In the previous decade, we bid farewell to the era of the bellcow No. 1 goalie who started 70 games a year. It gave way to the NHL’s two-goalie era, in which the demands of the position made it necessary to employ duos capable of sharing large workloads. But now we’re inching toward…the trio era?
Last season, 61 NHL goalies hit the 20-game mark, with 71 starting 10 or more, while 98 different netminders appeared in at least one game. Between injuries and the rising tendency of clubs keeping three goalies on their rosters, it makes more and more sense to evaluate every franchise’s goaltending as an overall stable rather than putting all the weight on the starter.
That’s a consideration as we embark on Daily Faceoff’s 2026-27 NHL goalie tandem/trio rankings. For many teams, the quality of the puck-stoppin’ is about the sum of their parts. There are exceptions, of course, in the form of the true workhorse No. 1s, but they are rarer with each year; only one netminder reached 60 starts last season. Even Vezina Trophy winner Andrei Vasilevskiy logged just 58.
Here’s a breakdown of every team’s puck-stopper battery for 2026-27, with contract information courtesy of our partners at PuckPedia and advanced data from MoneyPuck. Injured goaltenders are marked with asterisks. Connor Hellebuyck is excluded and not factored into the Winnipeg Jets’ ranking while he sits out the preseason, suspended and awaiting a trade.
1. COLORADO AVALANCHE: Scott Wedgewood & Mackenzie Blackwood
How good did the Avs have it from their duo last season? Their team save percentage was .914. Second place in the NHL was .908. The league average was .896. Wedgewood, a career backup, led the NHL in SV% and goals-against average last season, and Blackwood is a luxury 1B who only started seven fewer games than Wedgewood last season. Wedgewood has earned the slight edge in workload, but he’s in the final season of his contract, and Blackwood, five years younger, has four seasons left on his deal. Blackwood is the higher-ceiling talent and, at least for now, the goalie in which the Avs are invested, so the workload could flip-flop at any point.
2. TAMPA BAY LIGHTNING: Andrei Vasilevskiy, Dennis Hildeby & Jonas Johansson
Vasilevskiy’s 10-year run as an NHL starter is among the best this century: two Stanley Cups, two Vezina Trophies, a Conn Smythe Trophy, first in the NHL in wins six times. But he has long needed a sturdier backup; Johansson has barely met the standard, posting an .889 SV% across three seasons in a Bolts uniform. Enter the hulking Hildeby, who is on a two-way contract but is no longer waivers exempt and shouldn’t have much trouble shoving Johansson aside. In fact, the Bolts put Johansson on waivers Wednesday. Among goalies with 20 or more games played last season, Hildeby led the league in goals saved above expected per 60. He’s no threat to reigning Vezina winner Vasilevskiy’s job, but ‘Hildebeast’ is good enough to provide Tampa with above-average backup goaltending for a change.
3. DALLAS STARS: Jake Oettinger & Casey DeSmith
On a per-start basis, DeSmith actually outplayed Oettinger last season. DeSmith graded out as one of the top goalies in the league, actually. He’s similar to what Wedgewood was before Colorado, a highly regarded backup who has never received an extended opportunity as a starter. DeSmith won’t get that in Dallas; Oettinger hasn’t met his sky-high ceiling over the course of his career to date, but he’s still one of the best all-around goaltenders in the league. DeSmith was great in 30 games last year, but Oettinger was good across 54 games, which is harder to do and just as valuable to a team.
In 2024-25, Thompson and Lindgren split starts almost evenly as one of the NHL’s most effective tandems. Thompson pulled away last season, however, starting 58 games. With back-to-back fourth-place Vezina finishes, Thompson has been as good as any goalie in the league across the past two seasons and has a real chance to nab his first Vezina on a reloaded Caps team that should yield plenty of wins for him. Lindgren is a fine safety net, though he’s coming off a down 2025-26 season in which he was below average. He labored through multiple injury absences, however, so he’s a decent candidate for a bounce-back year should he avoid the infirmary.
