Power Ranking Every NHL Team's Goalie Tandem for 2024-25

There is no position in the NHL that can change the outlook of a team quite like goaltending.

With a great goalie, an average team becomes a playoff team, and a playoff team becomes a Stanley Cup contender.

Conversely, a Cup contender or playoff team can rapidly become an average one with poor netminding.

It changes everything, and sometimes it's not just enough to have a good starter. Sometimes you need a quality second option on the roster.

With all of that in mind, let's rank every NHL team's goalie tandem for the 2024-25 season to see which one is in the best position in net and which ones need to make some improvements.

Goalies: Vitek Vanecek, Mackenzie Blackwood

In the long term, the Sharks have a chance to be set in goal following the offseason trade for Yaroslav Askarov from the Nashville Predators.

However, the 22-year-old is starting the season in the American Hockey League, leaving San Jose with the duo of Vanecek and Blackwood, seemingly trying to recreate failed goalie duos from recent New Jersey Devils teams.

Blackwood has not had a save percentage over .900 since the 2020-21 season (and even then it was only .902), while Vanecek is coming off an .890 season in New Jersey.

Playing behind what might be one of the league's worst defenses is not going to be pretty for anybody here.

Askarov is the future, but the present looks bleak to start the season.

Goalies: Ivan Fedotov, Samuel Ersson

The Philadelphia Flyers are defined by the Broad Street Bullies, tough hockey and bad goaltending. It's just the way it goes here.

Still, this is a tough one because there is a chance one of, or perhaps even both, Fedotov and Ersson could stick in the NHL as viable goaltending options.

The problem is projecting future goalie performance is basically witchcraft, and neither has any sort of a track record in the NHL to go on. That alone puts them at the bottom of the rankings for now just because there is so much uncertainty.

Perhaps by the middle of the season, they will prove themselves a little and move up the rankings.

Goalies: Elvis Merzlikins, Daniil Tarasov

Merzlikins had a tremendous start in the NHL, posting a .923 save percentage in his debut season in 2019-20.

Unfortunately, his numbers have steadily regressed every year since. He has struggled the past two years with save percentages of .876 and .897, placing him near the bottom of the NHL.

Tarasov had a decent showing in his limited action in 2023-24, posting a .908 save percentage in 24 games. But it's such a small sample, and Merzlikins seems penciled in as the starter and neither seems to be a long- or short-term answer.

The Blue Jackets have a strong farm system and some great young prospects, but goaltending is still a big concern.

Goalies: Petr Mrazek, Laurent Brossoit

Mrazek had a decent 2023-24 season (.907 save percentage) when you consider the dismal state of the team in front of him, but he is a stop-gap solution who is not going to seriously impact the short- or long-term outlook.

Brossoit is one of the league's better backups, but he is injured to start the season. Even then it remains to be seen how he will perform behind a rebuilding team that does not defend particularly well.

Arvid Soderblom is an intriguing young player and will get an opportunity early on with Brossoit's injury, but he struggled mightily in his debut season a year ago.

Goalies: Cam Talbot, Ville Husso

It's kind of concerning how little the Red Wings have done to try to fix the short-term issues on defense and goaltending the past two seasons. They had a playoff-caliber offense a year ago but could not stop anybody from scoring.

It was a collective group effort from the defense and the goalies.

Husso signed a big contract a couple of years ago, but he has managed only an .895 save percentage in two seasons with Detroit, and now it has the veteran Talbot coming in this season.

Talbot has had some moments of strong play throughout his career, and he was surprisingly good for the Los Angeles Kings a year ago, but he is 37 years old and is not going to be as insulated defensively as he was last season.

Goalies: Connor Ingram, Karel Vejmelka

There is a lot to like about the Utah team and plenty of reasons for optimism going into the season.

It has a couple of potential rising stars in Logan Cooley and Dylan Guenther and completely overhauled the top part of its defense, and it now also has a more solid ownership group.

The one potential weakness here is definitely in net with the Ingram-Vejmelka duo.

