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Up until towards the end of the NHL’s Original Six era, goaltenders were absolutely fearless in net and did not wear any type of masks to protect themselves from pucks flying at them. That all started to change when after yet another facial injury, this time a broken nose, Hall of Fame goaltender Jacques Plante debuted the first goalie mask in NHL history, thus starting a revolution; today, masks are not only functional for their safety, but highly aesthetic in their design and one of a goalie’s most distinguishing features. Yet Plante was not only a trailblazer in safety, he was also one of the greatest netminders ever to play the game – during an era that featured legendary skaters such as Gordie Howe and Maurice Richard, Plante and his peer Terry Sawchuk (who is well-known for NOT wearing a mask) stood tall in net as the dominant goalies of the time and retired with a slew of records. With one being the all-time leader in Vezina Trophies and the other having the most career wins at retirement, it is fascinating to look back on this golden era of hockey and ask:
Who was better – Jacques Plante or Terry Sawchuk?
The Beginning
Both Plante and Sawchuk grew up in Canada and became professional hockey players as teenagers, starting off in the minor leagues before making it to the NHL and quickly catapulting to stardom.
Like nearly all youngsters in Canada, Plante grew up playing hockey and upon graduating from high school, gained his first professional playing experience with the Quebec Citadelles of the American Hockey League (AHL). In 1948, he was invited to Montreal Canadiens training camp and later signed with them in 1949; after a few seasons with Montreal’s minor league affiliate, Plante was eventually called up to the Canadiens in 1953. By the 1954-1955 season, he would become the full-time starting goaltender for the Canadiens, appearing in 52 games that season and going 33-12-7 with a 2.12 GAA and finishing third in the Calder Trophy voting for top rookie.
Sawchuk also started playing hockey as a teenager in Winnipeg, and was quickly discovered by a local scout for the Detroit Red Wings at the age of 14, whereupon he was signed to an amateur contract and played for the Red Wings’ junior team in Ontario. After signing a professional contract with Detroit in 1947, he progressed quickly through their minor league system, winning Rookie of the Year honors in both the US and American Hockey Leagues. Sawchuk’s NHL debut soon followed in 1949-1950, though he only appeared in a handful of games that season; however, the following season, in his first full season with the Red Wings, he had an all-time great rookie season, leading the league in wins with a 44-13-13 record, 1.97 GAA, and a league-high 11 shutouts (GA%- and SV% were not recorded yet), and thus earning the Calder Trophy for top rookie.
Career Comparison
The career arcs of Plante and Sawchuk have some striking similarities – both were transcendent goaltenders in the early part of their careers with a near-monopoly on the Vezina Trophy before bouncing around later on, yet still occasionally showing glimpses of their early-career dominance.
Following his strong rookie season, Plante would go on an unprecedented streak of five straight Vezina Trophies, winning at least 30 games each season and at least 40 games on two occasions (good for leading the NHL in wins 4x), and finishing with the lowest GAA every year:
- 1955-1956: 42-12-10 record with a 1.86 GAA (87 GA%-, which is a relative measure vs. league-wide scoring indexed vs. 100), .930 SV% and 7 shutouts
- 1956-1957: 31-18-12 record with a 2.00 GAA (90 GA%-), .920 SV%, and a career-high 9 shutouts for the first of three straight years
- 1957-1958: 34-14-8 record with a 2.11 GAA (83 GA%-), .924 SV%, and 9 shutouts
- 1958-1959: 38-16-13 record with a 2.16 GAA (79 GA%-), .925 SV%, and 9 shutouts
- 1959-1960: 40-17-12 record with a 2.54 GAA (92 GA%-), .915 SV%, and 3 shutouts
Moreover, after having his nose broken by a hard shot in 1959-1960, Plante famously became the first goaltender to wear a protective mask regularly; nowadays, it is hard to imagine goaltenders NOT wearing helmets/masks as they face slapshots coming at them at nearly 100 miles per hour!
