John Gibson named to All-Star Game

The NHL announced today that John Gibson has been selected as the Anaheim Ducks representative for the 2019 All-Star Game in San Jose.

This will be Gibson’s second appearance at the NHL All-Star Game, the last one being in 2016 in Nashville. He is the only Ducks goaltender in franchise history to make multiple All-Star appearances.

Gibson has certainly earned his way onto the team this year, as he is the primary reason for the Ducks sitting in a playoff spot. He currently ranks 3rd in SV% among goaltenders with at least 25 games played, is tied for first in total saves, and has faced more shots than anyone not named Craig Anderson.

To put the cherry on top, he is currently lightyears ahead of his peers in a popular advanced stat called Goals Saved Above Average (the measure of how many more goals a netminder has saved compared to a league average one) with a historic 22.91, more than double the amount of the Boston Bruins Jaroslav Halak in second place.

ESPN’s Dimitri Filipovic wrote a column recently that put Gibson’s insane season into context; he is currently on pace to smash Sergei Bobvrosky’s single-season GSAA record (50) by a full four goals.

He should be considered the easy front-runner for the Vezina trophy if it weren’t for NHL General Managers using a useless stat like win-loss record to evaluate individual goaltender performance. Regardless, Gibson has gotten much more national attention this year than in season’s past, so award consideration remains to be seen.

For now, Gibson can enjoy the well-earned trip to San Jose, joining the Vegas Golden Knights Marc-Andre Fleury as the goaltenders for the Pacific Division.

2019 NHL All-Star Weekend in San Jose is January 25th-26th on NBC and NBCSN.

*GSAA stats provided by corsica.hockey