EP Rinkside's top 15 goalies going into the 2024-25 NHL season

The NHL league average save percentage dropped to .903 last season.

That’s the lowest it’s been since the 2005-06 season, when it was .901, a season that was played with new offence-focused rules. In the past five seasons, the league average save percentage has dropped by at least a point per season.

Statistically speaking, it’s never been harder to be a goalie in the NHL.

This makes the task of ranking the top 15 goalies even more fascinating to me. In an era where the league average is dropping, which goalies are still raising the bar?

To build this list, I had three NHL goalie experts — individuals who are either NHL goalie coaches or work in a goalie department for NHL teams — rank their top 15 goalies in the NHL. I also created my own list separately after talking to others around the NHL and then averaged the lists together to build this top 15.

We then graded each goalie using our EP tool grades, similar to what we did with goalie prospects.

For a quick refresher, the grades are on a 1-to-9 scale with the following data.

Ok, let’s get into the list.

1. Igor Shestyorkin - New York Rangers

In each conversation, panellists debated between Igor Shestyorkin and Andrei Vasilevsky as No. 1, and in the end, the New York Rangers netminder took the top spot in a split decision. Shestyorkin struggled around the middle of last season, leading to some extra playing time for Jonathan Quick, but his performance in the playoffs was a solid reminder of his current role in the NHL goaltending echelon.

2. Andrei Vasilevskiy - Tampa Bay Lightning

Andrei Vasilevsky’s play hasn’t matched his reputation over the past two seasons, which one panellist felt was a reflection of how much Tampa Bay’s back-to-back-to-back runs to the Stanley Cup Final overworked him, and now the Lightning are paying the price. Despite that, Vasilevskiy continues to be held in high regard for his ability to take over games and stabilize a team.

3. Juuse Saros - Nashville Predators

Juuse Saros has played more regular-season games than any other goalie in the past three seasons, logging 195 starts for the Nashville Predators, five more than Connor Hellebuyck in Winnipeg. Saros’s durability and consistency were key points for panellists, including one who felt Saros would be better this coming season with Nashville more comfortable with Andrew Brunette’s system.

4. Connor Hellebuyck - Winnipeg Jets

Connor Hellebuyck won the Vezina Trophy last season, and I had him higher on my personal list. However, there were some concerns from panellists about Hellebuyck’s playoff performances over the past two seasons, with one panellist ranking the Jets goalie as low as ninth. “I can’t discredit what he’s done, but he’s a product of a good defence that doesn’t make him move laterally and does the rebound work for him. Great first-shot guy, but doesn’t move well enough in my mind.”

5. Thatcher Demko - Vancouver Canucks

One of the “what-ifs?” about the Vancouver Canucks playoff run was what might have happened if Thatcher Demko had been healthy. Demko was one of the NHL’s best goalies during the regular season, and while Artūrs Šilovs was a good story in the playoffs, he wasn’t playing at Demko’s level. The big concern for Demko from a couple of panellists was his consistency and ability to play and stay healthy for the requisite 60 to 70 games between the playoffs and regular season.

6. Jeremy Swayman - Boston Bruins

One of the biggest pieces of remaining NHL business is the Boston Bruins’ pending RFA negotiation with Jeremy Swayman. The Bruins’ goalie effectively played Linus Ullmark out of town with his showing in the playoffs and now will have to prove he’s more of a traditional No. 1 than a 1A with a strong 1B backup. Goalie coaches tend to love Swayman’s decision-making and how he reads the play buildup.

7. Ilya Sorokin - New York Islanders

Ilya Sorokin lost the net in the playoffs to Semyon Varlamov, but panellists for this project saw that as more of an outlier and expected a bounce-back from the New York Islanders goalie. In fact, two still had him in their top five for current NHL goalies. It’s hard to ignore that the Islanders recently hired Sorokin’s old goalie coach from the KHL, Sergejs Naumovs, to work with their AHL team.

8. Sergei Bobrovski - Florida Panthers

Sergei Bobrovski won the Stanley Cup. He was great during that run and could have won the Conn Smythe if the Edmonton Oilers and Connor McDavid hadn’t come back from down 3-1 to force a Game 7. Bobrovsky is getting older — he’s 35 — and the Panthers have properly identified that he needs a backup to play at least 25 games in the regular season for more peak performance in the playoffs, like in 2024.

9. Jake Oettinger - Dallas Stars

Jake Oettinger is the goalie on the list that everyone wanted to rank higher, and if there were a “future watch” approach to this list, he’d probably be top-two with Swayman. As one goalie coach pointed out, Oettinger is only 25, and they expect him to be better this season. “Some of the physical parts of his game struggled last season; we all know about the injury. But I think some of the mechanics and decisions actually improved.”

10. Jacob Markstrom - Calgary Flames

Jacob Markström was part of one of the higher-profile goalie moves of the offseason when he was traded from the Calgary Flames to the New Jersey Devils. For New Jersey, it’s a major upgrade, and a lack of competent goaltending is one of the main reasons they missed the playoffs in 2024. Markström is already 34, so there are some questions about age, but multiple panellists felt they’d see a more motivated and focused version of the goalie in New Jersey this season.

11. Linus Ullmark - Ottawa Senators

Another big-name goalie move: Linus Ullmark was shipped out two years after winning the Vezina Trophy due to the play of Swayman, landing in Ottawa, where he’ll be tested more than he was in Boston. “I think we are going to find out how much he really adjusted his game in Boston and how much it was just the Bruins being that good in front of him.”

12. Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen - Buffalo Sabres

Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen made a strong impression on panellists last season, going from a question mark in a three-goalie carousel to the No. 1 option in 2024. Luukkonen became a more refined goalie, according to one goalie coach, who pointed out that he transformed from an athlete battling to one with a better plan of attack on pre-shot decisions.

13. Joseph Woll - Toronto Maple Leafs

One goalie coach I spoke to is really excited about seeing Joseph Woll get the chance to be a No. 1 in Toronto. “He’s been their best goalie for three seasons; I don’t know why they didn’t turn to him sooner,” they said.

14. Alexander Georgiev - Colorado Avalanche

Alexander Georgiev is admittedly the goalie I wasn’t sold on including in this list, but our NHL goalie experts all had the Colorado Avalanche goalie in their top 15. When I brought this up to one of them, they mentioned that Georgiev was probably misused and that the Avalanche system and depth chart are going to make him look worse than he really is. “I think if he was with a team that wasn’t so offence-focused or had a backup that could make it so he doesn’t play 65 games, you’d be a little higher on him.”

15. Jordan Binnington - St. Louis Blues

Jordan Binnington can be a bit divisive. Every conversation about Binnington starts with a discussion about how he has raw talent and a Stanley Cup, but does he have the consistency and focus to be on a list like this if you’re talking top-line goalies? “He’ll probably be the goalie for Canada at the Olympics in a couple of years, but he’s also a guy who I feel could win a Vezina one day and lose the net completely the next.”