Prospecting and projecting goalies is a fool's errand. For better or worse, starting this season at EP Rinkside, I’m now that fool. 

And, somehow, I’m more than thrilled to do it. When JD Burke first asked me if I’d consider taking over as the lead goalie scout for Elite Prospects I had my own reservations, I truly didn’t feel qualified. 

Now, I’ve played the position since I was a child (I even portrayed a beer league goalie in a movie recently) and have covered the NHL now for more than a decade. During that time as a reporter, I’ve always naturally spent most of my time talking about and with goalies, and I’ve developed a long list of goalie-world contacts during that time and pitched in the occasional scouting report over the past two seasons.

Essentially, I was being asked to turn a passion into a profession, and after picking a former NHL goalie coach’s brain about taking the assignment, I willingly became the fool who would try to figure out the most difficult position to project in hockey for the fine folks at Elite Prospects and EP Rinkside.

So, over the past two months, I’ve done a crash course in the goalie prospect world. I’ve watched film on close to 40 goalies, reached out to NHL and AHL goalie coaches and scouts for their views on the wider goalie universe and I’ve come to my list of the top-15 affiliated goalie prospects. 

First a couple key things to keep in mind. 

In order to be eligible for this list, a goalie must still be eligible for the Calder Memorial Trophy. That means they must not have played 25 games in a single season, played six or more games in consecutive seasons, or be older than 27. 

That means the likes of Devon Levi, Spencer Knight, Mads Søgaard, and Ivan Fedotov are no longer “prospects,” for this exercise. 

There is also a balance of certainty and long-term upside to figure out. Certainty is great, but I put more weight on the long-term upside, especially at a position where I believe the gap between good and great is getting increasingly smaller. 

It’s not an exact science, but I’m ranking goalies under the ideology of “Who will have the best NHL career?”

For point of reference when looking at tools grades, you can read them on a 1-to-9 basis. Anything above a 5-grade is considered NHL replacement level. 

Now, let's get to the fun part and dive in on the ranking of the 15 best goalie prospects going into the 2024-25 NHL season.