5. MINNESOTA WILD: Jesper Wallstedt, Filip Gustavsson* & Calvin Pickard
Wallstedt was on the shortlist of the decade’s highest-regarded goaltending prospects and, after struggling to get his career off the ground, languishing on bad AHL Iowa teams, his moment finally arrived last season when Marc-Andre Fleury’s retirement vacated the No. 2 job behind Gustavsson. Wallstedt flourished, posting the NHL’s second-best save percentage at .915. He started just 33 games, but we can expect him to push for 45-50 starts this season. Not only did he get the nod over Gustavsson to open the 2025-26 playoffs and start all but one of the Wild’s games, but Gustavsson is recovering from offseason hip surgery and won’t be ready for the start of the regular season, leaving Wallstedt as the undisputed No. 1 to open 2026-27. Wallstedt has the size, talent and technical proficiency to be a top-tier starter for years to come, though Gustavsson will still play plenty once he’s healthy. Journeyman backup Calvin Pickard is an acceptable stopgap in the meantime.
6. NEW YORK RANGERS: Igor Shesterkin & Joonas Korpisalo
Shesterkin is incredibly quick and athletic, which helps him overcome his slightly undersized 6-foot-1 frame. His .917 career SV% places him second among active goaltenders. The Rangers missed the playoffs last season but might have challenged for last overall without him. He saved 21.3 goals above expected. After Shesterkin’s backup Jonathan Quick retired, the seasoned Korpisalo takes over as the No. 2. He has slipped from an above-average starter in his late 20s to a barely average backup in his early 30s, but he’s good enough to spell Shesterkin for 20-25 starts.
7. NEW YORK ISLANDERS: Ilya Sorokin, Semyon Varlamov & Vitek Vanecek
With his Islanders spending the past half decade as a fringe playoff team and/or out of the race, Sorokin’s game has become overlooked. Did you know that he has five more shutouts than any other goalie over the past five years? He has also yet to post a SV% lower than .906 in his career and has finished no lower than eighth in the Vezina vote for five consecutive seasons. He’ll keep the Isles competitive no matter what. As for his backup: despite double knee replacement surgeries, Varlamov, 38, is ready to rejoin the team after last playing an NHL game in November 2024. How confident are the Isles that Varlamov is up to the task? It will be very telling if they decide to place UFA addition Vanecek on waivers and risk losing him. They’d reportedly rather carry only two goalies if they can help it.
Signing longtime Flames backup Vladar and giving him his first real shot as a starter proved a genius move from Flyers GM Danny Briere last season. Vladar was an absolute stalwart in Philly’s crease, posting a .906 save percentage, winning 29 games and finishing sixth in the Vezina vote. He was even better in the playoffs, posting an NHL-best .922 SV%. New acquisition Joseph Woll has the talent to push Vladar for starts in a way Samuel Ersson could not, but the No. 1 gig is Vladar’s as long as he keeps excelling, backed by the five-year extension he signed at a $5.5-million AAV July 1. An injury forced him from a preseason game earlier this week, but it sounds like he’s just day to day.
9. MONTREAL CANADIENS: Jakub Dobes, Jacob Fowler & Sam Montembeault
How many times in NHL history have we seen a pedigreed goalie, heralded as a future god between the pipes, forced to wait for his shot at stardom because the supposed stopgap is playing too well to surrender the job? Dobes is to Jacob Fowler what Jaroslav Halak was to Carey Price for a period in Montreal. A gamer who plays with real emotion and competitiveness, Dobes found his mental equilibrium partway through last season and played like a star after the Olympic break, going 11-5 with a .916 SV%. He was even better when we factor in that the Habs were not a great play-driving team; he sat seventh in goals saved above expected per 60 among goalies who played at least half their teams’ games. Dobes started all 19 games of Montreal’s 2025-26 playoff run and is clearly ahead of Fowler, but that doesn’t mean Fowler isn’t good enough to push Dobes for work. As for Montembeault: he’s as likely as any player in the league to be traded this season – and soon.
10. BOSTON BRUINS: Jeremy Swayman & Michael DiPietro
Swayman didn’t just have a strong claim to the Vezina last year; his Hart case might have been even stronger. He bailed out a defensively terrible Bruins team to save 28.8 goals above expected, second most in the NHL. But even a great goalie can only excel so long in a leaky system before all the shots add up. We saw Swayman crack in the postseason, visibly frustrated with his team’s inability to protect its net. It will be tough to sustain his performance if he doesn’t get more help going forward. He’ll have some intriguing backup in DiPietro, who was the best player in the entire AHL over the past couple seasons, even bagging the 2025-26 league MVP award. He’s no longer blocked by Korpisalo.
