There’s a reason some of hockey’s best mantras are centred on the crease.
“Show me a good coach, I’ll show you a good goalie.”
Or, even more directly: “Hockey shouldn’t be called hockey; it should be called goaltending.”
Yes, there have been major changes in the way we think about goaltending in the past 20 years — you need two, and make ’em behemoths, but don’t draft them very high and try not to pay them too much — but the fact remains nothing in the game more acutely impacts whether you go to bed happy or sad on a night-to-night basis as how many saves your team gets.
I mean, you could argue goaltending has already cost one coach his job this season.
The butterfly effect in Edmonton may be the biggest goalie-related story this season, but it’s by no means the only one. With that in mind, we’re serving up a blue paint special for this edition of power rankings, examining the crease situation for all 32 teams.
1. Boston Bruins (12-1-2) Well, it didn’t take long to get to the best goaltending story of the past three years. Linus Ullmark is the reigning Vezina Trophy winner and Jeremy Swayman might be playing better than every stopper in the game. Boston has a league-best .930 five-on-five save percentage since the start of 2021-22, when Ullmark and Swayman became a battery.
2. New York Rangers (11-2-1) True story, there’s not one but two goalies on the Rangers with a better save percentage than Igor Shesterkin. Louis Domingue stopped 25 of the 26 shots he faced in his one start this season (.962 SP), while 37-year-old Jonathan Quick has turned back the clock, posting a .928 mark in six games this season. Of course, the Rangers will need Shesterkin at his best to maximize this team’s large potential. The 2022 Hart Trophy finalist is shelved with a lower-body ailment and hasn’t played since Nov. 2.
3. Vancouver Canucks (12-3-1) A lot of things have contributed to Vancouver’s hot start, none more so than the play of Thatcher Demko and Casey DeSmith. The former was a great under-the-radar add just as training camp was opening and Demko is having the season of his career. His 12 goals-saved-above-expected pace the league.
4. Dallas Stars (15-11-3) If Team USA was in a best-on-best tournament tomorrow, Jake Oettinger would be on the team and — along with two guys already listed, Demko and Swayman — get strong consideration as the starter. Scott Wedgewood was a solid understudy last season and the veteran has carried his dependable play over to this season.
5. Vegas Golden Knights (12-3-1) The Knights are a perfect example of how you can do things differently in the crease these days and still get your intended result. Vegas had three guys — undrafted Logan Thompson, sixth-rounder Laurent Brossoit and third-rounder Adin Hill — play at least 11 games for them last season and all three had a save percentage of .915 or better. In the playoffs, Hill’s .932 save percentage was the best mark in the league. Hill and Thompson have both been nails this season, too, forming one of the best true tandems in the NHL.
6. Los Angeles Kings (8-3-3) There may not have been a bigger, “Yeah, but what about their goaltending?” team than the Kings entering the season. So far, though, Cam Talbot has done all anybody could ask of him, posting a .923 save percentage in 11 games.
7. Colorado Avalanche (10-5-0) Alexandar Georgiev’s play has dipped in the past three weeks and the news that backup Pavel Francouz will miss the rest of the season with a groin injury is a blow. It’s easy to imagine the Avs quietly kicking tires on some crease support.
8. Florida Panthers (10-4-1) It’s probably overstating it to say Sergei Bobrovsky justified his $70-million contract with his post-season performance last spring, though it likely saved him from being a maligned punchline in South Florida for the rest of time. He’ll never live up to the big ticket he inked as a free agent in 2019, but “Bob” has been just fine this season as the Cats have done a nice job keeping their head above water and then some, despite a defence corps that’s down its top two guys.
9. Toronto Maple Leafs (8-5-2) Joseph Woll was dynamite through seven games, but his past two outings were less than stellar. Meanwhile, Ilya Samsonov has yet to find a consistent groove this season and it’s safe to say the No. 1 job in Toronto is still very much up for grabs.
10. Washington Capitals (8-4-2) Three goalies — Darcy Kuemper, Hunter Shepard and Charlie Lindgren — have at least two wins for the Caps. With Kuemper injured, Lindgren has stepped in and delivered strong crease play lately.
11. Pittsburgh Penguins (8-6-0) A big part of Pittsburgh’s turnaround after an uneven start is the play of Tristan Jarry, winner of four straight games with a .955 save percentage. The 28-year-old inked a five-year pact in the summer and a full, healthy season from Jarry would almost certainly get the Pens back in the post-season.
12. New Jersey Devils (7-6-1) If the Kings were the top team in terms of goalie questions for a contender heading into the season, the Devils were 1A. Thus far, the results have not been encouraging, as Vitek Vanecek and Akira Schmid have combined to produce the third-worst five-on-five save percentage (.892) in the league.
13. St. Louis Blues (8-5-1) Jordan Binnington has always been a temperamental goalie both performance- and behavior-wise, but the 30-year-old has been dialed in this season, with a .930 save percentage on a squad that gives up Grade A chances. Backup Joel Hofer is also starting to look like he’s got a solid NHL future.
