B/R NHL Goalie Rankings: March 2023
We're getting down to crunch time in the NHL season. We're past the trade deadline, playoff battles are getting hotter and the stakes are getting higher. What else does all of that mean? Goalies are about to go under an electron microscope, as opposed to the usual biology class microscope they're used to.
By now, the haves and have-nots have been sorted out, and that means it's really time for us to get super serious about how we're ranking goalies this month. We're cutting down the field and focusing on a top-10 list because, no offense to Elvis Merzļikins, Jordan Binnington, Petr Mrázek or anyone else near the bottom of the statistics, ranking out the bottom five or 10 just isn't interesting right now apart from firing the snark cannon. Which, yes, that's fun, but it's been a really long season for those guys, so we'll cut them a break.
As for our top 10 picks, we're using total season numbers in save percentage, five-on-five play, shutouts and fancy stats like goals saved above expected to rank everyone out. There is one stipulation to qualify, however, and to be ranked they have to have played at least 30 games this season. They've put in the work, and it's a more complete sample of their performance. Goalies currently injured may not make the cut based on the "what have you done for me lately" criteria. They've also got to be above the league average save percentage of .905. We need some standards here.
Don't agree with any of that or the rankings or our general attitude? Let us hear it in the comments. Let's head to the list.
10. Joonas Korpisalo, Los Angeles Kings
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A funny thing happened along the way through the stacks of statistics. When breaking down which goalies deserved shoutouts and to be part of our top 10, one name kept popping up throughout the top 10 of a lot of categories.
Well, a lot of names kept repeating, but one that hadn't before was Joonas Korpisalo. A problem of selective sight while he was with the Columbus Blue Jackets? Possibly, but his pretty good numbers there were tainted by all of the losses the Jackets incurred and the fact he split the net with two other goalies during the season.
But he was sent to the Kings at the trade deadline with Vladislav Gavrikov for Jonathan Quick, and suddenly, Korpisalo's numbers began to stand out a bit brighter.
Korpisalo ranks in the top 10 among goalies with 30 or more games played or more than 1,200 minutes played at five-on-five in goals saved above expected (seventh), five-on-five save percentage (tied for fourth) and is tied for 11th in save percentage in all situations (.913).
One thing he's yet to come up with this season is a shutout. That also makes him sort of unique among the rest of the 'tenders on this list because only one other goalie has gone through the season without a shutout. To be fair, if he'd managed to post a shutout with Columbus, we'd be campaigning for him to win the Vezina.
Korpisalo's task in L.A. is to help them hold it down in goal after a difficult season at that position and supplanting the franchise's greatest goalie. No biggie, right? Going from the outhouse to the Pacific Division's version of the penthouse should be motivation enough.
9. Stuart Skinner, Edmonton Oilers
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Being a rookie goalie in the NHL can be pretty difficult. Being a rookie goalie who has the task of helping Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl to win a Stanley Cup could be thoroughly nerve-wracking. That Stuart Skinner has taken it on and done so very well speaks a lot about him.
Skinner wasn't supposed to be the No. 1 goalie—Jack Campbell was. But Campbell has struggled all season, and Skinner had the opportunity to win the net. He's taken it and run.
Although Skinner is outside of the top 10 in save percentage, his five-on-five save percentage is much better, placing him seventh in the league. He's just outside of the top 10 in goals saved above expected as well. With how much the Oilers have been able to fill the net, thanks to McDavid, all they've needed was competent goaltending to get them into a playoff spot, and Skinner has given them more than enough.
Like Korpisalo, Skinner also hasn't had a shutout this season thanks to the Oilers' leaky defense, but they haven't needed him to outright win games for them, although he's done his fair share being able to win games 3-2 as opposed to 5-4. After all, when you score as much as the Oilers do, you can afford to give up a couple now and then.
Still, Skinner's performance this season has to have Oilers brass feeling much better about their goaltending as the season winds down compared to previous seasons.
8. Andrei Vasilevskiy, Tampa Bay Lightning
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No one goalie has been as up and down the rankings this season as Andrei Vasilevskiy. Well, that's probably not completely true, but he's bounced between the middle of the road and the top five this season. This time around, he checks in at No. 8 because he has been outstanding.
He's ninth in save percentage in all situations and at five-on-five, and he's nearly top-five in goals saved above expected. It's tough to have any issue with how he's played, although the Lightning have been a bit off-kilter recently, but that's not all on Vasilevskiy.
We've said here before it feels uncomfortable to criticize Vasilevskiy because he always bounces back, but as the season winds down and their chase of the Toronto Maple Leafs for home ice in the first round of the playoffs has stalled, it introduces the idea they may not have it this season.
But since the start of 2023, Vasilevskiy has been just a little better than average and put up a record a few games above .500, but he's also posted both of his shutouts this season during that time. Vasilevskiy can be great, but he'll have to get the consistency we've grown accustomed to in his career back in time for the playoffs.