11. BUFFALO SABRES: Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, Alex Lyon & Colten Ellis
If we judge every team’s goaltending reliability three deep, the Sabres may be the best of the best. They got competent work from all three of ‘UPL,’ Lyon and Ellis last season, with Luukkonen and Lyon each earning extended runs as the starter during the playoffs. That said: while all three stoppers were solidly above average last season, none was consistently elite, which is why the Sabres have been linked to Hellebuyck as much as any team.
12. LOS ANGELES KINGS: Anton Forsberg & Darcy Kuemper
The Kings signed Forsberg in summer 2025 and appeared to be adding a quality backup to Kuemper, who was fresh off an outstanding 2024-25 campaign in which he finished third in the Vezina Trophy vote. But Kuemper regressed badly in his second season manning L.A.’s crease. Among 59 goalies who played 25 or more games last season, he sat 38th in goals saved above expected per 60. Forsberg, meanwhile, was excellent when called upon last year. His goals saved above expected per 60 graded out 14th in the NHL. Forsberg earned the postseason starting playoff job on merit, and he didn’t play badly against the mighty Avalanche. If we judge the Kings’ puckstoppers on what they’ve accomplished of late, Forsberg deserves the net, and he’s two and a half years younger than Kuemper. But we should expect both goalies to play a lot; this net will have a 1A/1B setup.
13. CALGARY FLAMES: Dustin Wolf & Devin Cooley
Wolf was outstanding as a rookie in 2024-25, dragging the Flames to within a tiebreaker of making the playoffs. He regressed in Year 2, but Cooley was arguably the best backup in the league. A .909 SV% might seem merely good on the surface, but on a Flames team way out of contention, he was outstanding relative to the difficulty of his workload, saving more goals above expected per 60 than any other netminder who played at least 21 games. Cooley remains the No. 2, to be clear, especially with Wolf embarking on Year 1 of a seven-season extension, but the Flames can count on quality goaltending no matter who mans the crease most nights.
14. COLUMBUS BLUE JACKETS: Jet Greaves, Cam Talbot, Pheonix Copley & Elvis Merzlikins*
Greaves is one of the NHL’s smallest goaltenders, generously listed at six-foot and 188 pounds, but few are quicker and more athletic. Over the past few seasons, he’s ascended from AHL standout to viable NHLer and, now, a rising star who just earned himself a three-year, $15-million contract. Among 28 goalies who appeared in at least half their teams games’ last season, he sat eighth in goals saved above expected per 60 minutes. Greaves is for real, and he even starred for Canada at the 2026 World Championship, putting himself on the 2028 World Cup radar. With Merzlikins out indefinitely after shoulder surgery and Copley (waived Wednesday) barely having played in the NHL the past couple years, the Jackets wisely added an experienced if well-past-his-prime backup in Talbot.
15. UTAH MAMMOTH: Karel Vejmelka & Sebastian Cossa
Only two goalies started more games than Vejmelka over the past two seasons. He’s one of the league’s most underrated workhorses. I do think Cossa is more talented than Vejmelka’s previous backups, however, meaning he might start half a dozen fewer games this season. Cossa, a first-round pick once thought to be on par with Wallstedt as a prospect, has immense upside, but Cossa will still have to prove himself as Utah’s potential goalie of the future. Not only does he have just a single NHL game to his name, but he also lost his starting job in the AHL last season after a slump.
16. CHICAGO BLACKHAWKS: Spencer Knight & Arvid Soderblom
Knight is the highest-drafted goalie since 2010, having gone 13th to the Panthers, and he’s living up to that pedigree with very little help on a rebuilding Blackhawks team. Only three goalies saw more high-danger shots per 60 at 5-on-5 last season. That he nevertheless posted a .902 SV%, well above the league average of .896, tells you how good Knight was. If Chicago’s defense can improve to a mediocre level, he could truly break out. Soderblom, shelled with more high-danger looks per minute than any goalie in the league last season, survives enough to be passable No. 2, even if he’s not a difference maker.
What a soap opera it was for Bussi last season. (Takes deep breath) He was an October waiver claim, then thrust into starting work when injuries befell the Canes, then became the fastest goalie in NHL history to win 30 games, then secured a multi-year contract extension, then slumped and lost his starting job to Frederik Andersen, then regained it when Andersen got hurt in the Stanley Cup Final, then closed out the championship with three wins in four games. Whew! As the Cup-winning goalie of record, having posted a .931 SV% against Vegas, Bussi owns the starter’s chair. But Kochetkov, one year younger, might still have a higher ceiling. He’s healthy now after missing most of last season with a hip injury that required surgery, and he’ll likely play almost as much as Bussi.