In 1961-1962, Plante won his sixth Vezina Trophy and had arguably his finest season, appearing in 70 games and tying a career-best in wins with a 42-14-14 record, in addition to a 2.37 GAA (82 GA%-), 923 SV%, and 4 shutouts; moreover, he also won the Hart Trophy for league MVP, becoming the first goaltender in NHL history to win the Vezina and Hart Trophies in the same season. However, following the 1962-1963 season, health issues and an ongoing conflict with Canadiens head coach Toe Blake led to Blake issuing an ultimatum – either he or Plante had to go. As a result, Plante was traded to the New York Rangers along with Phil Goyette and Don Marshall for Gump Worsley, Dave Balon, Leon Rochefort, and Len Ronson. In his one-and-a-half seasons with the Rangers, Plante posted a career-worst 22-36-7 record in 1963-1964 and retired following the 1964-1965 season at age 36.
That was not the end of Plante’s NHL career, though – in 1968, he was drafted by the St. Louis Blues in the expansion draft and in the team’s inaugural season, would split goaltending duties with fellow future Hall of Fame goalie Glenn Hall; together, the pair would share the Vezina Trophy, Plante’s seventh overall, with Plante going 18-12-6 with a 1.96 GAA (65 GA%-), a .940 SV%, and 5 shutouts. Following another strong season in St. Louis, he was traded to Toronto in 1970 and would post the lowest GAA of his career in 1970-1971 at age 42 (24-11-4 with a 1.89 GAA (58 GA%-), a career-best .944 SV%, and 4 shutouts) en route to a fifth place finish in the Hart Trophy voting. He was traded again midway through the 1972-1973 season, this time to the Boston Bruins, and would play a handful of games in a Bruins uniform before retiring again from the NHL at age 44. A few seasons later, Plante made one more brief comeback by playing 31 games for the Edmonton Oilers of the World Hockey Association (WHA) before retiring from professional hockey for good.
Similarly, Sawchuk quickly built off his strong rookie campaign to become one of the league’s elite goalies. In each of the next four seasons, he would lead the NHL in wins (making it five seasons in a row), and took home the Vezina Trophy in three out of the four years, with the lone exception being 1953-1954:
- 1951-1952: 44-14-12 record with a 1.90 GAA and a league-leading and career-high 12 shutouts; placed fourth for the Hart Trophy
- 1952-1953: 32-15-16 record with a career-low 1.89 GAA and 9 shutouts
- 1954-1955: 40-17-11 record with a 1.96 GAA and again a league-leading and career-high 12 shutouts
Despite his brilliant play in Detroit and coming off a third Vezina Trophy, with the aforementioned Glenn Hall waiting in the wings (no pun intended) as a youngster, the Red Wings opted to trade Sawchuk to the Boston Bruins after the 1954-1955 season.
Sawchuk’s first year in Boston was one of the worst of his career, as he led the league in losses with a 22-33-13 record and had a 2.60 GAA (104 GA%-, which is below average), though did post a .916 SV% and pitched 9 shutouts. Halfway through the 1956-1957 season, he decided to retire, yet still finished fourth for the Hart Trophy that season; this was short-lived, though, as the Red Wings soon reacquired Sawchuk for future Hall of Fame winger Johnny Bucyk. During his second go-around with the Red Wings, Sawchuk was not quite as effective as in his younger days – he never won more than 30 games in a season, led the league in losses in 1958-1959 with 36, and had more wins than losses in only four of those seven seasons.
After he was left unprotected in the 1964 intra-league waiver draft, Sawchuk was claimed by the Toronto Maple Leafs and teamed with 40-year old goalie Johnny Bower to share the Vezina Trophy in 1964-1965, Sawchuk’s fourth and last time winning the honors; for his part, Sawchuk went 16-13-7 with a 2.56 GAA (93 GA%-), .915 SV%, and 1 shutout. Following two additional relatively mediocre seasons in Toronto, he was left unprotected in the 1967 expansion draft and thus became the first player ever selected by the Los Angeles Kings; however, after one unremarkable year in California, he was traded back to the Red Wings at age 39, though played sparingly. Sawchuk’s final NHL season was in 1969-1970 with the New York Rangers, but he only played in eight games and that offseason, after getting into a drunken fight with teammate Ron Stewart, Sawchuk tragically died at age 40 from injuries suffered in the incident.