7. Juuse Saros, Nashville Predators
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Juuse Saros may be one of the smaller goalies in the NHL, at least compared to the giants who dominate the league these days, but he's been doing Herculean work for the Predators this season.
He's just outside the top five in save percentage in all situations but is near the top of the list in goals saved above expected. He's doing his job, doing it well and also going above and beyond to do anything he can to keep the Predators sniffing around the Western Conference playoff picture.
Saros was a Vezina finalist last season, and the way he's performing this season should earn him some kind of consideration, granted it would be very difficult to crack the top five. Since the start of 2023, Saros has been excellent with a .919 save percentage and a 12-8-1 record in 21 games played. With the Predators being sellers at the trade deadline, that they're still hanging around means Saros is taking care of business in Nashville.
Do the Predators have a real shot at the playoffs? Not a real one necessarily, but they're as far out of the wild card in the west as a pile of teams in the east are of their wild-card spots. What's fair is fair, right?
Regardless, if the Predators are going to pull off a comeback and sneak into the postseason, it's on Saros to make it happen because Nashville is without Ryan Johansen and Filip Forsberg because of injuries. Betting against the Finn might be a bad idea.
6. Connor Hellebuyck, Winnipeg Jets
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What happens if you fly a jet too hard for too long? You run out of fuel.
That's not a riddle or a trick question, but it is an apt comparison for what's going on in Winnipeg and Connor Hellebuyck. The Jets' No. 1 goalie has been the main reason the Jets have been near the top of the Central Division all season long.
Hellebuyck has been brilliant all season long, but in the past month or so things have gotten tougher. Since the All-Star break, Hellebuyck has gone 3-5-1 with an .895 save percentage, and the team overall is 4-7-2 since then. While backup David Rittich has been essentially perfectly league average, the Jets have needed Hellebuyck to be this close to being Superman to succeed, and he's played and started 49 of their 65 games this season.
That's a lot of work and a lot of pressure, and his teammates average 3.09 goals per game in support for him, which doesn't leave a lot of room to have an off night now and again. Unfortunately, there have been a few more off nights lately, and the Jets have slipped down the standings. They're still in a playoff spot, but Calgary and now Nashville are creeping back into the hunt.
If Hellebuyck flips the switch back on, the Jets could be a very dangerous team to face in the playoffs. But they have to get there first.
5. Alexandar Georgiev, Colorado Avalanche
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Perhaps no goalie in the NHL has flown under the radar this season as much as Alexandar Georgiev. Think about all the injuries the Colorado Avalanche have dealt with/are dealing with this season.
They've been without Gabriel Landeskog all season long, they've lost Cale Makar, Nathan MacKinnon, Josh Manson, Bowen Byram and Erik Johnson for spells this season. All throughout that they stayed close to or in a playoff spot, and Georgiev is the reason why.
He's a top-five goalie in save percentage in all situations and at five-on-five. Although his goals saved above expected numbers are top-15 and lower compared to others in this ranking, it signals that he's doing what's asked of him and not causing his team to get beat. In the face of peril, you want a rock to lean on, and Georgiev has been and continues to be that steady presence.
Now that players are returning from injury and Georgiev's play remains consistently strong, that bodes extremely well for Colorado. The Avs have closed in on Minnesota and Dallas in the Central Division race and passed Winnipeg in the process. Going from the wild-card fight to maybe making a run at first place in the division is all the campaigning Georgiev needs to make for a Vezina case.
His four shutouts tie him with Jake Oettinger for second-best behind Ilya Sorokin and Darcy Kuemper. That's rather lofty company to keep when managing to stay out of the spotlight, For a guy who was hot and cold as Igor Shesterkin's backup in New York, he's shown he's made to be the No. 1.
4. Filip Gustavsson, Minnesota Wild
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Something...Wild is going on with the goaltending in Minnesota.
(No, I will not apologize for the pun. Deal with it.)
While Marc-André Fleury has played well recently after some early-season struggles, rookie Filip Gustavsson has been steadily incredible all along. His recent run of scorching hot play is providing the Wild with a two-headed monster in goal that is eerily reminiscent of Fleury's time in Pittsburgh with Matt Murray.
Since the new year, Fleury has been steady with a 7-5-2 record and a .913 save percentage and one shutout. It's solid, and it'll get the job done more often than not. Gustavsson, however, has been on another planet in that same time frame. He's gone 9-3-3 with a .948 save percentage and two shutouts.
You could argue that he's just on a hot streak, except he's played 30 games this season (28 starts) and has gone 17-8-4 with a .935 save percentage and three shutouts. That save percentage puts him second in the NHL behind Boston's Linus Ullmark, as does his 1.91 goals-against average (Ullmark's is 1.89), and he's played nine fewer games than Ullmark. If you're wondering how a guy with stats that good has a record like that, it's because he gets 2.60 goals per game in support—that's 30th best of 33 goalies with 30 or more games played.
