Editing Goaltender (section)

===Playing styles===
====Stand-up style====
The oldest playing style is the '''stand-up style'''. In this style, goaltenders are to stop the puck from a standing position, not going down. The goaltenders may bend over to stop the puck with their upper body or may kick the puck. Such saves made by kicking are known as kick saves or skate saves. They may also simply use their stick to stop it, known as a stick save. This was the style seen in the early NHL and was most commonly used up until the early 1960s. One of the more notable goaltenders who was last seen using stand up was [[Bill Ranford]], but most of the goaltenders from earlier decades such as [[Jacques Plante]] were considered pure stand up goaltenders.

As the name suggests, the ''stand-up style'' refers to a style of goaltending in which the goaltender makes the majority of the saves standing up. This style is not as popular in the modern era, with the majority of contemporary goaltenders switching to the [[butterfly style]] and the hybrid style. The stand-up style is in contrast to the butterfly style, where goaltenders protect the net against incoming shots by dropping to their knees and shifting their legs out.

The advantage of the stand-up style is in the continued mobility of the goaltender mid save. While standing, a stand-up goaltender can remain square to the puck and adjust his positioning to ensure that he is covering as much of the net as possible at all times. The goaltender is also in a better position to stop pucks that are headed towards the upper part of the net.

The main disadvantage of the stand-up style, however, is a susceptibility to shots travelling along the bottom half of the net. A larger percentage of shots occur in the bottom portion of the net, and a goaltender utilizing the butterfly will cover a larger portion of that area. If there is a screen, however, a stand-up goaltender is generally in a better position to see the [[slapshot]].

====Butterfly style====
{{main|Butterfly style}}

Another style is the "Butterfly", where goaltenders go down on both pads with their toes pointing outwards and the tops of their pads meeting in the middle, thus closing up the [[five-hole|five hole]]. This results in a "wall" of padding without any holes, lowering the chances of low angle shots getting in. These goaltenders rely on timing and position. Early innovators of this style were goaltending greats [[Glenn Hall]] and [[Tony Esposito]], who played 1951–1971 and 1967–1984, respectively. Hall is credited to be among the first to use this style, and both he and Esposito had tremendous success with it. The most successful goaltender to adopt this style was Patrick Roy, who has 550 career wins in the NHL. This is the most widely used style in the NHL today. "Butterfly" goaltenders have developed methods of sliding in the "Butterfly" position in order to move around fast in one-timer situations. As pad size increased, it became a more notable style of goaltending and is still evolving.

====Hybrid style====
This style of goaltending is a combination of both stand-up and butterfly style, where the goaltender primarily relies on reaction, save selection, and positioning to make saves. Hybrid goaltenders will usually control rebounds well, deflect low shots with their sticks, will utilize the butterfly, and are generally not as predictable as goaltenders who rely heavily on the butterfly as a save selection. Most players are not pure stand-up or butterfly, but simply tend to prefer stand-up or butterfly over the other. If a player does not have any preferences, he is considered a hybrid goaltender. All modern NHL goaltenders generally use some form of this style. Some goaltenders who do this effectively are [[Ryan Miller]], [[Jaroslav Halák]], [[Jimmy Howard]], [[Tuukka Rask]], [[Carey Price]] and formerly [[Evgeni Nabokov]] and [[Martin Brodeur]].