In careers that spanned the end of the Original Six era and ushered in expansion, both Plante and Sawchuk had lengthy careers totaling 18 and 21 seasons, respectively. At the time of his retirement, Sawchuk was the all-time leader in goalie wins (445) and shutouts (103), though both records have been surpassed by the likes of Martin Brodeur and Patrick Roy; Plante was no slouch either, with only eight fewer career victories (437) and 82 career shutouts in more than 100 fewer games played. However, Plante holds a distinct lead vs. Sawchuk in both GAA (2.38 vs 2.50) and SV% (.920 vs .907), which also translates to a better GA%- (88 vs. 102); I would caveat though that the metric was not calculated during the earliest part of each player’s career and does not account for Sawchuk’s most brilliant period, so is a bit misleading. From the awards and accolades standpoint, Plante remains the all-time leader with seven career Vezina Trophies (vs. 4x for Sawchuk) and won a Hart Trophy, though the latter had more All-Star Game selections (11 vs. 8). Both goalies were quickly enshrined in the Hockey Hall of Fame upon the end of their playing days – Plante in 1978 and Sawchuk in 1971 (the Hall of Fame waived the traditional three-year waiting period for him).
Regular Season Statistics
| Jacques Plante | Player | Terry Sawchuk |
| 18 (1952-1965, 1968-1973) | Seasons | 21 (1949-1970) |
| 837 | Games Played | 971 |
| 437-246-145 | W-L-T Record | 445-336-171 |
| 82 | Shutouts | 103 |
| 2.38 | GAA | 2.50 |
| .920 | SV% | .907 |
| 88 | GA%- | 102 |
| 8x | All-Star Games | 11x |
| 7x | Vezina Trophies | 4x |
| 6x | Stanley Cups | 4x |
| – | Conn Smythes | – |
| 1x Hart Trophy | Other Awards | ROY |
| 1978 | Hall of Fame Induction | 1971 |
Source: Hockey-Reference.com
With four out of the six NHL teams making the playoffs each year during the Original Six era, both Plante and Sawchuk were annual fixtures in the postseason and raised the Cup on multiple occasions. Despite their often stellar postseason play, however, the Conn Smythe Trophy was not awarded until 1965, thus neither goalie has a postseason MVP award to their name.
In his 16 career postseason appearances (including 11 straight with Montreal), Plante’s highlights included playing in eight straight Stanley Cup Finals with the Canadiens between 1953 and 1960 (granted, there were only two playoff rounds back then) and coming away with six titles, including five straight. Though his first career Stanley Cup came in 1953 while playing sparingly for Montreal, the next five would coincide with his five consecutive Vezina Trophies; similar to his regular season performance, Plante was sterling in the playoffs, leading the postseason in SV% in four of the five years, as well as posting a sub-2.00 GAA in four of those five postseasons. Arguably his best performance came in the 1960 Stanley Cup playoffs, as Montreal swept Toronto in the Finals; in fact, the Canadiens did not drop a single game in the postseason, with Plante going 8-0 with a miniscule 1.35 GAA, .950 SV%, and 3 shutouts. Later on, at 40 years old, he helped lead the Blue to consecutive Stanley Cup Finals in 1969 and 1970 (they had also made it to the Finals as an expansion team in 1968), but St. Louis would lose both times despite Plante’s strong play (playoff GAAs of 1.43 and 1.49, respectively).
