially not tracked on-site with off-ice officials anymore. Like in the Olympics, basically anything directed at the net was a shot — wide, over the net, or not.… https://t.co/5eUl7HX441

— Michael Russo (@RussoHockey) April 5, 2026

Still tracked by off-ice officials. There is a chip in puck and jersey. Automated shots are generated. OIOs validate and adjust any missed by automation. Auditors double check via video review. Has to be perfect due to betting. That’s why shot totals change during games.

— Mike D’Amico (@MikeDAmico77) April 5, 2026

This second person is an off-ice official, and they go on to confirm that all SOG numbers are signed off on by hockey operations (at the NHL level).

It is true that SOG have declined, and here we have Travis Yost to show that in his article, and also to discuss goaltending.

NHL save percentages hit lowest level in 30 years

The league-average save percentage is below 90 per cent with a week left in the regular season, challenging a mark that hasn’t happened since 1993-94, Travis Yost writes.

To go back to what Russo is saying is that if there are fewer SOG, a given number of goals scored then gives the goalie a smaller Sv%. But Russo says this is a classification change, not a change in player behaviour, goalie skill or what have you.

Meanwhile, Yost asserts that player shooting skill is easier to find due to more places hockey players come from. This isn’t anything more than an assertion in his piece, and I’m very wary of these statements.

Two years ago, Bill Daly made a similar assertion:

Skill is off the charts

Bill Daly commissions some more research.

That piece looked at the idea of rising player skill and found some evidence for very small increases in minimum levels of ability and the number of players in the good but not great group. But it covers pretty well the ideas of all the inputs into the equation that solves for how many goals are there. So while I won’t take Yost’s assertion seriously on its face, it might be a factor.

Now, what did strike me as interesting is that Yost compares 2015-2016 Sv% to this season and sees as really strong difference between then and now. Look at his chart and you’ll see what he’s talking about in stark terms.

But put that together with Russo’s comments, and the question has to be asked, is some of this change just the classification issue? To answer that I took a similar set of goalies (I included more because we have three per team most of the time now) and I took out the unimportant GSAX and substituted Fenwick Sv%. That’s just Sv% calculated on all unblocked shots.

If some of those unblocked shots were erroneously marked as SOG in the past in significant numbers, then sorting this list by FSv% should offset the pattern that we see with just Sv%. And it’s a long, long table, but I think if you click between sorting, you will see what happens.

Is the “the answer”? Is there just one thing that’s making SOG lower and Sv% seem bad? Nope. Some other effect is going on, but it’s not at all clear from a chart of Sv% of any kind if that’s team systems, defence, player skill, parity in the league or all of the above and some other stuff I haven’t thought of.

But I’m pretty sure Russo is right that some shots are now classified differently. This will be a fun investigation for the real offseason when the sun is hot and the air conditioning and R Studio beckon.

Bottom line: Sv% is a team stat and the number a goalie achieves has no inherent meaning outside of the context of the whole league. This is a good lesson as prospect season comes along and people start getting exited by goalie stats in other leagues.

Now the big long table. Have a great day, everyone, the preview will be later today.

