best goalies in nhl history ranked

[KingPuckChoo]

Quick > Richter > Barrasso > Hextall

facts

 

[saintunspecified]

There are three certaintys in life. Death, taxes, and Brodeur being ranked too high in all time lists.

I assume that people who say this sort of thing weren't watching hockey before the trapezoid.

The trapezoid nerfed Marty Brodeur. Brodeur was a very good puck stopper, but what he did in combination with his D changed the game. But he was a good enough puck stopper to be good *after* the trapezoid rule. That's what made him different from e.g. Marty Turco.

Brodeur when he ranged was a dominant player, and you're not going to see that in his Sv% because what he did best was suppress shots by killing the dump and chase, and forcing opponents to run into the teeth of NJ's trap aided by their defenders standing up at the blueline. He wasn't the first to try it (Hextall), but boy was he the best at it. It's not just that he got to pucks quickly & handled it expertly - it was also that his decision making with the puck was top notch.

 

[Lafleurs Guy]

Precisely.

I argued in another thread that if we're accommodating Hasek's stats along a truncated timeline, we have to do the same for Dryden, as we do for Orr or Lemieux who both had shortened careers, albeit due to health.

If I was constructing that pyramid, Dryden and Hasek would be in the Apex tier, and the rest would descend accordingly.

Very few goalies have been able to lead bad teams to the finals. Dryden is the only one to actually win. And he did it against powerhouses.

Now, we can say that he did have some legends on that club, but Beliveau was retiring... that team wasn't good. It's the biggest upset cup of all time. And unlike Roy, he didn't avoid the powerhouses, he beat them.

Hasek gets my vote because of what he did on bad clubs but honestly, I'd have no problem putting Dryden with him. I think he's really underrated - and it's understandable considering the clubs he was behind. But you can't write him off and then not do the same for Brodeur and Roy.

 

[Lafleurs Guy]

If you look at the stats of the other Habs goalies (Auld, Halak, Budaj) in the 2010-2013 timeframe, their numbers were also pretty decent. Price’s stats are indeed better but not wildly so.

Agree the club was mediocre but I think they had a decent blue line and some coaching schemes that were goalie friendly.

There was nothing friendly about playing behind Therrien. Therrien is a God awful coach who brought in guys like Douglas Murray and Bouillion. He played Murray with Subban

The idea that somebody would try to push Therrien as a plus is mind boggling.

 

[Mrb1p]

I dismiss any list that doesnt have Carey Price at the top

 

[OgeeOgelthorpe]

Hasek is an easy #1, guy has never truly been matched in the art of goaltending in hockey. When you have as much success as he did while playing a style that isn't even replicated you know he's special.

Roy edges Brodeur for me primarily for inventing a new style of goaltending as well as his many successful seasons.

Brodeur will always have an asterisk to his career because its hard to truly judge how much was "his" and how much was the team's style. Still think he's a great goalie, at minimum Tier 2 but I can't judge him higher than the other two because of his team's strategy. He was truly in a perfect storm; a high-end goalie with solid puck handling skills playing in a system that forces dump ins. You couldn't of placed him in a better system as his skills covered for part of the potential weaknesses in the Trap.

That all being said, I'm too young to recall the play of most of the older goalies so I can't exactly judge Dryden vs Roy or Billy Smith vs Ron Hextall

His team’s style was successful because of him. They also changed the rules about goalies playing the puck BECAUSE of Brodeur.

3 cups, 5 finals. Calder, 4 Vezinas, 5 Jennings, 14 seasons with 30 or more wins. 12 with 70 or more games played. All time wins leader. All time shutout leader. All time games played leader.

This dude deserves the recognition. No asterix. That’s one hell of a career.

 

[PistolPete]

Exercise in futility. Way too many variables between eras -- massive equipment differences, major differences in shot speed due to equipment, rule changes, etc. All I know is that since the 70s there is Hasek then Roy then everyone else.

Esposito fit in there?

Fuhr? He backstopping 4 Cup champions in 5 years, that has to count for something?