Meanwhile, in his 15 playoff appearances, including 10 trips with the Red Wings, Sawchuk would help guide Detroit to six Stanley Cup Finals that culminated in three titles (1952, 1954, and 1955). During the 1952 playoffs, he was essentially perfect, going 8-0 with a microscopic 0.62 GAA and 4 shutouts as the Red Wings beat the Canadiens for the title. Likewise, in 1954, Sawchuk posted an 8-4 record with a 1.60 GAA, .940 SV%, and 2 shutouts as the Red Wings once again beat the Canadiens for the Cup, this time in overtime of Game 7. More than a decade later, he helped lead the Maple Leafs to the Stanley Cup in 1967, once again over the Canadiens; in fact, all four of Sawchuk’s Stanley Cup titles came against Montreal. For one postseason, Sawchuk turned back the clock, going 6-4 with a 2.66 GAA and .931 SV%; though he split goaltending duties with the aforementioned Bower, Sawchuk played the lion’s share of postseason games and was in net for the clinching Game 6 win in his last game as a Leaf.
Plante and Sawchuk faced each other head-to-head in the playoffs three times during the 1950s – in both the aforementioned 1954 and 1955 Stanley Cup Finals, Sawchuk led the Red Wings over the Canadiens, with Plante sharing goaltending duties with Gerry McNeil and Charlie Hodge, respectively. A few years later, in the 1958 semifinal round, Plante would exact a measure of revenge in backstopping Montreal over Sawchuk’s Detroit team.
Playoff Statistics
| Jacques Plante | Player | Terry Sawchuk |
| 112 | Games Played | 106 |
| 71-36 | W-L-T Record | 54-47 |
| 14 | Shutouts | 12 |
| 2.12 | GAA | 2.53 |
| .920 | SV% | .894 |
| 87 | GA%- | 120 |
Source: Hockey-Reference.com
Every athlete goes through a natural career lifecycle, from starting off as a rookie to reaching peak years of performance and finally, declining into the inevitable retirement due to a combination of age and/or injury; both Plante and Sawchuk were dominant in the earlier parts of their respective careers and while each played into his 40s, neither was as dominant in their 30s and 40s as they were in their 20s. For Hall of Fame caliber players across sports, I like to look at a concept I call a “decade of dominance.” The thinking behind this is that for most Hall of Fame type careers, there are roughly 10 great seasons that define an athlete, though due to injury or other factors, they might not be 10 consecutive years.
Decade of Dominance
| Jacques Plante | Player | Terry Sawchuk |
| 1954-1960, 1961-1962, 1968-1971 | Decade of Dominance | 1950-1955, 1956-1957, 1959-1960, 1962-1965 |
| 549 | Games Played | 567 |
| 320-135-91 | W-L-T Record | 299-157-106 |
| 60 | Shutouts | 72 |
| 2.12 | GAA | 2.17 |
| .926 | SV% | .914 |
| 82 | GA%- | 96 |
Source: Hockey-Reference.com
Across their respective decades of dominance, which predominantly come towards the beginning part of each goalie’s career, Plante and Sawchuk have even more impressive numbers. In slightly fewer games played, Plante holds the edge in nearly every statistical category with the exception of shutouts.
My Thoughts
Though they have been surpassed in most career statistical categories with the passage of time, Jacques Plante and Terry Sawchuk continue to stand tall as two of the NHL’s all-time great goaltenders. Their career arcs are both fascinating, given how incredibly dominant each player was in his prime and how the second half of their careers do not quite stack up save for a few glimpses of that previous glory. For me, in looking across the full body of work, I think while it can be argued that Sawchuk was the better goalie at his zenith, Plante was able to sustain his greatness for a longer period of time, as evidenced by his still-record seven Vezina Trophies. Moreover, while not necessarily related to his play, Plante left an indelible mark on the game with his donning of a face mask while playing arguably the most dangerous position in hockey.
Thus, after weighing their careers against each other in terms of statistics, achievements, and impact, the winner of this faceoff is:
Jacques Plante
As always, vote for your choice and leave your thoughts and comments below.
Further Reading
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