18. TORONTO MAPLE LEAFS: Sergei Bobrovsky & Anthony Stolarz
New Leafs GM John Chayka is gambling on a reunion between this ex-Panthers duo. ‘Bob’ is a future Hall of Famer, a two-time Stanley Cup champ, a two-time Vezina Trophy winner and a 400-game winner. His work ethic is legendary; he’s as respected as any goalie in the game by his peers. He’ll make a great organizational role model for prospect and fellow Russian Artur Akhtyamov to follow, too. But it’s one thing to have the worst season of your career and post an .877 SV%, and it’s another to do so at 37 years old. What if Bobrovsky, now 38, is simply washed? Stolarz, meanwhile, was outstanding the season before last but struggled last season and just can’t seem to stay healthy. At a massive 6-foot-6 and 248 pounds, he feels like an old 32 years old, and he has a lot to prove this season in what should be a busy 1B role to keep Bobrovsky fresh.
19. ST. LOUIS BLUES: Joel Hofer & Jordan Binnington
Binnington was adequate in Canada’s crease at the 2026 Olympics but not remotely so in the Blues’ crease, where he graded out as the worst goalie in the entire NHL in goals saved above expected per 60 last season. Entering the final year of his contract, he doesn’t feel long for St. Louis. Hofer is the guy now. He took over the role last year, starting more than half his team’s games for the first time in the NHL, and he was quietly one of the better goalies in the league. He’s ready to be the backbone of a reshuffled Blues team hoping for a playoff return, and he’ll be motivated in a contract year as a 2027 RFA if he doesn’t sign an extension soon.
20. OTTAWA SENATORS: Linus Ullmark, Samuel Ersson and Leevi Merilainen
Before Ullmark’s leave of absence last winter, he labored through the worst season of his career, posting an .881 SV% across his first 28 starts. But if we zoom out on Ullmark’s entire career, his first-half struggles last year are the outlier. From 2015-16 through 2024-25, he posted a .917 SV% across 291 games, seventh-best among all goalies with 100-plus appearances. Not only did he right the ship down the stretch last season, but he was amazing in Ottawa’s sweep playoff defeat. If there’s an area of concern in Ottawa’s crease, it’s actually the support behind Ullmark. Newcomer Samuel Ersson was quite possibly the NHL’s weakest goalie over the previous two seasons combined with the Philadelphia Flyers, sitting fourth-worst in the NHL in goals saved above expected per 60 in back-to-back campaigns. If he can’t get his game on track, the Sens will turn to Leevi Merilainen, who followed up a promising debut in 2024-25 with a putrid 2025-26 in which he was somehow even worse than Ersson.
21. SEATTLE KRAKEN: Joey Daccord & Philipp Grubauer
I’m probably underselling the Kraken here. Across the past three seasons, among 41 goalies with 100 or more games played, Daccord sits eighth in SV%. And Grubauer, after struggling for four seasons since joining Seattle, actually outplayed Daccord last season. I’m skeptical that Grubauer can duplicate the success, especially on a team as uninspiring as the Kraken, but Daccord is legit. He would be held in higher regard around the league if he played for a relevant club.
Gibson is seemingly doomed to spend almost his entire career laboring on subpar teams, overachieving and trying to keep them in the playoff hunt. Last season was among his strongest in years; it wasn’t a competition at all between him and Talbot in the end. The Wings will eventually hand the keys to prospect Trey Augustine, but he needs significant AHL seasoning first, and Gibson should stay very busy. Tarasov is a serviceable backup with great size; he quietly started a career-best 31 games for Florida last season and outplayed Bobrovsky.
Saros remains as prolific in volume as any netminder, having just led the NHL in shots faced and saved for the third time in the past four seasons. But Saros hasn’t actually played well since 2023-24. Maybe all those pucks are wearing him down? Annunen, meanwhile, took a big step forward last year as one of the NHL’s better No. 2s. Nashville would be wise to lighten Saros’ workload and give Annunen another half dozen starts.
Hart was wildly inconsistent in 2025-26, working off the rust after sitting out a season and a half awaiting trial for sexual assault. When he was hot, he looked like an All-Star. He ended the regular season on a heater, and was good in spurts during the playoffs, but he imploded in the Stanley Cup Final. Perhaps that leaves the door open for Hill, Vegas’ 2022-23 Stanley Cup-winning starter, to earn back a significant workload after an ugly 2025-26 performance.
