The Greatest NHL Goalies of All Time, Ranked

Three names. That’s where every serious conversation about the greatest goalies in NHL history ends up. Patrick Roy, Dominik Hasek, Martin Brodeur. After them, there’s a real debate. But those three? Non-negotiable.

The hard part isn’t identifying the tier — it’s ranking within it, because each of these men was the best in the world in a different way. Roy reinvented how the position is played. Hasek dominated through pure improvisation and statistical dominance that has never been matched. Brodeur won more games than anyone who has ever worn a mask. You can make a case for any of them at number one, and you won’t be wrong. You’ll just have to defend yourself.

Here’s how I see it.

1. Dominik Hasek — The Dominator

The argument for Hasek at the top comes down to one thing: he was the most statistically dominant goalie who ever lived, and he did it while playing for teams that regularly failed him in front of the net.

His career numbers are staggering. A .922 career save percentage — the best among all retired NHL goaltenders. Six Vezina Trophies, including four in a row from 1994 to 1997. Two Hart Trophies in 1997 and 1998, making him the only goalie in league history to win the award as league MVP more than once. In the 1998-99 season alone, he posted a 1.87 GAA and .937 save percentage. Those aren’t human numbers.

What made Hasek different from everyone else wasn’t his style — though the flailing, flopping, pad-kicking chaos of his game was genuinely unlike anything the league had ever seen. It was the results. For six consecutive seasons from 1993 to 1999, he led the NHL in save percentage, and in five of those years he was above .930. He carried the Buffalo Sabres to the 1999 Stanley Cup Final almost entirely on his back against a Predators team that had no business being there, then kept carrying them until Brett Hull’s controversial skate-in-the-crease goal ended it.

He finally got his Cup ring in Detroit in 2002, at age 37, as a secondary piece. The ring counts. The body of work in Buffalo is what makes him the greatest.

2. Patrick Roy — Saint Patrick

Roy’s legacy comes in two flavors: the player who changed the game and the player who won it more than anyone at the time.

Four Stanley Cups. Three Conn Smythe Trophies. Three Vezina Trophies. A 551-315-131 regular season record with a .910 save percentage and 2.54 GAA in 1,029 games. Roy was a winner in a way that went beyond statistics — his 66 career playoff wins stood as the record for decades, and his 18-9 record in Stanley Cup Finals with a 1.93 GAA proves he elevated when it mattered most.

The butterfly style that every young goalie in the world now learns? Roy didn’t invent it, but he perfected it. He popularized a technically sound, replicable technique at a time when the position was still full of stand-up goalies trying to react to everything. That legacy alone puts him in the argument for the top spot.

His 2001 Cup run in Colorado — finishing with a .934 postseason save percentage at age 35 — remains one of the great individual playoff performances in hockey history. The fact that he was still that good, that late in his career, on the biggest stage, says everything about Roy’s competitive drive and his technical mastery.

The reason he sits at two instead of one is simple: Hasek’s peak was higher. But it’s close.

3. Martin Brodeur — The Volume King

No one has done what Martin Brodeur did in terms of pure volume and sustained excellence. The records are categorical: 691 career wins, the most by any goalie in NHL history. 125 shutouts, also the most in history. 1,266 regular season games played, also the most. His career GAA of 2.24 and save percentage of .912 represent a long, steady excellence that kept three Devils teams in contention across three different decades.

Three Stanley Cups. Five Jennings Trophies. One Vezina. And he was doing it in an era when the Devils’ defensive system inflated his numbers somewhat — though acknowledging that shouldn’t diminish him as much as some people use it to.

The honest case against Brodeur being higher than third is that his statistical peaks were never as high as Roy’s or Hasek’s. He wasn’t the most dominant goalie of any particular season the way either of them were. He was the best goalie for the longest time. That’s a different kind of greatness — equally real, but a step below the transcendent peaks of the two above him.

4. Glenn Hall — The Pre-Mask Pioneer

Before anyone starts listing current names, let’s give proper credit to Glenn Hall. Hall played 502 consecutive complete games without a mask between 1955 and 1962 — a consecutive games streak that includes every minute of every game, not just appearances. He reportedly vomited before most games from nerves. He played anyway.

Seven All-Star selections. Eleven seasons leading the league in saves. A Conn Smythe in 1968 at age 36 when the Blues lost the Cup Final. Hall invented the butterfly and was doing it decades before Roy made it famous. His career gets undersold because the era makes modern statistical comparison difficult, but his contemporaries knew what he was: the best in the world for most of a decade.

5. Ken Dryden — Six Cups in Eight Seasons

The numbers are almost absurd. Ken Dryden played nine NHL seasons and won six Stanley Cups. His career regular-season save percentage of .922 (in an era when that stat was just beginning to be tracked) and 2.24 GAA are among the best ever posted. He won the Conn Smythe before he even won the Calder Trophy for best rookie. He then went and became a lawyer and a politician, which feels like something a fictional character would do.

His career was short by choice. The Canadiens dynasty of the 1970s is inseparable from Dryden in the crease, and that dynasty produced four consecutive Cups from 1976 to 1979.

The Active Case: Andrei Vasilevskiy

No list in 2026 is complete without acknowledging where Andrei Vasilevskiy sits in the conversation. Currently at 36-13-4 with a 2.34 GAA and .910 save percentage this season, he’s already the most accomplished active goalie in the league by a significant margin. Two consecutive Stanley Cups in 2020 and 2021, a Vezina in 2019, and consistent top-five finishes in goalie rankings across multiple seasons.

He’s not in the all-time top five yet, but he’s building the case. Another Cup or two and the conversation changes.

The Bottom Line

Roy, Hasek, Brodeur are the top three in some order depending on what you value. I put Hasek first because his peak — measured in the save percentage category that matters most — was the highest the position has ever reached. Roy second because he won the most at the highest level. Brodeur third because he sustained excellence longer than anyone who ever played the position.

Hall and Dryden round out a top five that holds up against any argument. And Vasilevskiy is watching from not that far behind.

Who do you have as the greatest goalie in NHL history? Drop your ranking in the comments or tell me I’m wrong on social media — I want to hear the Brodeur-at-one arguments.