The NHL doesn't – and likely won't ever – have a goalie who also plays out like MLB's two-position superstar in Shohei Ohtani, writes Adam Proteau. But it could have its own free-agent watch in 2026.
A fan wearing Los Angeles Angels uniform holds Shohei Ohtani cardboard during the warm-up of the Anaheim Ducks' Angels-themed game against the Detroit Red Wings on Jan. 9, 2022.The sports world – including fans of NHL teams – is abuzz with speculation this week regarding the free agent status of Shohei Ohtani, the Japanese superstar baseball player deciding on the MLB city fortunate enough to be his home for the foreseeable future.
As fan bases drool with excitement, Ohtani’s decision-making process is a story in and of itself. Whether it’s the Toronto Blue Jays, Los Angeles Dodgers, or another major league baseball team, there's no shortage of electric energy at the mere possibility that Ohtani would pick their organization.
The NHL has never had a free agent with the kind of excitement Ohtani is generating. There are always free agent prizes in every hockey off-season, but to have the equivalent of an Ohtani situation in the NHL, you’d have to be talking about an in-his-prime Wayne Gretzky – or more recently, Oilers phenom Connor McDavid – coming onto the free agent scene in their prime. That may come to pass if and when McDavid becomes a UFA in the summer of 2026, but there’s a bigger factor that makes Ohtani so special – and explains why hockey almost assuredly can’t create a unicorn like him.
That factor is Ohtani’s all-star-caliber skills at not one but two positions. He’s an incredible hitter and a needle-moving pitcher (although he won’t pitch in the 2024 season) in a way nobody has been in the Modern Era. For hockey to have its own version of Ohtani, we’d need to see a situation in which a single player excelled at, say, the goaltending position and as a skater when they're not the starting netminder. And while anything is possible in sport, the reality is that at the grassroots level, elite amateur players are slotted into one position and left to develop their skills from there.
The financial costs alone for buying goalie equipment at the same time you’d buy equipment for a defenseman or forward is essentially a non-starter for most families. Hockey is expensive enough as it is, so the notion the sport could have a two-position all-star stretches the bounds of reality.
The global impact of Ohtani is also something that would be hard for hockey to replicate, even with its very best players selling the sport. An NHL player usually appeals to the city he plays in and his home region/country, and that’s about it. Ohtani attracts attention wherever he plays and can sell out baseball stadiums with much larger capacities than hockey rinks. It’s nothing to sneeze at, of course, but success in hockey doesn’t translate into the iconic cultural status Ohtani currently enjoys.
If Ohtani does choose the Blue Jays as his new home, he’ll be instantly adored not only by Torontonians but by many Canadians from one coast to the other. He’d almost assuredly be the key reason Blue Jays games would instantly become must-see events, and his annual salary of more than $30 million would easily be recouped by Jays ownership from marketing and ticket sales alone.
Again, if we look at McDavid as the biggest force in hockey, it just doesn’t seem feasible that a single player of his caliber could and would drive the financial engine of one particular team and the sport as a whole. Hockey is built around team play, and while that’s also true of baseball, Ohtani can turn a team into a World Series front-runner in a way that a top-five hockey player can’t do for teams seeking a Stanley Cup. That said, if McDavid's contract runs out in 2026 and the Oilers still aren't closer to winning a Cup, he'd draw potential record numbers for a new contract and attract loads of attention in the NHL world, potentially a level above the talk when Steven Stamkos and John Tavares hit free agency.
The Ohtani sweepstakes will likely end soon, but the hype surrounding him is something we may not see again for decades, if not longer. Hockey needs to keep improving in the selling of its players and personalities, but aspiring to create its own Ohtani excitement is a bridge too far at present. That’s less of a condemnation of hockey as a cultural force than it is about the specific circumstances that have led to Ohtani mania.