25. EDMONTON OILERS: Frederik Andersen*, Tristan Jarry & Devon Levi
The good news: between Andersen’s experience and Levi’s long-term upside, the Oilers are better positioned in goal than they have been in years. The bad news: with Andersen suffering an injury during offseason training, the Oilers are somehow still saddled with Jarry as their presumed season-opening starter. He made for a terrible in-season trade acquisition last season, posting an .857 SV% in the Copper and Blue, and wasn’t tabbed as Edmonton’s starter to open the playoffs. Levi hasn’t lived up to his prospect pedigree yet, but he only has to *checks notes* play better than Tristan Jarry to push his way into a prominent NHL role early this season.
26. ANAHEIM DUCKS: Lukas Dostal, Ville Husso & Laurent Brossoit
Dostal is just a season removed from looking like one of the sport’s rising stars in net. He was the main reason for Anaheim’s large standings improvement the season before last, but he arguably cost the Ducks a few wins last season, and he was worse in the playoffs. Still, Dostal is an intelligent goalie who handles the puck well and is talented enough to rebound. The support behind him is shaky, though. Husso is one of the weaker backups in the league. Can Brossoit push him for work? Brossoit was once one of the best backups in the league, but he’s appeared in exactly one NHL game since 2023-24 due to catastrophic injury problems.
Don’t sleep on this duo. By walking away from Stuart Skinner, the Penguins made it clear they didn’t want to block Murashov any longer. He has excelled at one level after another over his past couple seasons, transitioning smoothly from the KHL to the ECHL to the AHL. He was one of the latter league’s best players in 2025-26, posting a .919 save percentage in the regular season and dominating at a .931 mark in the postseason. He’s ready for the NHL. Maybe he starts as Arturs Silovs’ 1B, but I’d bet on Murashov overtaking him for the 1A by December. Silovs profiles as a dutiful backup goaltender capable of getting hot for extended stretches as a spot starter, but Murashov’s ceiling is much higher. He’s an exciting prospect.
28. NEW JERSEY DEVILS: Jake Allen, Nico Daws & David Rittich
It’s fun to see Allen get a chance to start give or take 45 games for the first time since 2018-19. He’s earned that opportunity by providing such steady 1B work over the past half decade. It remains to be seen if he can handle a big workload increase at 36, however. Daws is a pretty untested backup, and Rittich is insurance behind him, but he could be an early-season waiver casualty.
29. FLORIDA PANTHERS: Jacob Markstrom & Akira Schmid
The Panthers are surely hoping their elite all-around play driving will make Markstrom’s workload easier and improve his results, but we can’t rule out the idea he’s done being an effective NHL goaltender. He’s 36, his save percentage has declined in consecutive seasons, and he’s having an increasingly difficult time staying healthy. Note the $2-million AAV the Panthers are paying Schmid for the next two years. They likely expect they’ll need him to play prominent minutes at some point this season.
30. SAN JOSE SHARKS: Yaroslav Askarov, Alex Nedeljkovic & Eric Comrie
How long can Askarov, one of this century’s most hyped prospects, hold onto the ‘goalie of the future’ label? Probably a bit longer. He’s still young for his position at 24, he sits at 61 career starts, and the team in front of him has been mired in a rebuild. Nevertheless, Askarov’s quality of play hasn’t met the standard the Sharks want yet, and they’re wise to load up on so many veteran backup options, with Ilya Samsonov signed as extra insurance behind ‘Ned’ and Comrie.
31. VANCOUVER CANUCKS: Thatcher Demko*, Kevin Lankinen & Nikita Tolopilo
Demko’s talent is undeniable, but he followed a chronic knee problem with hip surgery that will delay the start of his season, and I worry he’ll never be the same goaltender again due to his physical deterioration. Lankinen is hoping to recover from a down 2025-26, but it’s possible what we saw last year was merely a career backup who was exposed with a larger workload. It’s going to be a long season for the Canucks and their goaltenders.
32. WINNIPEG JETS: Stuart Skinner & Thomas Milic
Unless Hellebuyck reports to the team and has his suspension lifted, the Canucks will soldier on with Skinner, who is better suited to backup duty but will be forced into a starter’s role. Behind him: the undersized Milic. He was good enough to earn an AHL All-Star nod last season, but he’s largely untested in the NHL. Ideally, Winnipeg secures another viable veteran NHLer to pair with Skinner as part of a Hellebuyck trade.
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