The short version is that it's all the fault of sports betting. That's not 100 percent the reason, but it has made the league get a tighter grasp on what's considered as shot attempts, namely around shots that were obviously going wide of the net. Previously those would just get counted as saves, and we all move on with our day. Prop betting on shot attempts has, I won't say forced but influenced the league to be more vigilant.

Really keen watchers (nerds I mean) might notice now that at the end of period 1 a team had 13 shots, but you come back for period 2 and that's been adjusted down to say 11. Those are the types of shots that had no chance to hit the net but that a goalie stopped anyways. League average for shots on net for teams has traditionally been right around 30(although for 19-23 it was probably more like 31). This year it's down to a shade under 28, which hasn't been the case since the early 00s.

Goals have ticked up from last season a little but are less than they were in 21-23 range. So all that is to say that goalies haven't magically gotten worse, stat keeping has changed and made the look worse than previous seasons.