Enter your Goals Allowed, Game Length in Minutes, and Total Minutes Played to calculate your Goals Against Average (GAA) — the standard metric used to evaluate goalkeeper performance in hockey and soccer. Your GAA score is rated against benchmark ranges so you can see whether your performance is Outstanding, Good, Respectable, or Bad.
Goals Against Average (GAA)
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Performance Rating
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Goals Allowed Per Game
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Equivalent Full Games Played
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GAA is a statistic that measures the average number of goals a goalkeeper allows per full game. It is most commonly used in ice hockey and field hockey, but also appears in soccer. A lower GAA value indicates better goalkeeper performance — elite goalkeepers typically have a GAA below 2.00.
The formula is: GAA = (Goals Allowed × Game Length in Minutes) ÷ Total Minutes Played. For example, if a goalie allowed 13 goals in 520 minutes of play for a 60-minute game, the GAA = (13 × 60) ÷ 520 = 1.50.
In hockey, a GAA below 2.00 is considered Outstanding, 2.00–2.70 is Good, 2.70–3.00 is Respectable, and above 3.00 is considered Bad. The thresholds can vary slightly by league, level of play, and sport.
In most official hockey statistics, empty net goals do NOT count against the goalkeeper's GAA. Since the goaltender is not on the ice when an empty net goal is scored, it is excluded from their personal statistics. However, rules can vary by league and level of play.
Both metrics offer different insights. GAA tells you how many goals a goalie allows per game on average, while Save Percentage (SV%) measures what fraction of shots faced are saved. SV% is generally considered more independent of team defense quality, but using both together gives the most complete picture.
Goals Saved Above Average (GSAA) is considered a more advanced metric because it accounts for the quality and volume of shots a goalie faces relative to league average. GAA is simpler and more widely used, but GSAA provides a better measure of a goalie's true impact independent of team defense.
Yes, GAA can be applied to soccer using a 90-minute game length. Simply enter 90 in the Game Length field. The same formula applies, giving you the average goals conceded per 90 minutes — a standard reporting period in soccer statistics.
Game length normalizes the statistic so you can compare goalkeepers across different amounts of playing time. Without it, a goalie who played fewer minutes would appear to have a misleadingly low raw goals total. Multiplying by game length scales the result to a standard per-game figure.