14. Carolina Hurricanes (9-7-0) For a couple years now, it feels like the Canes throw three or four guys against the wall and hope one sticks — or at the very least, doesn’t get injured when tossed. Frederik Andersen has battled ailments much of his career and, unfortunately, is currently sidelined with a blood clot. Antti Raanta — another guy who’s historically had trouble staying in the lineup — has underperformed this season and Pyotr Kochetkov has yet to show he can run with the ball.
15. Winnipeg Jets (8-5-2) The stat that’s kindest to Connor Hellebuyck is actually the most basic one of all: wins. The 30-year-old has seven this season, but every other metric makes it clear Hellebuyck has work to do to get to the form that saw him finish as a Vezina finalist last season. Laurent Brossoit’s second go-round in Winnipeg has not been great, with the No. 2 posting an .872 save percentage in three games.
16. Tampa Bay Lightning (6-6-4) Jonas Johansson hung tough for a while in Andrei Vasilevskiy’s absence, but he’s got one win in his past six games with a gruesome .861 save percentage. The good news is, we could see Vasilevskiy returning from back surgery and starting in the Bolts crease before December.
17. Anaheim Ducks (9-7-0) John Gibson is having a wonderful bounce-back season and Lukas Dostal still has goalie-of-the-future written all over him, despite some expected ups and downs in his first full campaign.
18. Detroit Red Wings (8-5-2) Ville Husso has just not been what the Red Wings hoped he would be when they inked him to a three-year deal in summer 2022 on the back of a limited 57-game showing with the Blues. Veteran James Reimer has, by far, been the superior goalie in Motown this season.
19. Arizona Coyotes (7-6-2) Karel Vejmelka’s name circulated in trade rumours last season, so maybe the Coyotes see fit to pull the trigger if they find the right return. Both Vejmelka and 26-year-old Connor Ingram have been pretty solid for the Yotes.
20. Philadelphia Flyers (8-7-1) It’s kind of hard to believe Carter Hart — sporting a strong .921 save percentage this season — is already 25 years old. This is the final year of his contract before he can become an RFA, and with Philly rebuilding — though also quite competitive right now — it will be fascinating to see what his next chapter looks like.
21. Buffalo Sabres (7-8-1) Both Eric Comrie — currently injured — and Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen have looked decent this season. That said, Devon Levi has — somewhat predictably — struggled as an NHL rookie and a Sabres team just looking to figure out that final piece of the lineup is still a bottom-third squad in terms of five-on-five save percentage.
22. Montreal Canadiens (7-7-2) At some point, Montreal’s three-headed goalie monster of Jake Allen, Sam Montembeault and Cayden Primeau will get pared down to two. Habs brass seem convinced Primeau won’t make it through waivers, but they might have to bear down and find out soon because nobody’s career is best served in a three-goalie situation.
23. Edmonton Oilers (5-9-1) More than one person argued in the moment that the Oilers overpaid Jack Campbell when they inked him to a $25-million deal in the summer of 2022, but nobody could have anticipated he’d be in the AHL right now. Even with Stuart Skinner picking up a couple wins under new coach Kris Knoblauch, it’s just difficult to believe the Oilers have an in-house solution to their crease woes.
24. Ottawa Senators (6-7-0) Joonas Korpisalo, who inked a big pact as a UFA with Ottawa in the summer, has held his own during his first season with the Sens. And while Anton Forsberg has struggled to find top form, it’s worth noting Ottawa ranks 30th in the league in terms of expected goals percentage (44.6 percent).
25. New York Islanders (5-6-4) Ilya Sorokin was runnerup in the Vezina race last season and, since the start of 2021-22, nobody has more shutouts than the Russian (14). Sorokin has played slightly below his own lofty standard, but veteran Semyon Varlamov has a .940 save percentage on the strength of two whitewashes in five outings.
26. Seattle Kraken (5-8-4) The Kraken made the playoffs despite subpar goaltending last season. It does not look they’ll be able to defy the odds again this season.
27. Calgary Flames (5-8-2) It’s a rough scene overall, but Jacob Markstrom returned from a brief injury absence and stole a game in Montreal on Tuesday and Dustin Wolf has done all he can in the AHL to show he’s got No. 1 stud potential.
28. Chicago Blackhawks (5-8-0) Petr Mrazek is under siege at times, but he’s got a solid .921 save percentage and you wonder if someone might bite on the pending-UFA before the trade deadline.
29. Minnesota Wild (5-8-2) There’s no way around it, Filip Gustavsson has fallen flat early on after his breakout season last year and subsequent three-year contract agreement in the summer. Marc-Andre Fleury has had his moments, but at 39, it’s tough to ask too much from “Flower.”
30. Columbus Blue Jackets (4-8-4) Don’t pin too much responsibility for the Jackets’ woes on Elvis Merzlikins and Spencer Martin; the duo has done OK playing for a team that ranks 28th in expected goals percentage (46 percent).
31. Nashville Predators (5-10-0) We thought Juuse Saros made Nashville tank-proof, but that’s not proving to be the case. Despite his struggles, teams would be blowing up GM Barry Trotz’s phone if Saros — with this season and next at a $5-million cap hit — was put on the trade market.
32. San Jose Sharks (2-13-1) The Mackenzie Blackwood gamble was a sound one and, though it’s hard to see on such a bad team, may still pay dividends for the Sharks.