At 24 years old, the Wild very well may have found their No. 1 for the next forever all while having a future Hall of Famer there to show him the way along. The Wild got Gustavsson from Ottawa in a trade that sent Cam Talbot to the Senators, and if Gustavsson keeps this kind of play up, it's going to make Sens fans really annoyed for a while.
If there's something that can help any team in the Western Conference set themselves apart from the rest of the field, it's elite goaltending. Unfortunately for the Central teams, the concentration of elite goaltending is all concentrated within the division. Right now, Gustavsson is as hot as they come.
3. Jake Oettinger, Dallas Stars
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Now we're really into the best of the best on the list, and Jake Oettinger all season long has been one of them.
Oettinger has helped the Dallas Stars to the top of the Central Division all season by putting up a .920 save percentage (fourth-best in the league) and has been consistently in the top 15 in goals saved above expected. Topping it off with a five-on-five save percentage of .929 you have the picture of consistency.
The Stars have relied heavily on Oettinger this season. He's appeared in 49 games (48 starts), and if he has had any lulls, he's bounced back from them with authority. He's had four shutouts this season as well, which is tied for second-most in the league. Making life easier for him, Oettinger also gets 3.25 goals per game in support, too. Then again, not everyone gets 10 goals of help in a game these days, but some guys have all the luck.
Oettinger holding it down as strong as he has this season gives the Stars an advantage should they win the division. Either the Stars will have the superior goaltender who can withstand barrages from the likes of the Edmonton Oilers or Seattle Kraken, or someone equal to the task if they wind up against Winnipeg and Connor Hellebuyck. And if they slip back in the Central, Oettinger matches up favorably against the Wild tandem of Fleury and Gustavsson as well as Georgiev in Colorado.
It's not always about pure dominance. Sometimes it's about getting the best of the matchups. Sometimes you can have both, and that's what Jake Oettinger can provide.
2. Ilya Sorokin, New York Islanders
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If the New York Islanders make the playoffs, it'll be because Ilya Sorokin is putting up one of the best seasons in team history to do it.
Sorokin has been incredible all season on the island. He's second to Linus Ullmark in goals saved above expected in all situations, he's third in save percentage in all situations behind Ullmark and Filip Gustavsson, and he's third behind them in five-on-five save percentage. His five shutouts are tied with Washington's Darcy Kuemper for most in the NHL.
As impressive as all of those stats are, he's had to be that good because his team gets him 2.79 goals per game in support. That's not a lot of room for error, and fortunately for the Islanders, Sorokin doesn't make a lot of mistakes.
It's the second consecutive season in which Sorokin has been incredible but flying under the radar. Last season he was caught in Igor Shesterkin's shadow as his Russian countryman dominated the NHL. This year, it's Ullmark and the dominating Bruins snatching up all the attention while Sorokin quietly goes about his business being one of the absolute best in the league.
If ever there was a place for a guy in that kind of position to thrive, it's Long Island, and the rabid Islanders fanbase will rally to his support at every corner of the internet to let you know how good he is. He is that good, and one of these years the spotlight atop the league will belong only to him.
1. Linus Ullmark, Boston Bruins
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All season we've had Linus Ullmark at the top of the charts at Bleacher Report for our goalie rankings. All year he's had the best save percentage, best goals-against average, been top-five in goals saved above expected and had the highest five-on-five save percentage. That makes it pretty easy to slot him in at the top, but Ullmark also went and scored a goal to put him at the top of the goal-scoring list for goalies.
There's taking a victory lap, and then there's doing a celebration while taking a lap. Ullmark has had a charmed season in Boston, and more impressively is it's come out of nowhere.
Cynics may pooh-pooh his accomplishments this season by saying he's had the best team in front of him all year and that makes life a lot easier. He faces 30.5 shots per 60 minutes, so the workload isn't entirely too intense. But even if the load is lighter, you still have to carry it, and Ullmark has more than done that.
Ullmark's 38 starts aren't many, and he hasn't missed out because of injury, rather he's got Jeremy Swayman backing him up—and he's been good too...just not as good as Ullmark. Some of the goalies on this list have to face a lot more action, and some of them have to be the best player on the ice almost every night for their team to win. Ullmark hasn't had to be either for the most part, but he still has and has been outstanding.
It would seem like he'll be the runaway favorite for the Vezina, and that's likely true. However, it's not as much of an open-and-shut case as it would seem. He'll get pushed by Sorokin, Oettinger and Hellebuyck, for sure, but the Bruins' dominance and Ullmark's other-worldly numbers should cinch it for him.
Statistics and information from: MoneyPuck, Hockey Reference, NHL.com, Natural Stat Trick
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