The Vegas Golden Knights and Carolina Hurricanes have benefited from terrific goaltending in this post-season. While Carolina's Frederik Andersen and Vegas' Carter Hart have taken different roads to the Stanley Cup final, both are delivering the netminding needed to win a championship.
The road to the 2025-26 Stanley Cup final has been very different for the starting goalies for the Carolina Hurricanes and Vegas Golden Knights. But Frederik Andersen and Carter Hart share something in common – they both have had a most-unlikely path to the final, and they've been spectacular in this post-season.
Carolina’s Andersen has battled consistency and health issues over the years, but the 36-year-old has also dominated this spring. He's posted a save percentage of .931, a playoff record of 12-1, while putting up a 1.41 GAA along with three shutouts.
Those are all phenomenal numbers for the Danish netminder, who is far outperforming his playoff career averages of a .915 SP and a 2.26 GAA.
But the real key statistic for Andersen is his career total of 98 playoff appearances. That experience, along with a Hurricanes team that takes care of the puck at both ends of the ice, has resulted in Andersen looking more confident than he ever looked during his stints with the Anaheim Ducks and Toronto Maple Leafs.
Furthermore, heading into the playoffs, there was debate and discussion about the Canes starting Brandon Bussi. Since then, Andersen has put that talk to rest.
Meanwhile, the 27-year-old Hart emerged as Vegas’ starter despite only having 14 games of playoff experience heading into this post-season – and those 14 games were played back in 2019-20 with the Philadelphia Flyers.
But in these playoffs, Hart has registered a .924 SP and a 2.22 GAA in 16 games. Those numbers aren’t as good as Andersen’s, but the result is still the same. Hart has delivered 12 playoff wins, and that’s all the cold-blooded Golden Knights care about.
Few, if any, predicted Andersen or Hart in this year’s post-season, let alone saw both of them as the Cup final’s starters. But the unlikely road for the two goalies will be one of the reasons why teams will take chances on netminders available this summer.
Whether it’s an experienced veteran like St. Louis Blues goalie Jordan Binnington, Florida Panthers star netminder Sergei Bobrovsky, or Andersen himself – as, like Bobrovsky, Andersen is a UFA this summer – there’s going to be goalies teams take chances on in the hope they get the results the Golden Knights and Hurricanes have got out of Hart and Andersen this spring.
In any case, we’ll soon be talking about Andersen or Hart as a champion. Hart is under contract for 2026-27 at a bargain salary of $2-million, so he won’t be able to cash in on this year’s success until the end of next season. But Andersen is in line for a major raise on the $2.75-million he earned this year.
If it’s not the Hurricanes who give him the best financial offer, Andersen could be forgiven for chasing the money on what could be his last, best NHL contract. But if he wins the Cup with Carolina, maybe both sides can bend on a deal.
When you find goalies who deliver in high-stakes situations, you want to keep them. So we wouldn’t be surprised to see the Hurricanes and Golden Knights return to the 2027 playoffs with Andersen and Hart patrolling the pipes. The duo took different roads to be where they are today, but Vegas and Carolina are more than pleased they took a chance on them.
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