Ingram got off to a tremendous start in 2023-24 and then faded badly down the stretch. There is still a question as to which goalie he is going to be and what his ceiling is for this season.

Vejmelka has shown some flashes of brilliance at times, but he has also never finished a season with a save percentage over .900. Perhaps a better defense in front of them can help boost their numbers a bit.

Goalies: Dustin Wolf, Dan Vladar

Jacob Markstrom has gone as part of the Flames' retooling (or rebuild), which leaves the door open for Wolf to step in as the team's new starter.

Honestly, it's not a terrible situation.

The Flames have almost no money committed to the position, and Wolf has been an outstanding goalie in the AHL, is still young at 23 and has a chance to be a really good goalie sooner rather than later.

This is simply another one of those situations where the track record is non-existent and there is so much unknown that it makes it difficult to rank them higher.

Goalies: Tristan Jarry, Alex Nedeljkovic

Goaltending has been a constant issue for the Penguins for years now, and they have done little to do anything to change it beyond shuffling in some new backups.

Nedeljkovic ended up taking the starting job from Jarry at the end of the 2023-24 season, but he is opening the season on IR. That leaves rookie Joel Blomqvist as the temporary backup.

The biggest problem with Jarry is that he is wildly inconsistent, not particularly durable and has had a tendency to wilt in big moments and fade in the second half of seasons.

With better goaltending the Penguins might have had some more success—and playoff success—in recent years, but they are locked in to a long-term deal with Jarry and seem stuck with that for now.

It's not an ideal situation. Or even a particularly good situation.

Goalies: Filip Gustavsson, Marc-Andre Fleury

Two years ago, this was a money duo for the Wild that helped carry a cap-strapped team to the playoffs.

One year ago, they both badly regressed and were one of the worst duos in the league.

Fleury, 39, is a future Hall of Famer and on a farewell-tour season, while Gustavsson is still a bit of a mystery after some extreme highs and lows in his young career.

The reality with the 26-year-old Swede is probably somewhere in the middle of what we saw in 2022-23 and then in 2023-24.

They finished the season 23rd in all situations save percentage as a duo. The Wild need more from them this season, especially Gustavsson.

Goalies: Alexandar Georgiev, Justus Annunen

I feel a little unfair here because the ceiling for both Georgiev and Annunen is significantly higher than this. But we have to see it from them.

Georgiev, 28, has been the full-time starter in Colorado for two years and has had two very different performances. He was outstanding in 2022-23 and a liability for much of 2023-24.

Annunen is four years younger and played well in a limited role, but he is extremely unproven.

It feels like this position could go either way for the Avalanche, and it will largely help make or break what the team is capable of.

If Colorado gets the 2022-23 Georgiev, this duo goes way up the rankings and the team might be a Cup contender. If the Avalanche get the 2023-24 version, they stay near the bottom of these rankings and are probably not the contenders they should be.

Goalies: John Gibson, James Reimer

At his peak, Gibson was one of the best goalies in the league and would have had this duo way higher on the list.

However, the 31-year-old has not had a save percentage higher than .905 since the 2018-19 season, and he has not topped the .900 mark in two years.

Age, the workload behind a bad, rebuilding team and just declining play have all probably played a role in his decreasing production. Whatever the reason may be, he is no longer an elite goalie.

Reimer, 36, is a capable backup, but he should not be counted on to play too many games over the course of a season at this stage of his career.

Goalies: Darcy Kuemper, David Rittich

Goaltending has been the one big question mark the Kings have had coming out of their rebuild.

Despite not having a true No. 1 goalie a year ago, they still managed to piece together a capable duo thanks in large part to a rock-solid defensive structure in front of them.

This year, they are rolling the dice with Kuemper after picking him up in a trade with the Washington Capitals, sending Pierre-Luc Dubois the other way.

It was basically a salary dump, with both teams exchanging bad contracts they never wanted while also rolling the dice that each could fix a big hole in their lineup.

I don't hate the gamble for either team, and there is a decent chance Kuemper bounces back after a down year in Washington.