Player
Season
TOI
Sv%
FSv%

Brian Elliott
15-16
2263.00
92.89
94.89

Ben Bishop
15-16
3584.63
92.63
94.74

Scott Wedgewood
25-26
2364.08
91.61
94.59

Calvin Pickard
15-16
985.43
92.40
94.53

Jhonas Enroth
15-16
856.30
92.41
94.48

Thomas Greiss
15-16
2287.32
92.47
94.46

Michal Neuvirth
15-16
1825.52
92.42
94.45

Reto Berra
15-16
720.72
92.26
94.45

Braden Holtby
15-16
3841.18
92.11
94.44

John Gibson
15-16
2294.67
92.05
94.41

Robin Lehner
15-16
1164.08
92.41
94.40

Chad Johnson
15-16
2591.08
92.06
94.39

Al Montoya
15-16
1351.23
92.00
94.38

Philipp Grubauer
15-16
1111.03
91.86
94.38

Dennis Hildeby
25-26
950.60
91.17
94.36

Carter Hutton
15-16
978.93
91.92
94.31

Corey Crawford
15-16
3322.65
92.38
94.30

Devin Cooley
25-26
1595.55
91.32
94.29

Frederik Andersen
15-16
2297.93
91.93
94.29

James Reimer
15-16
1809.02
91.94
94.28

Cory Schneider
15-16
3412.47
92.35
94.26

Devan Dubnyk
15-16
3856.67
91.82
94.26

Henrik Lundqvist
15-16
3772.37
91.91
94.25

Joonas Korpisalo
15-16
1803.05
91.97
94.24

Antti Raanta
15-16
1150.35
91.86
94.20

Logan Thompson
25-26
3265.68
91.06
94.18

Marc-Andre Fleury
15-16
3462.55
92.01
94.18

Petr Mrazek
15-16
2960.22
92.08
94.18

Joel Hofer
25-26
2388.97
90.86
94.17

Igor Shesterkin
25-26
2906.23
91.18
94.16

Jaroslav Halak
15-16
2091.18
91.89
94.14

Jonathan Quick
15-16
4034.48
91.69
94.14

Philipp Grubauer
25-26
1791.10
90.95
94.14

Roberto Luongo
15-16
3601.83
92.03
94.09

Jesper Wallstedt
25-26
1819.55
91.23
94.07

Jet Greaves
25-26
2977.23
90.78
94.07

Mike Smith
15-16
1753.50
91.50
94.07

Casey Desmith
25-26
1695.00
90.85
94.06

Darcy Kuemper
15-16
1053.50
91.45
94.06

Martin Jones
15-16
3785.87
91.65
94.05

Jake Allen
15-16
2583.37
91.98
94.02

Jeremy Swayman
25-26
3088.17
90.70
94.02

Filip Gustavsson
25-26
2850.85
90.74
94.01

Tuukka Rask
15-16
3678.05
91.44
93.99

Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen
25-26
1907.77
90.77
93.97

