Ranking The Top Ten NHL Goalies

TheHabsFan Hey everybody! I've been seeing other users on TheTopTens making posts ranking certain things, and I thought to myself why don't I do that with NHL stuff because that's what I'm knowledgeable at and Its also a hobby of mine. So I'm going to be going through my top ten best NHL Goalies. And the reasons I placed them where I did. I am a very opinionated NHL fanatic, I usually try and not follow the crowd. So without further ado let's get started.

10. Tony Esposito. I was stuck between putting him in the top ten, and not putting him in at all. So I decided to put him in at tenth. He was one of the very first amazing goaltenders of the NHL. Back when he used to play it was harder to be a goaltender, mainly because they had barely any padding compared to now, but he managed to end his NHL career with over 0.900 save percentage. He also won 100 more games than he lost, which is quite good. Inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1988, my number ten is Tony Esposito.

9. Ed Belfour. Even though he only won one Cup and two Vezina trophies he still was a great goalie. And some people might say that is a good amount of those awards, but to be ranked nine it isn't anything special. His 484 wins rank 3rd all-time among NHL goaltenders. But he did play almost 1000 games. His wins did outdo his losses by over 100 though. Being inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2011, Belfour is 9th in my top ten goalies.

8. Pekka Rinne. Being picked 258th over all in the 2004 NHL Draft didn't make Rinne look to promising. But in four years Rinne was the Predators starting goalie, and on to great success. In 2018 Rinne led the Predators to a President's Trophy win, also winning the Vezina the same year. His stats are really good, with his Wins almost doubling his regluation losses. I think Rinne deserves a Stanley Cup, but I don't know if he'll get one. That puts Rinne 8th in my ranking.

7. Marc-Andre Fleury. Being picked first overall by the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2003, Fleury didn't become the Penguins starting goalie until 2005. Fleury's wins have outdone his losses every season since his third year in the NHL. Fleury then went to win three Stanley Cups all with the Penguins, in 2009, 2016, and 2017. In June 2017 the Penguins protected Matt Murray from the Golden Knights expansion draft, leaving Fleury unprotected. Golden Knights snatched him up without giving it a second thought. And then Fleury brought the expansion team, the Las Vegas Golden Knights to the Stanley Cup finals! That's very impressive! So Fleury is 7th in this list.

6. Henrik Lundqvist. Picked 205th overall by the New York Rangers in the 2000 NHL draft, Lundqvist has only ever played for the Rangers. He is the only goaltender in NHL history to record 30 wins in each of first seven seasons. And also the First NHL goaltender to start his career with 11 straight, 20-win seasons, and became overall the 15th NHL goalie to have won at least 20 games in a season 11 times. He also got to 400 wins in the fastest time in NHL history. So Lundqvist is stacked with amazing records, a bunch I didn't even mention. If he continues to play for a while longer he could become one of the top three greatest goaltenders of NHL history.

5. Jacques Plante. What's kind of funny is that while I was writing this, Plante and Lundqvist were tied for wins. Jacques Plante is such a legend he entered the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1978. His Wins almost outdid his losses by 200! That's amazing goaltending! He also racked up seven Vezina Trophies, in 1956, 1957, 1958, 1959, 1960, 1962, and 1969! That's a lot of Vezina Trophies! And he also won six Stanley Cups, in 1953, 1956, 1957, 1958, 1959, and 1960. So plante get 5th place.

4. Ken Dryden. Dryden was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1983. A cool fact about Dryden is that he didn't lose a single game in his first NHL season, only because he played six games. That's still impressive though! His stats are legendary, GP: 397 W: 258 L: 57 T: 74 and a legendary 0.921 save percentage! Those stats are just amazing, but a huge reason why they were and are so good is because he was on a very talented team most of the time. He was the starting goaltender for the Montreal Canadiens in the 1976-77 NHL Season, he only lost six of fifty-six games! He also won five Vezina Trophies and six Stanley Cup. So Ken Dryden is placed in 4th.

3. Martin Brodeur. Drafted 20th overall by the New Jersey Devils in the 1990 NHL draft. And at the time of writing this, Nov. 13th 2018, he just entered the Hockey Hall of Fame. Brodeur holds a lot of NHL records, such as wins (691), losses (397), shutouts (125), and games played (1,266). He won at least 30 games in twelve straight seasons between 1995–96 and 2007–08 and is the only goalie in NHL history with eight 40-win seasons. He has won the Vezina Trophy four times, the Stanley Cup three times, the William M. Jennings Trophy five times. He is also one of two NHL Goalies to score a goal in the regular season and the playoffs. He had an amazing 2.02 GAA in the NHL playoffs. So Brodeur takes 3rd place.

2. Patrick Roy. Roy was drafted 51st overall by the Montreal Canadiens in the 1984 NHL Draft, his career took off pretty fast after that. He got a shutout in his very first NHL game, which is quite the accomplishment. His wins almost outdid his losses by 250! He has altogether 4 Stanley Cups, two with the Montreal Canadiens and the other two with the Colorado Avalanche. He also has won the Conn Smythe Trophy three times, that's very good. He also has five William M. Jennings Trophies and three Vezina Trophies. That's a lot a really good awards. Then after he retired as a player, he became a coach. He coached the Avalanche for three years and did pretty well. So Patrick Roy gets the 2nd spot in my list.

1. Dominik Hasek. The main reason I put Hasek first is because he had the best save percentage of all time with 0.922! And even better in the playoffs with 0.925! Those are absolutely insane stats. He's got quite a few awards also, which include, two Hart Memorial Trophies, two Lester B. Pearson Awards (AKA Ted Lindsay Award), six Vezina Trophies, two Stanley Cups, and three William M. Jennings Trophies. Hasek was drafted 199th overall by the Chicago Black Hawks in the 1983 NHL draft. He only played 25 games for the Black Hawks, then they traded him to the Sabres for two players that didn't do much. So the Sabres just plain robbed the Black Hawks, I feel bad. So from my NHL experience l think that Dominik Hasek is the best NHL goaltender of all time.

Here are some Honorable Mentions: Carey Price, Sergei Bobrovsky, Gump Worsely, Miika Kiprusof, Goerge Hainsworth, Tim Thomas, Tuukka Rask, Bill Durnan, Terry Sawchuk, Johnny Bower, Bernie Parent.

I hope you liked My Top Ten NHL Goalies. If you have any question don't mind asking. I'd also like to hear any reasons why you think I might be wrong in some way. Thanks for reading and have a great day!

Comments

Wow! I put a good chunk of effort into this. Looking back, I disagree with a couple things. - TheHabsFan