Vasilevskiy, Hellebuyck, Shesterkin named in informal NHL.com poll to mark Goalie Week
© Mark LoMoglio/NHLI
Welcome to Goalie Week. NHL Social is celebrating goaltending with NHL Goalie Week from Sept. 2-7, reveling in the uniqueness and artistry of puck-stoppers through the decades. Today, NHL.com looks at the toughest goalies to score on, according to fellow NHL players.
Andrei Vasilevskiy did not win the Vezina Trophy as the best goalie in the NHL last season, but according to several players in the game today, there is no one in the League more difficult to score against than the Tampa Bay Lightning veteran.
Just ask forward Jake Guentzel, who signed with the Lightning as a free agent before the 2024-25 season, but for the previous eight seasons he saw Vasilevskiy in his nightmares. He has scored at least 30 goals in six of his past eight NHL seasons, but he never fancied seeing the man they call the “Big Cat,” scoring four goals on 39 shots (10.3 percent) in 10 games.
“I am glad he’s on my team,” Guentzel said with a laugh last week at United States Olympic Orientation Camp in Plymouth, Michigan. “He’s huge. Moves so well, so agile and he is fast side to side.”
Vasilevskiy’s imposing 6-foot-4 frame was brought up by almost every player that named him as their arch nemesis, but there were other reasons too.
“He’s dynamic, he moves well, he reads the puck well,” said Washington Capitals forward Tom Wilson, who has one goal against Vasilevskiy on 33 shots (3 percent) in 20 games. “Nothing really gets through him by accident, he’s just very good positionally.
“He’s kind of been the benchmark for goalies the last eight, nine, 10 years probably.”
Of the 42 NHL players asked about the toughest goalie to solve going into this season, 16 said Vasilevskiy, a two-time Stanley Cup winner, Conn Smythe winner as playoff most valuable player in 2021-22, and 2018-19 Vezina winner.
NHL Network ranks Andrei Vasilevskiy as the second best goalie in the league
Connor Hellebuyck of the Winnipeg Jets, who beat out Vasilevskiy for the Vezina last season, had nine players name his as the toughest, while seven named Igor Shesterkin of the New York Rangers.
Sergei Bobrovsky, who has led the Florida Panthers to back-to-back Stanley Cup wins, received six mentions, while Dallas Stars goalie Jake Oettinger, earned two. Jeremy Swayman of the Boston Bruins and Thatcher Demko of the Vancouver Canucks each had one.
San Jose Sharks forward Alex Wennberg was a rookie with the Columbus Blue Jackets when Vasilevskiy arrived on the NHL scene in 2014-15. Suddenly, going against Tampa Bay and looking for goals was a far more difficult proposition. Still, he’s been able to score seven goals against him on 29 shots (24.10 percent) in 20 games.
“I’ve been playing against him for several years and I think he’s just a remarkable goalie,” Wennberg said. “The ability, the flexibility, the way he reads the game, I think every time you face him, you’re up for a challenge. He’s one of the best, for sure.”
Nashville Predators forward Filip Forsberg has 318 goals in 780 regular-season games, but only four of them have come against Hellebuyck on 65 shots (6.2 percent).
“It’s just the way he plays, also the way they play around him,” Forsberg said. “They’ve built a really good system based on his strengths and based on what the team does well, who plays well. Just a big guy and it feels like he covers the whole net.”
But the 6-foot-4 goalie, who this season also won the Hart Trophy as the NHL Most Valuable Player, is about more than size and system.
Even other goalies see it.
“I feel he plays a bit different game than most goalies,” Buffalo Sabres goalie Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen said. “He’s just so efficient. He just plays his own game. How well he moves, how well he plays his angles. He makes it so hard to score against. I feel he plays a bit deeper. He’s a little more conservative. He doesn’t challenge shooters as much as a lot of guys. It’s all about positioning.”
You May Also Like
And smarts.
Jake Sanderson, a defenseman with the Ottawa Senators, trains with Hellebuyck and others for part of the offseason in Plymouth, Michigan. Hellebuyck gives Sanderson fits with the cat-and mouse games he can play.
“He just baits you and does mind tricks,” Sanderson said, shaking his head. “He gives me glove-side, wide-open and then it’s gone.”
Jets teammate Neal Pionk, though, says while Hellebuyck can be tough on others, some have his number.
“I score on him a lot in practice, put that in the quote, too,” the defenseman said.
Shesterkin’s numbers dipped last season, posting the highest goals-against average (2.86) of his career.
But it’s not all about numbers with the 2021-22 Vezina Trophy winner.
Connor Bedard, selected No. 1 by the Chicago Blackhawks in the 2023 NHL Draft, is already impressed with Shesterkin after just two seasons in the League.
“I don’t know anything about goalies, but just his talent and agility, everything,” Bedard said. “I remember I got a [one-time] back-door [shot] on him and I didn’t have anything. He’s so quick to get over. I’ve only played him a couple times but he’s someone that has stood out.”
Most of the players in the NHL have seen Bobrovsky a fair deal; after all he broke into the NHL with the Philadelphia Flyers in 2010-11. He has twice won the Vezina Trophy (2013, 2017, with the Columbus Blue Jackets) and has been the primary goalie in each of the past two Stanley Cup championships for the Panthers.
NHL Network ranks Sergei Bobrovsky as the fourth best goalie in the league
Bobrovsky possesses all the traits each of the above goalies have, but former Boston Bruins opponent turned teammate Brad Marchand, who has eight goals against Bobrovsky on 56 shots (14.3 percent), points to his doggedness as the key.
“He’s extremely competitive,” Marchand said. “He’s very good at cutting his angles down. His reflexes are incredible. Explosive. He reads the play well. But when you see the way that he works, like he works like no one else. He’s incredible.”
There are some smarts there too.
“He plays mind games with you,” Dallas Stars defenseman Thomas Harley said. “There are times where you go high and he just stands up and catches it, and I go, ‘Well, that was a dumb choice, should have just gone five-hole.'”
Even when you think you have Bobrovsky beat, he often gets the last word, according to forward Vincent Trocheck, a former teammate with the Panthers who now plays for the Rangers.
“He’s so dynamic and he is never out of a play,” said Trocheck, who has seven goals against Bobrovsky on 69 shots (10.1 percent). “Even if there is an empty net, you have to make sure you bear down, because he will always battle.”
— NHL.com staff writers Mike Zeisberger, Tracey Myers, Dan Rosen, Derek Van Diest and Bill Price contributed to this story
Hockey News