Dan Vladar
25-26
2785.37
90.53
93.95

Spencer Knight
25-26
3113.65
90.75
93.95

Steve Mason
15-16
3150.43
91.84
93.94

Tristan Jarry
25-26
810.75
90.83
93.92

Andrei Vasilevskiy
25-26
3252.10
90.89
93.91

Ilya Sorokin
25-26
3052.73
90.84
93.91

Louis Domingue
15-16
2206.07
91.22
93.91

Connor Hellebuyck
15-16
1433.47
91.53
93.87

Alex Lyon
25-26
1992.02
90.55
93.85

Craig Anderson
15-16
3477.13
91.65
93.85

Cam Talbot
15-16
3213.17
91.53
93.84

Andrew Hammond
15-16
1382.32
91.44
93.82

Jacob Markstrom
15-16
1847.43
91.53
93.80

Linus Ullmark
15-16
1130.67
91.38
93.80

Anton Forsberg
25-26
1793.52
90.50
93.78

Jake Allen
25-26
2067.32
90.48
93.77

Scott Darling
15-16
1560.02
91.50
93.77

Ryan Miller
15-16
3043.45
91.63
93.76

Semyon Varlamov
15-16
3159.28
91.28
93.76

Jeff Zatkoff
15-16
732.05
91.80
93.74

John Gibson
25-26
2994.92
90.19
93.74

Jakub Dobes
25-26
2285.92
90.25
93.70

Cam Ward
15-16
3037.83
90.88
93.61

Andrei Vasilevskiy
15-16
1258.63
91.05
93.58

Jacob Fowler
25-26
950.82
90.29
93.57

Karri Ramo
15-16
2144.63
90.95
93.54

Justus Annunen
25-26
1322.68
89.85
93.50

David Rittich
25-26
1594.87
89.39
93.49

Akira Schmid
25-26
1965.78
89.36
93.48

Kari Lehtonen
15-16
2279.18
90.58
93.48

Antti Niemi
15-16
2654.38
90.53
93.47

Jonathan Bernier
15-16
2146.77
90.79
93.45

Joey Daccord
25-26
2570.08
89.58
93.44

Joseph Woll
25-26
2115.07
90.14
93.42

Jonas Gustavsson
15-16
1258.47
90.82
93.38

Connor Hellebuyck
25-26
3241.45
89.82
93.36

Mackenzie Blackwood
25-26
1974.77
89.66
93.31

Eric Comrie
25-26
1242.07
89.56
93.30

Jake Oettinger
25-26
2945.55
89.90
93.30

Karel Vejmelka
25-26
3415.85
89.61
93.30

Jonathan Quick
25-26
1359.72
89.49
93.28

Ondrej Pavelec
15-16
1899.02
90.59
93.27

Thatcher Demko
25-26
1115.87
89.43
93.27

Michael Hutchinson
15-16
1585.95
90.93
93.26

Joni Ortio
15-16
1196.75
90.18
93.21

Ben Scrivens
15-16
821.97
90.92
93.20

Eddie Lack
15-16
1920.10
90.11
93.17

Sergei Bobrovsky
15-16
2116.35
90.60
93.13

Jimmy Howard
15-16
1973.88
90.63
93.12

Keith Kinkaid
15-16
1240.75
90.48
93.11

Stuart Skinner
25-26
1446.15
88.43
93.09

Stuart Skinner
25-26
1316.65
88.90
93.08

Lukas Dostal
25-26
3026.22
89.07
93.02

Mike Condon
15-16
3122.73
90.31
93.02

Pekka Rinne
15-16
3895.37
90.67
93.02

Connor Ingram
25-26
1556.32
89.20
93.00

Dustin Wolf
25-26
2972.20
89.54
92.99

Anders Nilsson
15-16
1413.28
90.25
92.98

Alex Nedeljkovic
25-26
2098.18
89.55
92.95

Darcy Kuemper
25-26
2825.33
89.24
92.95

Colten Ellis
25-26
786.33
89.56
92.91

Anthony Stolarz
25-26
1386.68
89.37
92.90

Daniil Tarasov (G)
25-26
1660.67
89.31
92.85

Juuse Saros
25-26
3313.43
89.52
92.81

Cam Talbot
25-26
1632.30
88.79
92.78

Arturs Silovs
25-26
2169.95
88.87
92.77

Brandon Bussi
25-26
2174.75
89.15
92.74

Ville Husso
25-26
1078.87
88.77
92.65

Joonas Korpisalo
25-26
1620.42
89.11
92.59

Anders Lindback
15-16
906.13
89.56
92.52

Curtis McElhinney
15-16
835.43
89.43
92.52

Vitek Vanecek
25-26
1127.97
88.76
92.52

Jacob Markstrom
25-26
2485.95
88.55
92.47

Garret Sparks
15-16
974.95
89.39
92.46

Linus Ullmark
25-26
2703.47
88.56
92.41

Elvis Merzlikins
25-26
1678.62
88.25
92.37

Nikita Tolopilo
25-26
966.23
88.23
92.35

Jonas Johansson
25-26
1364.75
88.61
92.32

Yaroslav Askarov
25-26
2411.83
88.54
92.30

Arvid Soderblom
25-26
1411.15
88.25
92.24

Charlie Lindgren
25-26
1246.03
87.95
92.12

Sergei Bobrovsky
25-26
2950.45
87.65
92.10

Carter Hart
25-26
779.20
87.87
92.08

Samuel Ersson
25-26
1771.72
86.75
92.01

Kevin Lankinen
25-26
2404.45
87.57
91.83

Adin Hill
25-26
1432.82
86.90
91.76

Jonas Hiller
15-16
1350.87
88.07
91.75

Jordan Binnington
25-26
2189.25
87.53
91.59

Sam Montembeault
25-26
1418.20
87.17
91.56

Frederik Andersen
25-26
1981.87
86.81
91.42

Calvin Pickard
25-26
864.13
87.09
91.35

Tristan Jarry
25-26
882.32
86.00
91.25

Leevi Merilainen
25-26
1094.48
86.02
90.47