Having a solid No. 1 option between the pipes can sometimes be the difference maker that can turn a good team into a great team, but which teams are best off in that respect? Carol Schram organizes each NHL squad based on their No. 1 options into tiers to find out.
If you missed it, earlier this week I took a look at the No. 1 center and No. 1 defenseman positions for all 32 teams around the NHL.
Now, it's time to turn to the goaltenders, and it's tricky business again.
It's easy enough to say that a true No. 1 should play the most minutes on his team. But even that can sometimes be muddied by injury.
Other indicators include which goalies get tapped for key matchups and playoff starts. That can be nebulous too, as goalie coaches make decisions with the goal of optimizing the performance of their unpredictable charges as much as possible. And sometimes, teams just ride the hot hand for as long as they can.
With that in mind, Tiers 3 and 4 might actually be the most interesting for this position. In Tier 3, we have the goalies who have a grasp on the No. 1 spot but now must consolidate that into full-time starter status. Tier 4 features the squads where we're most likely to see full-out head-to-head battles.
Once again, I've kept a very small group in my elite category.
They've all won Vezina Trophies, but that alone does not grant entry. And neither does a Stanley Cup, although more playoff success would help push second-tier players up another rung.
The great separator? Long-term consistency, which seems harder and harder to come by for goalies with every passing year.
Teams With Elite No. 1 Goalies (4)
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It took five years, but the Panthers got full value for their $70-million investment in the two-time Vezina winner Bobrovsky in 2023-24. In the playoffs, he even won the head-to-head battles against both of his fellow countrymen on this list, Shesterkin and Vasilevskiy.
Hellebuyck, of course, also picked up his second Vezina last season. Vasilevskiy should return to his usual standard after a tumultuous season, which included back surgery, and while Shesterkin also had some challenges during the season, he was unmistakably elite during the playoffs.
Teams With Effective No. 1 Goalies (9)
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Once again, the bar to get into the elite tier is set very high, but there are some terrific talents in this effective category.
The list includes two Cup winners: Binnington and Hill.
Binnington has been up-and-down since 2019, but had a solid season on a transitioning Blues team last year and could be back on the rise.
Hill had a coming-out party in Vegas in 2023, but his numbers regressed to his career averages last season. He also had a tough time staying healthy while carrying a bigger workload and managed just 35 regular-season games.
We've also got a Vezina winner here in Ullmark. He just missed the elite classification because of his relatively light 49-game workload in his Vezina season. That year also looks like a bit of an outlier. Last season, his numbers were also right back to his career averages.
The other six stoppers in this category have good pedigrees and can be sensational on any given night. Saros, Markstrom and Demko have all been Vezina finalists, but this group hasn't quite gotten over the playoff hump yet.
Oettinger is the closest, with his back-to-back trips to the Western Conference final.
Teams That Might Have a True No. 1 Goalie (8)
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Skinner, Daccord, Ingram and Lindgren all took giant steps toward becoming long-term starters last season. They're on the precipice of moving up a tier if they can sustain their success and stay healthy.
Kuemper and Jarry could have deserved a spot in the Effective tier earlier in their careers, but after some struggles last season, they're going to have to prove themselves again to climb back up.
Montembeault's story has been one of continuous improvement. Last year, at age 27, he played a team-high 41 games for Montreal, putting up a winning record with a .903 save percentage.
And even though Mrazek led the league with 31 losses last season, he hung in gamely behind a Blackhawks team that was giving up 32.7 shots a game, the fifth-highest in the league. Somehow, Mrazek posted a .908 save percentage that was five points above the league average and kept his goals-against close to 3.00.
No wonder he earned a new two-year deal and a raise from $3.8 to $4.25 million.
Teams With a No. 1 Goalie Battle Ahead (5)
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It’s said that if you have two No. 1 goalies, then you actually have none.
After his strong finish last season, Luukkonen may have the inside track in Buffalo. But for the last decade, the Sabres have struggled to commit to a No. 1 for the long term. And with Luukkonen headed to arbitration, there's a chance that some bad blood may bubble up that will influence his future in Western New York.
Expect true competition for the starter's jobs in Carolina, Philadelphia and Toronto. Andersen and Kochetkov are used to that, but the Leafs and Flyers' netminders are heading into uncharted territory.
The Islanders will also be fascinating to watch. Ilya Sorokin is getting paid like the No. 1, but Patrick Roy has seemed to favor his old Colorado Avalanche goalie Varlamov since his arrival behind the bench.
Teams That Might Need a No. 1 Goalie Soon (2)
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Fleury has declared that this will be his last season, and we continue to wait to see if a Gibson deal will materialize.
The good news for both of these teams is that they already have promising young goalies in their pipelines — World Championship hero Lukas Dostal in Anaheim and 2021 first-rounder Jesper Wallstedt in Minnesota. Filip Gustavsson also played slightly more games than Fleury last season, but while he had a solid 2022-23 season highlighted by a .931 save percentage, that fell to below .900 in 2023-24.
Teams That Need a No. 1 Goalie Now (4)
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Do these teams have someone in their roster mix who can seize the No. 1 spot this season?
Like last year, the Red Wings are looking to conquer the crease with volume. Ville Husso and Alex Lyon are returning, while Steve Yzerman also signed free agents Cam Talbot and Jack Campbell.
The Sharks appear to be going into the new season with Mackenzie Blackwood and Vitek Vanecek — a pairing you might remember from New Jersey a couple of years ago.
With Jacob Markstrom joining the Devils, Dustin Wolf will get his chance to prove he can be a starter at the NHL level.
And Daniil Tarasov has had some success in Columbus, but so far, he has had a tough time staying healthy.