So, with this caveat out of the way, we see that the best goalie in the NHL's regular season last year was Tim Thomas. In fact, Tim Thomas's performance last year ranks him as 8th best in regular season performance since 1997-1998 (the earliest the data is posted on nhl.com).
Here is the entire list for you to look over.
| PLAYER | TEAM | WAA |
| Tim Thomas | BOS | 5.038 |
| Pekka Rinne | NSH | 3.611 |
| Roberto Luongo | VAN | 2.935 |
| Cam Ward | CAR | 2.661 |
| Carey Price | MTL | 2.406 |
| Henrik Lundqvist | NYR | 2.202 |
| Ilya Bryzgalov | PHX | 1.910 |
| Jonas Hiller | ANA | 1.838 |
| Tomas Vokoun | FLA | 1.770 |
| Antti Niemi | SJS | 1.372 |
| Cory Schneider | VAN | 1.274 |
| James Reimer | TOR | 1.019 |
| Marc-Andre Fleury | PIT | 0.987 |
| Semyon Varlamov | WSH | 0.934 |
| Jonathan Quick | LAK | 0.924 |
| Braden Holtby | WSH | 0.776 |
| Corey Crawford | CHI | 0.704 |
| Ryan Miller | BUF | 0.678 |
| Brent Johnson | PIT | 0.610 |
| Niklas Backstrom | MIN | 0.540 |
| Al Montoya | NYI | 0.526 |
| Tuukka Rask | BOS | 0.491 |
| Martin Biron | NYR | 0.477 |
| Martin Gerber | EDM | 0.475 |
| Ray Emery | ANA | 0.395 |
| Cedrick Desjardins | TBL | 0.385 |
| Devan Dubnyk | EDM | 0.381 |
| Sergei Bobrovsky | PHI | 0.358 |
| Jose Theodore | MIN | 0.332 |
| Kevin Poulin | NYI | 0.323 |
| Brian Boucher | PHI | 0.311 |
| Anton Khudobin | MIN | 0.277 |
| Kari Lehtonen | DAL | 0.252 |
| Ondrej Pavelec | ATL | 0.211 |
| Dwayne Roloson | NYI, TBL | 0.197 |
| Joey MacDonald | DET | 0.170 |
| Michal Neuvirth | WSH | 0.159 |
| Anders Lindback | NSH | 0.135 |
| Alex Stalock | SJS | 0.087 |
| Alex Auld | MTL | 0.047 |
| Matt Climie | PHX | 0.045 |
| Richard Bachman | DAL | 0.039 |
| Craig Anderson | COL, OTT | 0.020 |
| Jonathan Bernier | LAK | 0.008 |
| Johan Hedberg | NJD | -0.076 |
| Jacob Markstrom | FLA | -0.087 |
| Mark Dekanich | NSH | -0.091 |
| Michael Leighton | PHI | -0.095 |
| David LeNeveu | CBJ | -0.106 |
| Chad Johnson | NYR | -0.116 |
| Mike McKenna | NJD | -0.123 |
| Andrew Raycroft | DAL | -0.142 |
| Scott Clemmensen | FLA | -0.174 |
| Peter Mannino | ATL | -0.207 |
| Henrik Karlsson | CGY | -0.212 |
| Henrik Karlsson | CGY | -0.212 |
| Jason LaBarbera | PHX | -0.228 |
| Jhonas Enroth | BUF | -0.246 |
| Thomas McCollum | DET | -0.255 |
| Ben Bishop | STL | -0.258 |
| Chris Osgood | DET | -0.326 |
| Mike Brodeur | OTT | -0.372 |
| Patrick Lalime | BUF | -0.413 |
| Timo Pielmeier | ANA | -0.438 |
| Jaroslav Halak | STL | -0.485 |
| Robin Lehner | OTT | -0.491 |
| Mikko Koskinen | NYI | -0.521 |
| Nathan Lawson | NYI | -0.535 |
| Mike Smith | TBL | -0.886 |
| Jimmy Howard | DET | -0.990 |
| Jean-Sebastien Giguere | TOR | -1.109 |
| Antero Niittymaki | SJS | -1.150 |
| Mathieu Garon | CBJ | -1.168 |
| Curtis McElhinney | ANA, OTT | -1.268 |
| Marty Turco | CHI | -1.406 |
| Martin Brodeur | NJD | -1.437 |
| Justin Peters | CAR | -1.439 |
| Miikka Kiprusoff | CGY | -1.475 |
| Jonas Gustavsson | TOR | -1.571 |
| Dan Ellis | TBL, ANA | -1.795 |
| Steve Mason | CBJ | -2.028 |
| Chris Mason | ATL | -2.040 |
| Ty Conklin | STL | -2.055 |
| Rick DiPietro | NYI | -2.302 |
| Peter Budaj | COL | -2.444 |
| Brian Elliott | OTT, COL | -3.416 |
| Nikolai Khabibulin | EDM | -3.521 |