Even at his peak he was never really somebody who would steal games for his team, but he was rarely the reason they would lose. Can he give the Kings that? Can the Kings still defend the way they did a year ago after losing Matt Roy to free agency and Drew Doughty for a significant portion of the season to injury?

Those are the big questions for the Kings.

Goalies: Joseph Woll, Anthony Stolarz

Woll is currently dealing with a minor injury to open the season, but the starting job appears to be his when he is healthy.

On paper, this isn't a particularly great duo for a potential Cup contender, but it does have one thing going for it: It's cheap for a team that is pushed to the upper limits of the salary cap.

Woll has upside and Stolarz is a solid veteran safety net who had an outstanding year for the Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers.

There are still going to be some big questions about Woll until he shows he can be a full-time starter and give the team a chance in the only games fans care about: playoff games.

Goalies: Stuart Skinner, Calvin Pickard

You have to give Skinner some credit: He came through when the Oilers needed him most and at a time when nobody really gave him a chance to do that.

He backstopped them to the Stanley Cup Final and played some of the best hockey of his career. But can he do that over a full season?

Can the 25-year-old be at least an average goalie over 82 games and a full playoff run?

Consistency is a big problem with Skinner, so he still has a lot to prove, especially without a proven backup behind him.

The Oilers do not need him to be a game-changer. They just need him to be somebody who does not hurt them.

Goalies: Joey Daccord, Philipp Grubauer

When the Kraken entered the NHL, they attempted to build their franchise around goaltending and spent big money on Grubauer and Chris Driedger. None of it worked out as planned, though, and goaltending has been a constant problem.

They did hit a home run last year with Daccord, but there is a big risk with a goalie who breaks out in his late 20s with a random big season after not doing much prior to that.

The Kraken are buying big into his 2023-24 performance and signed him to a five-year contract extension before this season.

If he repeats that performance, they have a viable starting goalie; if he doesn't, they have an expensive duo that continues to be a problem.

The jury is still very much out on this pairing.

Goalies: Charlie Lindgren, Logan Thompson

The great thing about this duo for the Capitals is that it's extraordinarily cheap, salary-cap friendly and might be at least passable.

Lindgren ended up taking over the starting job a year ago from Kuemper, and Thompson joined the team this offseason in a draft-day trade with the Vegas Golden Knights.

Lindgren is similar to Daccord in Seattle in the sense that he did not have much of a track record in the NHL until this past season, and nobody really knows if it was for real or a flash in the pan.

Thompson has been a good goalie when healthy, but injuries have been a big problem for him at times.

This duo can be a good, cheap pairing for the Capitals and at least give them a chance on most nights.

Goalies: Adin Hill, Ilya Samsonov

Hill is a perfectly capable starting goalie and probably perfectly rated right in the middle of the league.

He isn't going to consistently play like he did during the Golden Knights' Stanley Cup run in 2023, but you can probably pencil him in for a .910-.912 save percentage and get solid play. He will make the saves he should make, some of the ones he shouldn't be expected to make, and generally speaking not lose you many games.

He is fine. Totally solid.

What hurts the ranking for this tandem is the fact that Samsonov has consistently been a below-average goalie throughout his career and has never really panned out the way Washington and then Toronto hoped he would.

Goalies: Jordan Binnington, Joel Hofer

Binnington's career has been a roller coaster. It started with him showing up in St. Louis and helping to save the 2018-19 Blues' season, backstopping them to a Stanley Cup.

In the years that followed, he was wildly inconsistent and a loose cannon who always seemed like he was ready to fly off the handle anytime somebody looked at him the wrong way. It was getting to the point where he looked like a liability.

Just when it appeared as if the Blues were stuck with him, he bounced back with a strong 2023-24 season and played at a pretty high level. He isn't great, but he isn't awful. He just needs to take a deep breath and calm down sometimes.

Hofer also had a strong year in 2023-24 with a .913 save percentage.

These two masked a lot of defensive flaws in St. Louis a year ago and might be able to do it again.

Goalies: Pyotr Kochetkov, Frederik Andersen

Andersen is still really good when healthy, but that has been a problem for him in recent years. He was limited to just 16 regular-season games in 2023-24 and then struggled in the playoffs when he tried to return.

