In the NHL season that's about to begin, having an elite starting goalie can be the difference between being a good team and a championship team. Having a goalie who shouldn't be starting at all is a good sign the draft lottery may be lurking in the future.
But which goalies are truly elite? Which teams will be trotting out borderline backups?
We attempted to answer that question by asking a panel of 15 people who would know best -- five general managers, four head coaches, three goalie coaches, two assistant general managers and one goal scorer -- to rate all 30 starting goalies on a scale of 1 to 5. A 1 was reserved for the truly elite, the goalies who change a franchise regardless of the team in front of them. Only two goalies in the entire league received 1s from every single voter.
A 3 was the middle ground -- the average starting goalie who isn't necessarily going to hurt or help you on most nights. Fives were reserved for goalies who should be backups, and it wasn't a number voters were eager to give out. In fact, only one goalie earned a 5.
In situations where two goalies are expected to share the workload, one was selected for the ballot to keep it manageable. In some cases, it was the goalie with the bigger body of work; in others (like John Gibson), it was the goalie with the more interesting story.
With the votes tallied and the scores averaged, the goalies were broken into three tiers, with the tier at the top being the hardest to crack. The complete results are below:
Tier 1 | Tier 2 | Tier 3
Tier 1 (4)
T-1. Henrik Lundqvist, New York Rangers (1.00 average rating)
Lundqvist was one of just two goalies with a perfect score. There was never any hesitation from the voters, never any hedging when rating him. "Lundqvist in my mind is the best goaltender in the world. Without a doubt," said one goalie coach. "It's his mind. He's so quick. He has the intimidation factor because he looks big even though he's not a big guy. His quickness is second to none, his willingness to do whatever it takes. If I were to choose one goalie to play on my team, I would take Henrik."