As the season enters a thrilling climax with Belfast, Sheffield and our own Panthers challenging for the Elite League title, Ben Ellington looks at the impact that Jason Grande has made and whether or not he can be considered the best netminder in the league this season.
As I write this article, we are two days away from facing Manchester Storm in our penultimate regular season home game of the 2024/25 season. Panthers find themselves in third place in the EIHL standings, a point behind second place Sheffield Steelers and two behind leaders Belfast Giants. One of the reasons why Panthers find themselves at the business end of the title battle has been the form of netminder Jason Grande, who (as I write) has a Goals Against Average of 1.64 and a Save Percentage of 95.04%, which is conceding 41 goals from 826 shots in 27 games played in. He is top of the EIHL netminder standings by some distance, with Sheffield’s Matt Greenfield in second place.
There has been a lot of heated debate about who is the better netminder of the two. Undoubtedly, both are excellent netminders and both can and have won their respective teams’ games. However, this season it is clear to me that Grande has been better and the statistics back that up, but what Greenfield has is consistency, and that needs to be looked at a little deeper because I don’t think it’s as simple as one is better than the other over the course of a single season.
Let’s go back to last season when the debate was Greenfield against Manchester Storm netminder Evan Wenninger. Both had very similar statistics, but Steelers went on to win all three trophies on offer. However, for me Wenninger shaded it, simply because Greenfield had a much better quality of defence in front of him in Sheffield than Wenninger did in Manchester. But look at this season where Wenninger hasn’t achieved the heights that he did last campaign, whereas Greenfield has continued to average just under 93% and also averaged a shade over 92% in 2022/23. It is that consistency over three seasons that I feel legitimately makes him the best because of keeping those standards over a longer period of time. Over a period of this season, Grande is the best, no question, but Greenfield’s consistency sets him apart and overall, I think he is the best on that basis. However, should Grande return to the Elite League next season and put up similar numbers, than the mantle will shift to him.
Looking at Grande in isolation, his form and performances have been a massive part of Panthers remaining in the title race, along with playing behind probably the best defensive unit in the league. To be at 95%+ after 27 games in net in nothing short of outstanding at any level. A deep dive into those figures show that of the 27 EIHL regular season games he has played in, 16 of those he has conceded 1 goal or less. He has had a save percentage of 95% or above 17 times and has been above 96% in his last 6 starts. However you dissect it, Jason Grande has been outstanding all season and the figures show that. I strongly believe that if we are to take the league title, it will be down to his performances since he took over from Ryan Bednard after his injury. For me player of the year, both for the Panthers and the league as a whole. I hope he’s back to do it again next season.
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