Kochetkov has not played a ton in the NHL, but he has produced at an above-average level (.910 save percentage) when he has played.

Is this duo good enough to win a Stanley Cup? That remains to be seen. But it is probably good enough to win a lot of regular-season games behind an otherwise strong team that defends well and can wear teams down with its playing style.

Goalies: Sam Montembeault, Cayden Primeau

This has a chance to be a sneaky good duo, and it was during the 2023-24 season.

They both played at a league-average (or better) level, despite being behind a rebuilding team that lacked depth and did not always play the best defensive hockey in front of them.

Montembeault and Primeau are both relatively young (27 and 25, respectively), do not cost a lot and have shown flashes of being solid NHL goalies.

They have a chance to be a bright spot on a Montreal team that is still a few years away from serious contention.

Goalies: Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, Devon Levi

The Sabres still have a lot of problems on their roster, and perhaps even more frustrating than the existing issues is the fact that they still have more than $6 million in unused cap space.

But the one spot that may not be a problem is in goal with the Luukkonen-Levi tandem.

Luukkonen was so good in 2023-24 that the Sabres signed him to a long-term contract extension worth $4.75 million per season. If he maintains the level of play they got from him a year ago, he might be a pretty good bargain at that price, especially when compared to some of the recent goalie contract extensions.

Levi is also still a strong prospect who has starter potential in the NHL.

There are some questions with both, but they have an extremely high ceiling.

Goalies: Thatcher Demko, Arturs Silovs

This ranking assumes Demko is healthy and in the lineup. Currently, he isn't, and that is going to be a problem for the Canucks in the short term.

However, when he is fit and playing on top of his game, he has the ability to be one of the best goalies in the NHL, and he showed that this past season.

The question mark for the Canucks is the depth chart behind him with Silovs and Kevin Lankinen. I am not sure you can comfortably trust either if they had to play for an extended period of time.

But Demko? He is legit and has posted a save percentage of .915 or better in three of the past four saesons.

Goalies: Jeremy Swayman, Joonas Korpisalo

Over the past couple of years, the Bruins probably would have been in the top three, and maybe even in the top spot.

The duo of Swayman and Linus Ullmark was sensational, and this past season helped lift a mediocre (and, at times, downright bad) defensive team.

However, half of that duo is now gone with the offseason trade of Ullmark to the Ottawa Senators.

While Swayman should still be a strong, bona fide No. 1 goalie, there has to be some question as to how well he will handle a full-time workload after splitting the starts for the first part of his career. He has never had to be the guy over a full 82-game season and playoff run.

Korpisalo is also a significant downgrade from Ullmark in the second goalie spot and knocks the pairing down a few places.

The Bruins might find out this season just how valuable Ullmark was to their success.

Goalies: Jake Oettinger, Casey DeSmith

Oettinger might have one of the highest ceilings in the NHL in terms of what he plays like when he is at his best.

We just haven't always seen it, especially not this past season.

But he is capable of it, and there is a good chance we will see it again soon, perhaps even this season. It is also a big year for him as he will be due for a new contract after this season as a restricted free agent, and he is just two years away from potential unrestricted free agency.

DeSmith is a run-of-the-mill backup, but Oettinger has a chance to be a legitimate top-tier goalie.

Goalies: Linus Ullmark, Anton Forsberg

Getting Ullmark was a huge score for the Senators because it gave them a legitimate No. 1 goalie, took that player away from a division rival and saddled that same division rival with a goalie (Joonas Korpisalo) the Senators no longer wanted.

Ullmark is not likely to repeat the .938 save percentage he had during his Vezina-winning campaign in 2022-23, but if he can give the Sens a save percentage somewhere between the .905-.914 mark, he could shave 25-40 goals off of their goals-against numbers.

That would be a massive upgrade over what they were getting from Korpisalo.

Goalies: Jacob Markstrom, Jake Allen

What a difference a year makes.

