NHL playoffs are full of uncertainty between the pipes

During the NHL playoffs, the spotlight tends to shine brightly on goaltenders as a single outlier performance can result in stealing — or blowing — a series-deciding game.

The outsized attention given to the men between the pipes this time of year runs counter to the way they are often treated when it comes to team building. The statistical volatility of all but the best netminders has franchises reluctant to devote a large percentage of the salary cap to the position — despite its undisputed importance.

That results in a situation like we're seeing in these playoffs, where even top contenders are going with goaltenders whose track records — particularly in the postseason — are short, unimpressive, or both.

Not long ago, far fewer teams with true Stanley Cup aspirations went into the playoffs without a goalie who'd proven his mettle under postseason pressure. Those qualifications may have been overvalued, but they were thought to mean something.

They still hold some power over decision makers to some degree. For instance, a Toronto Maple Leafs team desperate for playoff success almost certainly wouldn't have taken a chance on Matt Murray coming off three unimpressive seasons if he hadn't led the Pittsburgh Penguins to two Stanley Cup victories.

Even so, if teams were truly prioritizing seasoned goaltenders we'd be looking at a very different list of men protecting the twine as the playoffs get going.

Of the 16 projected playoff starters (not all have been officially announced), six have yet to earn a postseason win at the NHL level, and 11 have fewer than five victories.

The duo of Andrei Vasilevskiy and Connor Hellebuyck have played significantly more postseason games (148) than the other 14 starters combined (113), delivering far more wins (79) than their inexperienced peers (47). Those two are leading a pair of the biggest underdogs in the final 16. FiveThirtyEight gives the Tampa Bay Lightning a 2% chance of winning it all while Winnipeg doesn't crack 1%.

That means the vast majority of the league's top dogs are counting on guys who haven't done this before. According the aforementioned FiveThiryEight projections, the top three favorites — the Boston Bruins, Colorado Avalanche and Edmonton Oilers — have a combined 64% chance to hoist the Cup.

Those three teams are leaning on goaltenders with a combined four games of playoff experience, and no victories.

Whether that matters is an open question. There are notable instances of unheralded netminders like Antti Niemi, Matt Murray and Jordan Binnington leading their teams to glory in recent years.

Despite those examples, goaltenders without playoff experience backstopping Stanley Cup runs has not been the norm recently. Since the salary cap was instituted in 2005-06, the average Cup-winning goaltender had 28.1 games of playoff experience prior to their championship run.

In contrast, this season the average projected playoff starter has just over half of that experience level (15.6 games) and for goalies not named Vasilevskiy that number sits at 9.9.

We've seen enough evidence to suggest that having a battle-tested netminder isn't everything come playoff time. For example, anyone ruling out the Bruins due to Linus Ullmark's lack of postseason bonafides hasn't been watching the Vezina favorite all season.

That said, these playoff may give us some insight into the value of a proven playoff performer between the pipes — or lack thereof.