Most Wings fans all know how well the play of Jimmy Howard has been in his rookie campaign. How does he stack up against the past couple of winners of the Calder Trophy and the rest of the current league leaders for goalies.
The last five goalies to win the Calder Trophy are Steve Mason (2008-2009), Andrew Raycroft (2003-2004), Evgeni Nabokov (2000-2001), Martin Brodeur (1993-1994), and Ed Belfour (1990-1991).
| Player | Wins | Loss | OT | SV% | GAA | SO |
| Belfour | 43 | 19 | 7 | .910 | 2.47 | 4 |
| Brodeur | 27 | 11 | 8 | .915 | 2.40 | 3 |
| Nabokov | 32 | 21 | 7 | .915 | 2.19 | 6 |
| Raycroft | 29 | 18 | 9 | .926 | 2.05 | 3 |
| Mason | 33 | 20 | 7 | .916 | 2.29 | 10 |
| Howard | 27 | 15 | 8 | .924 | 2.32 | 1 |
As you can see from the stats above, Howard fairs quite well in comparison to all of them. Although he's tied for the lowest number of wins, his season is also not over yet. Currently, his save percentage is 2nd of the 6 listed above and his GAA is 4th of the 6. This is no guarantee that the rest of his season will range out to maintain, improve, or decline these numbers but it's easy to say it's looking good.
So how does Jimmy stack up against the current rest of the league? Here's a quick numbers break down:
- 5th in save percentage
- 6th in goals against average
- 6th in power play save percentage
His numbers stack up pretty well against the rest of the seasoned veterans and only Tuukka Rask fairs better amongst rookies. Given that Rask has played about 17 games less than Jimmy has it's hard to consider Rask over Howard for Calder.