The Devils had one of the worst goaltending situations in the NHL during the 2023-24 season, and they could have one of the better ones this year.

Markstrom's age might be a bit of a concern at 34, but he can still be a top-10 goalie, especially behind a good defensive team.

Allen is about as good of a backup as you could hope for and should be able to take some of the workload off of Markstrom and spell him for a few starts or fill in for an extended period of time if needed.

The Devils should be primed for a huge bounce-back year, and the improved goaltending situation is a huge reason why.

Goalies: Andrei Vasilevskiy, Jonas Johansson

Vasilevskiy is coming off the worst season of his career in 2023-24, but we're not ready to say he is declining.

There is a good chance it was simply a down year, and he is capable of a rebound year and a return to the elite play we have seen from him for the better part of the past decade.

He is one of the most decorated goalies in the NHL and one of the best at his position from this era.

The Lightning could probably stand to have a better backup behind him, and that does leave some questions at the position, but Vasilevskiy is so good that he overcomes the lack of quality depth behind him to still give them one of the best goalie situations in the league.

Goalies: Juuse Saros, Scott Wedgewood

The Predators should have Stanley Cup goals this season after signing Steven Stamkos, Jonathan Marchessault and Brady Skjei to a roster that was already a playoff team. A very good playoff team as well.

They have a good two-way center in Ryan O'Reilly, a strong defensive structure, a Norris-caliber defenseman in Roman Josi, and now they have some finishers and elite goal-scorers to bring it all together.

The other big element of the core: a great goalie duo.

Juuse Saros has had a save percentage of .915 or better in seven of the past eight seasons, and he is consistently among the league leaders in the category.

Wedgewood has also had some big years as a backup and should be solid enough to give Saros some nights off without too big of a drop-off.

Goalies: Connor Hellebuyck, Kaapo Kahkonen

There are only a handful of goalies in the NHL that you can truly count on for consistently elite play year in and year out, and Hellebuyck has become one of them.

He is a multiple Vezina Trophy winner and has consistently helped turn mediocre Jets teams into playoff contenders. He is one of the best goalies in hockey and one of the most impactful players in the league when it comes to his team's success.

The Jets did take a bit of a step backwards last season in terms of a backup, going from Laurent Brossoit to Kahkonen, but Hellebuyck is always going to be the workhorse here and get the majority of the playing time. He will dominate consistently in that playing time.

Goalies: Sergei Bobrovsky, Spencer Knight

This is one of the most expensive goaltending duos in the league, but it's also a really good one.

Bobrovsky has not always been consistent in Florida, but he has had some huge seasons and helped to solidify his Hall of Fame resume in 2023-24 by leading the Panthers to a Stanley Cup.

Knight's career has not turned out as expected to this point, but he still has No. 1 potential and should help give the Panthers an elite duo.

It is almost kind of unfair that a team as good as the Panthers from top to bottom can have a goalie tandem like this.

Goalies: Ilya Sorokin, Semyon Varlamov

The New York teams are just comically loaded in goal, and it might be a coin flip as to which one gets the top spot.

Sorokin had a down year in 2023-24, but he has a proven track record of being an elite goalie, while Varlamov could probably start for a lot of teams around the NHL. And he could also probably do so at a high level.

Goaltending is the Islanders' biggest strength, and they can put a starting-caliber goalie on the ice on any given night.

That is a big reason why they are a consistent playoff team despite being a bottom-tier offensive side that gives up a ton of shots.

Goalies: Igor Shesterkin, Jonathan Quick

In terms of starters, Shesterkin is as good as it gets and he is getting close to being on a level all of his own. He is the most important player on the Rangers' roster, one of the best in hockey and the best goalie in the world.

He allows the Rangers to play the style of hockey they play, and he helps them overcome whatever flaws their roster might have.

He is not only a Vezina candidate, but he should also be an MVP candidate every year.

Quick also rediscovered his game a bit after joining the Rangers, and while I do not like him as a backup as much as Varlamov with the Islanders, Shesterkin is so good and so far ahead of the rest of the pack as a starter that it elevates this duo into the top spot.