How save percentage is calculated
Save percentage is the share of shots a goalie stops: SV% = saves ÷ shots faced, shown to three decimals. Stop 27 of 30 shots and your save percentage is 27 ÷ 30 = .900, read as "nine hundred."
Saves are simply shots on goal minus goals allowed, so if you only have shots faced and goals against, subtract first: 30 shots and 3 goals means 27 saves. The result is conventionally written without a leading zero and read aloud as a three-digit number, so 0.915 becomes .915 and is said "nine fifteen".
If the next number you need is a related one, the winning percentage calculator covers it.
How to use this calculator
Enter total saves and shots faced. Saves can't exceed shots. The result is the goalie's save percentage. For an attacker's accuracy instead, see the free throw percentage calculator.
Worked example over a season: a goalie facing 2,000 shots at .915 has made 1,830 saves and conceded 170 goals. Raise that to .925 and the same workload concedes only 150 - twenty goals over a season, which is why a single percentage point is treated as a large gap at professional level.
Worth having open at the same time: the points per game calculator.
Reading save percentage
In hockey, an elite goalie posts a .920 or higher save percentage, while .900 is roughly average. The metric also applies to soccer goalkeepers. Because it is a rate, it fairly compares goalies who have faced different shot volumes.
Sample size matters. Over one game a .900 can flip to .850 on a single extra goal, so single-game figures are noisy; judgements are usually made over 20 games or more. Soccer keepers face far fewer shots, so their save percentages are quoted as whole percents (a 70% save rate is strong) rather than to three decimals, and shot quality varies enough that many analysts now compare a keeper against expected goals rather than raw SV%.
A quick pass through the ERA calculator saves a step later on.
Frequently asked questions
- How do I calculate save percentage?
- Divide saves by shots faced and show three decimals. 27 ÷ 30 = .900.
- What is a good save percentage?
- In the NHL, .910–.920 is strong and above .920 is elite; .900 is around average.
- Does save percentage count empty-net goals?
- Typically no — empty-net situations are excluded since there is no goalie facing the shot.
- What if shots faced is zero?
- Save percentage is undefined with zero shots, so the calculator shows a dash until you enter a positive number.
- What is the difference between save percentage and GAA?
- Save percentage measures the share of shots stopped, while goals against average measures goals allowed per 60 minutes of play. A goalie behind a leaky defence can post a poor GAA and still have an excellent SV%, so SV% is the better read on the goalie alone.