What is Quality Start?
A game in which a goaltender allows three or fewer goals on at least 20 shots faced.
What this tells us
When a goaltender records a Quality Start, he's kept his team in the game by stopping most of what came at him — at least a .850 save percentage on a normal workload. It's a simple floor: did he play well enough that his team had a real chance to win? A goaltender with a high Quality Start percentage is reliable and rarely puts his team in a hole.
Limitations
Quality Start is a binary flag — it doesn't distinguish between a .850 save night and a .920 save night, as long as both clear the threshold. A goaltender can have a Quality Start and still lose badly if his team doesn't score. It also doesn't account for shot quality; a .850 save percentage on high-danger chances is worse than .850 on perimeter shots. That's why we also show GSAX, which measures performance relative to the quality of shots faced.
Formula[show]
QS = (Goals Against ≤ 3) AND (Shots Against ≥ 20)Example
A starting goaltender who records Quality Starts in 60% of his games is typically reliable and getting regular playing time. A backup with a 50% Quality Start rate is performing adequately in limited action.