 

[Nerowoy nora tolad]

Hasek did amazingly well behind mediocre teams. He beat team Canada in the Olympics. Took a bad team to the finals... regularly won the Vezina. I actually think he's the best ever. But I'd have loved to have seen what Dryden would've done behind some lesser teams. To me he's at least as good as Roy is. Far more consistent than Roy ever was.

My personal assessment of what I've seen of Dryden:

If he played somewhere outside of Montreal he would not have put up amazing numbers and had a Hasek like career. Nobody in 1976 could have dominated the way 90s Hasek did because the equipment wasn't there to allow that sort of game yet, but Dryden played a style that needed hall of fame defensemen to work. His recoveries after saves were hilariously awful, but he was also much better than typical goalies of his era at stopping high danger first shots.

Id compare having Dryden to having a racing camshaft or a spoiler on a fast car, it's very useful to have if the car is already high end, but if the car sucks, there's no point. If you put Dryden on the 70s North Stats or Penguins, he'd pretty much just be John Davidson, but nobody else in the league could make the Canadiens as strong in goal as he did.

 

[King'sPawn]

Eh fleury has like a cup and a half.

Riding the pine should not count here.

That's a cup and a half more than Carey Price who is in the 5th tier.

 

[Lafleurs Guy]

My personal assessment of what I've seen of Dryden:

If he played somewhere outside of Montreal he would not have put up amazing numbers and had a Hasek like career. Nobody in 1976 could have dominated the way 90s Hasek did because the equipment wasn't there to allow that sort of game yet, but Dryden played a style that needed hall of fame defensemen to work. His recoveries after saves were hilariously awful, but he was also much better than typical goalies of his era at stopping high danger first shots.

Id compare having Dryden to having a racing camshaft or a spoiler on a fast car, it's very useful to have if the car is already high end, but if the car sucks, there's no point. If you put Dryden on the 70s North Stats or Penguins, he'd pretty much just be John Davidson, but nobody else in the league could make the Canadiens as strong in goal as he did.

1971 proved that Dryden didn't need a great team to win. That was the biggest cup upset ever and he went through powerhouse teams to do it. He came in as a raw rookie (won the Calder the following year ) and won the Smythe and the cup.

Again, look at Montreal with him vs without. With him they were unbeatable. But he left the team twice and they couldn't win without him. He comes back they win. He leaves again, they lose...

 

[5 Minute Major]

How Lundqvist or Luongo are ahead of Billy Smith is puzzling.

 

[Quatre Vingt Treize]

Hard to compare different eras

 

[Bradely]

Very few goalies have been able to lead bad teams to the finals. Dryden is the only one to actually win. And he did it against powerhouses.

Now, we can say that he did have some legends on that club, but Beliveau was retiring... that team wasn't good. It's the biggest upset cup of all time. And unlike Roy, he didn't avoid the powerhouses, he beat them.

Hasek gets my vote because of what he did on bad clubs but honestly, I'd have no problem putting Dryden with him. I think he's really underrated - and it's understandable considering the clubs he was behind. But you can't write him off and then not do the same for Brodeur and Roy.

Agree. IMO Patrick Roy did it in 1986 and 1993. Pretty insane if you ask me.

 

[Lafleurs Guy]

Agree. IMO Patrick Roy did it in 1986 and 1993. Pretty insane if you ask me.

Patrick Roy beat evenly matched teams those seasons. He did not go through two powerhouses like Dryden did.

 

[Bradely]

Patrick Roy beat evenly matched teams those seasons. He did not go through two powerhouses like Dryden did.

Roy .923 as a rookie + Conn Smyth in 1986.
Roy .929 + 16 V and 10 of them in overtime. Conn Smyth
------
Before Roy, and without Dryden, Habs did not win anything.
After Roy, Habs did not have any success even with Price.
------
Roy traded to the Old Nordics (Av's) and instantly Av's win the SC - .921 + the Conn Smythe
I am still impress and stilll think, w/o Roy, there is no Cup inMtl either in 1986 and 1993

 

[Lafleurs Guy]

Roy .923 as a rookie + Conn Smyth in 1986.
Roy .929 + 16 V and 10 of them in overtime. Conn Smyth

Yep. Very impressive.

