The NHL off-season is in full swing, with most teams making significant moves to improve their organization. This is as good a time as any to identify the NHL’s best teams by position.
We’ve already looked at the best defense corps and the top groups of forwards. It’s time to look at the five teams with the best goaltending, as well as some honorable mentions.
These are the tandems that either have a superstar starting goalie and a good-enough backup or two strong options, even if they aren’t stars on their own. This past season’s results are a significant factor, but there is an exception for a tandem with subpar results but high potential. Let’s get straight to it.
1. Winnipeg Jets
Goalies: Connor Hellebuyck, Eric Comrie
In Hellebuyck, the Jets have the reigning Vezina Trophy winner for the past two seasons and the 2024-25 Hart Trophy winner as NHL MVP. He was especially dominant this past season, in particular, putting up a .925 save percentage and 2.01 goals-against average in a whopping 63 appearances. Nobody was a better workhorse than the 32-year-old veteran, who is a bargain at $8.5 million per season. His playoff performance remains a concern, but he’s undoubtedly a superstar goalie.
Hellebuyck’s dominance means the 30-year-old Comrie hasn’t had much of a workload, appearing in only 20 games this past year. But Comrie’s numbers – a .914 SP and 2.39 GAA – are exactly what Jets GM Kevin Cheveldayoff is looking for in an understudy for Hellebuyck. Comrie also earns only $825,000 this coming season, so paying him and Hellebuyck less than $10 million is quite the coup for Winnipeg.
The Jets will remain one of the best teams in the NHL, partly because Hellebuyck and Comrie are delivering as advertised.
2. Toronto Maple Leafs
Goalies: Anthony Stolarz, Joseph Woll
In their first season working together, Stolarz and Woll were a smashing success for the Maple Leafs. Stolarz recorded a .926 SP and 2.14 GAA in 34 games for the low cost of only $2.5 million, while Woll had a .909 SP and 2.73 GAA in 42 appearances while earning only $766,667. When factoring in the quality of the shots they faced, Stolarz had 25.8 goals saved above expected, while Woll had 16.8, according to moneypuck.com. That’s good for fourth and 11th among all goalies, making Toronto the only team with two netminders in the top 15. Toronto also had the fourth-best team save percentage in the NHL, according to naturalstattrick.com, and the second-most goals against below expected, per Money Puck.
Stolarz missed time due to an injury, but when he was healthy, he was stellar in his first season as a Leaf. And while Woll’s cap hit in 2025-26 rises to about $3.67 million, you’re still looking at a Toronto goalie tandem that costs a little more than $6 million. Any way you cut it, that’s terrific value at a key position, and Woll and Stolarz can move into next season confident that they’ll be splitting time almost evenly and being fresh once the Stanley Cup playoffs roll around.
There may be no more evenly balanced tandem than this one, and now, it’s all about reproducing their regular-season success in the post-season.
3. Dallas Stars
Goalies: Jake Oettinger, Casey DeSmith
It’s true Oettinger didn’t have the best post-season for the Stars last year, as he had a rough Western Conference final series against the Edmonton Oilers. But by and large, the 26-year-old’s save percentage dropped only slightly, from .909 in the regular season to .905 in the playoffs. Oettinger can also find another gear, as he did in 2022-23, when he had a career-high .919 SP.
Oettinger is still regarded as one of the top goaltenders on the planet, and that hasn’t changed because he slipped a bit this past season. He’s beginning the first year of an eight-year contract extension paying him $8.25 million per year, and the Stars believe Oettinger is worth every penny.
Oettinger’s 58 appearances last season left backup DeSmith with only 27 games played, but DeSmith posted a .915 SP and 2.59 GAA, as well as a team-leading 15.9 goals saved above expected. DeSmith was in the first season of a three-year deal paying him only $1 million annually.
Together, Oettinger and DeSmith were about as good as it gets for an NHL tandem, and the former can play even better if he returns to the form he had in 2022-23. New Stars coach Glen Gulutzan will rely on Oettinger and DeSmith to stand tall in net.
4. Vancouver Canucks
Goalies: Thatcher Demko, Kevin Lankinen
The Canucks had some bad luck with injuries last season, specifically with Demko, who has been the franchise’s top netminder for four years now. But Demko is now healthy. Combined with Lankinen, who posted a .902 save percentage and 2.62 GAA in a career-high 54 games this past season, he gives Vancouver a one-two punch to rival any other team’s goaltending situation.
When Demko is in form, he’s a Vezina Trophy candidate. He was truly elite in 2023-24, with a 2.45 GAA, .918 SP and five shutouts before his injury troubles began. Being in and out of the lineup in 2024-25 with a 2.90 GAA and .889 SP could be nothing but a blip.
Demko and Lankinen are signed for at least the next four seasons at a combined salary cap hit of $9.5 million in 2025-26, followed by a combined $13-million cap hit for the following three campaigns. That’s good value for what the duo can bring to the table at the height of their potential. The Canucks are almost assuredly going to battle for a playoff spot in large part because of Demko and Lankinen providing stellar play between the pipes.
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Pittsburgh Penguins on Sunday for a fourth-round pick and a middling prospect in Chase Stillman, they did so with their fingers crossed that he won't make them look ridiculous.
5. New York Rangers
Goalies: Igor Shesterkin, Jonathan Quick
Shesterkin appeared in a career-high 61 games for the Rangers last season, but the 29-year-old had a down year by his standards, putting up a .905 SP and 2.86 GAA. That said, the Rangers’ defense corps was porous, doing no favors for Shesterkin and Quick, who also posted a rough .893 SP and 3.17 GAA. Shesterkin still had the seventh-most goals saved above expected, with 21.6.
The duo is on this list because we expect a better season from Shesterkin, who will have an improved defense corps in front of him. Shesterkin has posted a save percentage of .913 or better in his previous five NHL seasons, and if used sparingly, Quick still has the muscle memory of his best days in the league. So the Rangers will almost certainly get better performances from their netminders, and Shesterkin will underscore his status as one of the NHL’s top five goalies.
Honorable Mentions: Tampa Bay Lightning, New York Islanders and Florida Panthers
It wasn’t easy picking only five goalie tandems, and the Lightning, Islanders and Panthers all had merit to be argued as employing one of the better goalie duos.
The Lightning have superstar Andrei Vasilevskiy, who returned to his dominant form last season by putting up a .921 SP and 2.18 GAA in 63 games. Meanwhile, the Islanders’ duo of Ilya Sorokin and Semyon Varlamov has the experience and ability to keep them in games, although the latter missed most of this past season due to injury. And finally, in Florida, Panthers star Sergei Bobrovsky has won back-to-back Cups, has two Vezina wins and is entering the final year of his lucrative contract.
For different reasons, the Bolts, Panthers and Islanders all have difference-making starting goalies, which is why they deserve to at least be in this conversation. If things go well for them during the season, they could move higher on this list. But for now, at least, they’re among the best netminders the NHL has to offer.
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