NHL Top Players: Top 10 Goalies

From Stanley Cup champions to Vezina Trophy winners to All-Stars, the NHL has many great goalies. NHL Network producers and analysts chose the top 10 goalies in the League right now, which were revealed Sunday in the fourth of a nine-part series. Here is the list:

NHL Top Players: Top 20 Centers | Top 20 Wings | Top 20 Defensemen

10. Thatcher Demko, Vancouver Canucks

Demko was 14-14-4 with a 3.16 goals-against average, .901 save percentage and one shutout in 32 games last season, missing significant time due to injury. In 2021-22, he was among the NHL leaders in games (third) and wins (ninth), going 33-22-7 with a 2.72 GAA, .915 save percentage and one shutout in 64 games (61 starts). The 27-year-old is 81-67-15 with a 2.90 GAA and .910 save percentage in 168 NHL games (162 starts).

"I think he's going to just get better and better," said NHL Network analyst Bruce Boudreau, who coached Demko the previous two seasons. "He started out slow last year but I don't think he got a chance to train all summer because he was injured (in 2021-22) and when he started to get going after his injury midseason, then he became the Thatcher Demko that you want to see. ... He's got all the tools to make a really good goaltender."

9. Filip Gustavsson, Minnesota Wild

It was a breakout season for the 25-year-old, who was 22-9-7, establishing an NHL career high in wins, and had a 2.10 GAA, .931 save percentage and three shutouts in 39 games (37 starts) for the Wild last season. Gustavsson was 2-3 with a 2.33 GAA and .921 save percentage in five Stanley Cup Playoff games, and has a career 2.51 GAA and .920 save percentage in 66 games (60 starts).

"We thought that this guy was going to be a good goaltender and all of those things," Boudreau said. "But his second half in Minnesota, he was as good as anybody has been in a long time. ... If he can do this again this upcoming year, he will then be classified right in with those other great goaltenders I think."

8. Alexandar Georgiev, Colorado Avalanche

In his first season with the Avalanche following a trade from the New York Rangers, Georgiev showed he was capable of being a No. 1 goalie. He set NHL career highs in games (62), wins (40), GAA (2.53), save percentage (.919) and shutouts (five). The 27-year-old was 40-16-6, tying Linus Ullmark of the Boston Bruins for the NHL lead in wins and helping Colorado win the Central Division title for the third straight season.

"He was phenomenal for them and he was in a difficult situtation," NHL Network analyst Devan Dubnyk said. "They were coming off a Stanley Cup win with Darcy Kuemper. [Georgiev] made it known in New York that he wanted to play more and he wanted to be a starter and he gets this opportunity. There's a lot of pressure when he comes to Colorado after they just won the Cup and he did nothing but perform."

7. Jake Oettinger, Dallas Stars

Oettinger improved on his 2021-22 numbers of 30 wins, a 2.53 GAA and .914 save percentage by going 37-11-11 with a 2.37 GAA and .919 save percentage with five shutouts in 62 games (61 starts). The 24-year-old finished fifth in voting for the Vezina Trophy last season as the top goalie in the NHL. He led the Stars to the Western Conference Final, and has started 26 playoff games for them the past two seasons.

"We talked about going into last season where everyone was just watching to see what he was going to do because he was so ridiculous in the first round of the playoffs. They almost won a round that they had no business being in any of the games, " Dubnyk said. "... I was in his corner the whole time saying he was going to do it again."

6. Linus Ullmark, Boston Bruins

It was a memorable season for the Bruins and Ullmark, who was 40-6-1 with a 1.89 GAA, .938 save percentage and two shutouts in 49 games (48 starts). He led the NHL in GAA and save percentage, tied Georgiev for the League lead in wins and was voted the Vezina Trophy as the top goalie in the NHL. The 30-year-old allowed two or fewer goals in 36 games and became the fastest goalie in NHL history to reach 40 wins in a season (in his 49th game). He and teammate Jeremy Swayman shared the William M. Jennings Trophy as the goaltenders on the team allowing the fewest goals (177) during the season, helping Boston to an NHL-record 65 wins and 135 points.

"It was a disappointing playoffs for him obviously but the numbers and what he did in the regular season are absolutely astronomical and I don't know if we're ever going to see something like that again," Dubnyk said.