But he didn't beat the 86 Oilers. Dryden beat the 72 Bruins.

------
Before Roy, and without Dryden, Habs did not win anything.
After Roy, Habs did not have any success even with Price.

Right again.

But people dismiss Dryden as simply being a product of a great team in the 2nd half of the 70s. But that club wasn't nearly as invincible without him.

As for Carey Price, he could only dream of playing on the teams Roy played one - let alone the ones Dryden did.

------
Roy traded to the Old Nordics (Av's) and instantly Av's win the SC - .921 + the Conn Smythe
I am still impress and stilll think, w/o Roy, there is no Cup inMtl either in 1986 and 1993

There's absolutely no way Montreal wins a cup in 86 or 93 without Roy. Those Smythes were well earned. But the Canadiens got extremely lucky with who they faced in those years. They faced evenly matched or worse clubs. They didn't have to face the Oilers in 86 or Pens in 93. Dryden beat powerhouses in 71. It's the biggest cup upset in modern history.

As for the Avs, they were a powerhouse as well.

 

[PolishPrince21]

Hasek will always be the goat to me until I see otherwise. Those Sabres had no business ever being competitive without him in net. 6 Vezinas? Yeah pretty good stuff man.

 

[Eternal Leaf]

I would have Hasek on his own tier.

There was no one at his level.

 

[johan f]

It gets really tough at a point. Some of these pre-butterfly guys would get eaten alive today. And if you tossed MAF back to 1970, he'd have done pretty well. I'm taking MAF over Barasso any day of the year or decade as well.

I also feel like Carey Price should be higher. On the same level as Fuhr, Cujo, and Vernon? That seems off.

One can not grade/valuate goalies by virtually place them in different eras. I am a bike rider, if I competed in 1934 I would do pretty good.

 

[GrkFlyersFan]

Patrick Roy is the most clutch goalie ever. Dominik Hasek is the most talented goalie ever. Martin Brodeur is the most consistent goalie ever. You decide which you value most. For me that's Roy. But I will say Hasek's best is better than anyone else's best. Ken Dryden and Terry Sawchuk are in this conversation too. For me, the rest of the top 10, not necessarily in order is Jacques Plante, Glenn Hall, Billy Smith, Grant Fuhr and Bernie Parent.

 

[Fantomas]

Dryden 8 season played:
Six Cups
Five Vézina
46 shutouts vs 57 losses

He’s definitely up there with Hasek and Sawchuck.
Top tier:
Hasek, Dryden, Sawchuck, Tretiak. (Don’t care he wasn’t in the nhl; he was brilliant)

His first five seasons aside, Sawchuk was actually pretty mediocre relative to other goalies in his time. Except maybe his tandem years with Bower. Plante much much better and I would take several others over Sawchuk as well.

 

[PistolPete]

One can not grade/valuate goalies by virtually place them in different eras. I am a bike rider, if I competed in 1934 I would do pretty good.

Assuming you did time travel.

If you were born in that era...maybe not so much? This is why I find intergenerational comparisons impossible to make, way too many variables that are impossible to account for

 

[CTHabsfan]

Assuming you did time travel.

If you were born in that era...maybe not so much? This is why I find intergenerational comparisons impossible to make, way too many variables that are impossible to account for

I'm pretty sure that was the point johan f was making.

Intergenerational comparisons may not be easy, but they're not impossible to make as long as you are judging an athlete's performance versus their peers.

 

[PistolPete]

I'm pretty sure that was the point johan f was making.

Thought maybe too but went with it anyway

Intergenerational comparisons may not be easy, but they're not impossible to make as long as you are judging an athlete's performance versus their peers.

Agree. That's why Gretzky is the indisputable G.

 

[Andre Palot]

Hasek should be in his own tier

Martin Brodeur was so good at the position, the NHL literally had to change the rules of the game.

If any goaltender needs to be in a tier all their own, it's Marty