Predators’ Saros Gets Questionable Rating in EA Sports NHL 25

Juuse Saros has been one of the best goalies in the NHL for the past four seasons, and if ratings in the new EA Sports NHL 25 are any indication, the team of creators not only use last season’s performances, but recent seasons before that as well.

This is why Saros’ rating in the game is questionable. He is ranked eighth with an 89 overall rating. The goaltenders who are seen to be better than him in the game include Connor Hellebuyck (93), Igor Shesterkin (92), Andrei Vasilevskiy (92), Thatcher Demko (91), Jake Oettinger (90), Sergei Bobrovsky (90), and Ilya Sorokin (90).

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If the team was going predominantly by performances in 2023-24, then Saros should be closer to the fifth-best rated goalie. He finished fifth in Vezina Trophy voting behind Hellebuyck, Demko, Bobrovsky, and Shesterkin. Oettinger and Vasilevskiy didn’t receive any votes and Sorokin had one third place vote.

If the ratings are going by a combination of last season and previous performances before that, Saros has been a top-6 goalie in the NHL according to Vezina voting in four consecutive seasons. He finished sixth in 2020-21. third in 2021-22, fourth in 2022-23, and as previously stated, fifth in 2023-24. No other goalie has even received votes in all four of the past seasons. The closest is Hellebuyck, who, along with a Vezina Trophy win in that time, has finished fourth or higher three times in the last four years.

Saros is 127-83-16 with a 2.66 GAA, .916 SV%, and 12 shutouts over the past four seasons, but went 35-24-5 with a 2.86 GAA, .906 SV%, and three shutouts last season. He was also a big part of Nashville‘s 18-game points streak in February and won 10 of 11 games starting in late November of 2023. Some bad games hurt his overall numbers, but he was very good most of the way.

All of the goalies who are rated above Saros in NHL 25 are very good, don’t get me wrong, but not every one of them have been better than the Predators’ starter over the past few years or last season. For some, he may surprise this season. But for others, Saros should return to the elite output he normally puts out for the Predators.

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