5. Juuse Saros, Nashville Predators

Saros was 33-23-7 with a 2.69 GAA, .919 save percentage and two shutouts in 64 games (63 starts) last season, tying Connor Hellebuyck of the Winnipeg Jets for the NHL lead in games. He faced the most shots (2,099) and made the most saves (1,928), playing more minutes (3,809:59) than any other goalie. The 28-year-old finished fourth in Vezina voting last season after he was a finalist in 2021-22 (third place) when he led the NHL in games played (67) and starts (67), and went 38-25-3.

"He must be one of the most athletic goalies you're ever going to want to see," Boudreau said. "I think the thing that when I look at him and I think of mental toughness ... he has kept them in the playoff hunt all these times. ... Even last year with all the injuries that Nashville had, they could rely on him to keep them three goals or under in a game and they would scratch and claw and win the games."

4. Connor Hellebuyck, Winnipeg Jets

Hellebuyck went 37-25-2 with a 2.49 GAA, .920 save percentage and four shutouts in 64 games last season. He was tied for third in wins with Oettinger and Igor Shesterkin of the New York Rangers, tied with Saros for most games, and was tied with Swayman for fourth in save percentage among goalies to play at least 20 games. Hellebuyck faced the third-most shots (1,964) and made the second-most saves (1,807). The 30-year-old finished third in Vezina Trophy voting; he has been a top three finalist in three of the past six seasons, winning the award in 2019-20.

"He's been able to frustrate the heck out of you because you can look on tapes and you can find holes but they are never there," Boudreau said. "He's so positionally sound. ... He's got that mentality that he wants to be the best and he knows he can be the best."

3. Ilya Sorokin, New York Islanders

Sorokin was 31-22-7 with a 2.34 GAA, .924 save percentage and an NHL-best six shutouts in 62 games (60 starts) last season. He was third in save percentage, sixth in GAA among goalies to play at least 20 games and tied for third in games played. Sorokin made at least 30 saves in 25 games and was 5-0-2 when making at least 40 saves in a game last season. The 28-year-old is 70-46-18 in 136 games since entering the NHL in the 2020-21 season; his .924 save percentage in that span is second to Ullmark (.926) and his 2.34 GAA ranks third (minimum 50 games).

"The thing I love about him is he's so calm and collected," Dubnyk said. "... He [didn't] get a lot of support goal-wise from the Islanders, especially in the playoffs, so for them to be winning games and be where they were, he had to be that good."

2. Igor Shesterkin, New York Rangers

The Vezina winner and Hart Trophy finalist as NHL MVP in 2021-22, Shesterkin was 37-13-8 with a 2.48 GAA, .916 save percentage and three shutouts in 58 games last season. His 73 wins are tied with Andrei Vasilevskiy of the Tampa Bay Lightning for the most the past two seasons, and his 2.29 GAA and .925 save percentage are each tied for second (minimum 10 games). The 27-year-old is 99-42-15 with a 2.37 GAA, .924 save percentage and 11 shutouts in 158 regular-season games (153 starts).

"[The Rangers] get to go from a Hall of Famer in [Henrik Lundqvist] to probably a future one in Shesterkin," Dubnyk said. "... His puck handling is elite. ... It's fun to watch him stop all these pucks, but he breaks the puck out for his team pretty well too."

1. Andrei Vasilevskiy, Tampa Bay Lightning

The No. 1-ranked goalie for the fifth year in a row, Vasilevskiy was 34-22-4 with a 2.65 GAA, .915 save percentage and four shutouts in 60 games last season, the sixth straight season he had at least 30 wins. He led or tied for the NHL lead in wins each of the previous five seasons from 2017-22. The 29-year-old won the Vezina Trophy in 2018-19 and has finished in the top five in voting in five of the past six seasons. Since 2015-16, he leads the NHL in wins (256) and is third in shutouts (31). Vasilevskiy helped the Lightning win the Stanley Cup in back-to-back seasons, playing every minute in the 2020 and 2021 playoffs. He was 16-7 with a 1.90 GAA, .937 save percentage and five shutouts in 23 games to win the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP in 2021.

"If you asked anybody around the League, around hockey who you would put in net in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final, there's not a single person that's not saying Vasilevskiy because he's done it," Dubnyk said. "He's a big-game goalie."