#114 - Frank Brimsek

Frank Brimsek (Murillo Pyramid Rank = #114)

Adjusted Stats

1938-1939   Bos*   73 GP, 56-15-2, .781 win%, 4459 min, 141 GA, 1.90 GAA
1939-1940   Bos     82 GP, 53-21-9, .693 win%, 5040 min, 206 GA, 2.46 GAA
1940-1941   Bos*   82 GP, 46-14-22, .695 win%, 5193 min, 200 GA, 2.31 GAA
1941-1942   Bos     80 GP, 41-29-10, .575 win%, 5005 min, 194 GA, 2.32 GAA
1942-1943   Bos     82 GP, 39-28-15, .567 win%, 4920 min, 246 GA, 3.00 GAA
1945-1946   Bos     56 GP, 26-23-7, .527 win%, 3346 min, 167 GA, 3.00 GAA
1946-1947   Bos     82 GP, 36-31-15, .530 win%, 4920 min, 233 GA, 2.84 GAA
1947-1948   Bos     82 GP, 31-33-18, .488 win%, 4920 min, 241 GA, 2.94 GAA
1948-1949   Bos     74 GP, 36-27-11, .561 win%, 4428 min, 228 GA, 3.08 GAA
1949-1950   Chi      82 GP, 26-45-12, .386 win%, 4920 min, 321 GA, 3.92 GAA

Adjusted Playoff Stats

1938-1939   Bos*   12 GP, 8-4, .667 win%, 863 min, 25 GA, 1.74 GAA
1939-1940   Bos     6 GP, 2-4, .333 win%, 360 min, 20 GA, 3.34 GAA
1940-1941   Bos*   11 GP, 8-3, .727 win%, 678 min, 29 GA, 2.59 GAA
1941-1942   Bos     5 GP, 2-3, .400 win%, 307 min, 17 GA, 3.32 GAA
1942-1943   Bos     9 GP, 4-5, .444 win%, 560 min, 30 GA, 3.20 GAA
1945-1946   Bos     10 GP, 5-5, .500 win%, 651 min, 25 GA, 2.31 GAA
1946-1947   Bos     5 GP, 1-4, .200 win%, 343 min, 17 GA, 3.00 GAA
1947-1948   Bos     5 GP, 1-4, .200 win%, 317 min, 19 GA, 3.67 GAA
1948-1949   Bos     5 GP, 1-4, .200 win%, 316 min, 18 GA, 3.50 GAA

Career - 775 GP, 390-266-121, .580 win%, 47151 min, 2177 GA, 2.77 GAA
Career-Highs - 82 GP (many times); 56 wins (38-39); .781 win% (38-39); 5193 min (40-41); 1.90 GAA (38-39)
Avg. (10 seasons) - 78 GP, 39-27-12, .580 win%, 4715 min, 218 GA, 2.77 GAA
Peak Avg. (38-48) - 77 GP, 41-24-12, .610 win%, 4725 min, 204 GA, 2.58 GAA, 2 Cups

Playoff Career - 68 GP, 32-36, .471 win%, 4395 min, 200 GA, 2.73 GAA
Playoff-Highs - 8 wins (twice); .727 win% (40-41); 1.74 GAA (38-39)

Accolades - 2 Vezina Trophies, Calder
All-Star Teams - 2-time 1st-team, 6-time 2nd-team
2-time Stanley Cup Champion

It is of course difficult to judge the goaltenders of the 1930s and 1940s, since so much of their success or failure appears at first glance to be dependant on what team they were playing for. With only six teams, some were excellent, others average, and usually one was dreadful during the course of a season. Which team you ended up starting for determined much of the way your career developed. So Frank Brimsek, playing for a talented and defensively-solid Bruins team early in his career, put together an excellent decade or so of goaltending, putting him in the conversation with Bill Durnan and Turk Broda for best goaltender of the 1940s.

As with Broda, Brimsek lost some of his prime playing years to service in the war. Without those lost years, it's safe to say he would have had at least eleven straight years of 30+ adjusted wins. While Boston was eventually outclassed by the Maple Leafs and Canadiens in the mid-to-late 1940s, they were the best team in the league at the turn of the decade. Brimsek's first three seasons rank with Durnan, Dryden and Sawchuk on the "Holy Shit, this guy could be re-writing the record books" scale. In his first three seasons, Brimsek averaged 52 wins, a 2.23 GAA, won two Stanley Cups and two Vezinas.

Brimsek would continue throughout the 1940s to be considered either the league's best or second-best goaltender (although this is somewhat less impressive when you remember that there were only six teams in the league). There's a case to be made that he deserves to be ranked higher on the Pyramid, closer to Broda and Durnan. What stops that is that, despite his two Stanley Cup rings, his playoff record was a middling 32-36. For his final three postseasons, Brimsek had a combined record of 3-12 and a GAA of over 3. Even his final six regular seasons aren't particularly impressive: in all six, his GAA is hovering in the 2.80-3.20 range, hardly elite.

Still, one can't argue with the fact that it was Brimsek making the second all-star team in a lot of those seasons, not Broda. But Broda made up for it by elevating his game come postseason time, leading mediocre Maple Leafs' squads to Stanley Cups they had no business winnings. Brimsek's Bruins teams in the late-1940s were equally mediocre, but he couldn't step up when the postseason rolled around. His final season with a flat-out bad team, the Blackhawks, was one of the worst closing seasons of any Pyramid goaltender: a .386 winning percentage and a 3.91 GAA. It's fortunate that Brimsek had the good sense to retire at that point before tarnishing his legacy. This only further clouds the issue of Brimsek's greatness. His career is decorated and his accomplishments noteworthy, to be sure, but given that I haven't ever seen tapes of him playing and the middling playoff numbers, Brimsek has to settle for a lower spot on the Pyramid than his two biggest rivals, Durnan and Broda.