March 7, 2024 by Bob Schmidt

Every month, I will be tabulating a goaltending power rankings chart and sharing the top 10 here on The Heavy Hockey Network. This chart comes to form based on calculations stemming from 25 statistical categories from five different sources. Minimum requirement of 14 games played.

1. Connor Hellebuyck – Winnipeg Jets

February rank: 2

Season stats: 29-12-3, 2.25 GAA, .924 SV%, three shutouts

February stats: 5-3-0, 2.38 GAA, .925 SV%, one shutout

Key February performance: 35 saves on 37 shots in a 4-2 win vs Vancouver Canucks – Feb 17

Hellebuyck is back to claim his throne as the best goaltender in the NHL. The 2020 Vezina Trophy winner has only one streak this season of losing more than two consecutive games while putting together winning streaks of three or more on five different occasions. At the time of this article, Hellebuyck is fifth in wins, third in goals against average, first in save percentage, and first in quality starts. The 30-year-old Michigan native should undoubtedly get nominated for the Vezina for the fourth time in his nine-year career and could very likely win it for the second time. All that’s missing from his resume is playoff success as the Jets have only advanced past the first round twice during the two-time all-star’s tenure in Winnipeg thus far.

2. Adin Hill – Vegas Golden Knights

February rank: 1

Season stats: 15-6-2, 2.38 GAA, .923 SV%, two shutouts

February stats: 3-4-0, 3.37 GAA, .896 SV%

Key February performance: 30 saves on 31 shots in a 3-1 win vs Edmonton Oilers – Feb 6.

It was a rough month for Hill and his Golden Knights as both finished one game below .500 in February. With their top forwards of Jack Eichel and Mark Stone out with injuries, head coach Bruce Cassidy has been leaning on his Stanley Cup winning goalie more and more in an attempt to steady the ship, giving Hill seven of the ten starts in the month. Though this past month was a tough one, the 6-foot-6 goaltender has had such a strong season leading up to February that he still ranks in the top 10 in 16 of the 25 statistical categories used for this list and remains in the top three in six of them.

3. Anthony Stolarz – Florida Panthers

February rank: 13

Season stats: 11-5-2, 2.02 GAA, .924 SV%, 1 shutout

February stats: 3-1-0, 1.71 GAA, .944 GAA, 1 shutout

Key February performance: 45 save shutout in a 4-0 win vs Buffalo Sabres – Feb 15

Stolarz had save percentages above .900 in all four of his starts last month. In fact, his second best save percentage of the month came in his only loss on Feb 6 versus the Philadelphia Flyers. This is his third appearance on this list which indicates that the seven-year veteran, who just played his 100th career NHL game on Feb 29, is making the most of his chances. The towering goaltender is the backup to two-time Vezina winner, Sergei Bobrovsky, and has provided exceptional goaltending in the 28% of the team starts he has been given thus far. Stolarz leads the league in goals against average, save percentage, and quality starts average, all of which translates to him providing the luxury of ensuring that Bobrovsky genuinely gets the night off on the nights the backup starts, and the team doesn’t suffer from that.

4. Jacob Markstrom – Calgary Flames

February rank: 10

Season stats: 21-15-2, 2.57 GAA, .914 SV%, two shutouts

February stats: 6-2-0, 2.41 GAA, .921 SV%

Key February performance: 32 saves on 34 shots in a 3-2 OT win vs Boston Bruins – Feb 22

I’m sure the Bruins are happy that they won’t be seeing Markstrom again for the rest of the regular season. Twice they faced him this past month, in a span of 16 days, and lost both times, scoring only three goals against him, and with the Swedish netminder posting a combined .946 save percentage in the two contests. The Flames have made a surge of late as they make a determined run to get a playoff spot, and they’ve relied on their all-star goalie to help lead the way. In the ten games during the month of February, Markstrom was given the start in eight of them and posted a save percentage of at least .900 in all but one.

5. Jonathan Quick – New York Rangers

February rank: 8

Season stats: 13-5-2, 2.45 GAA, .916 SV%, two shutouts

February stats: 3-1-0, 2.52 GAA, .922 SV%

Key February performance: 32 saves on 33 shots in a 2-1 win vs Colorado Avalanche – Feb 5

What a luxury for a team to have Igor Shesterkin (ranked 15th), the 2022 Vezina trophy winner and widely regarded as one of the best goaltenders in the game today, being backed up by a 2-time Stanley Cup champion and 2012 Conn Smythe winner, Jonathan Quick. The 38-year-old veteran does not appear to be content to just play out the remaining of his career as time and time again, the Connecticut native puts on a display between the pipes that hearken back to his days as one of the elite netminders in the game. His goals against average and save percentage are actually better than those of his counterpart and helped Quick earn another year extension to his contract with the Rangers.

6. Thatcher Demko – Vancouver Canucks

February rank: 5

Season stats: 31-13-2, 2.55 GAA, .914 SV%, five shutouts

February stats: 5-5-1 GAA, 2.91, .894 SV%

Key February performance: 31 saves on 33 shots in a 3-3 OT win vs Washington Capitals – Feb 11

The Canucks hit their first major speedbump of the season with a four-game losing streak this past month which included a 10-7 loss on Feb 19 against a likely non-playoff bound Minnesota Wild. The recent struggles of backup Casey DeSmith (unranked), who has only won twice in his last six starts and was the goalie of record in the aforementioned game against the Wild, has only amplified the importance of Demko to his team. The San Diego, California, native started eleven of the Canucks thirteen games in February and reached the 30-win for the second time of his career. Demko is elite but the Canucks are in big trouble if their starting goalie happens to get hurt.

7. Jeremy Swayman – Boston Bruins

February rank: 3

Season stats: 19-6-8, 2.53 GAA, .919 SV%, three shutouts

February stats: 3-3-1, 3.39 GAA, .902 SV%

Key February performance: 43 saves on 46 shots in a 4-3 shootout win vs Dallas Stars – Feb 19

Swayman has been a model of consistency all season for the Bruins as his 67% quality starts percentage would indicate. In fact, the tandem of Swayman and Linus Ullmark (ranked 17th) have combined for an exceptional 64.5% quality starts average and their save percentage of .912 is good for third overall in the league. Any weaknesses the Bruins might have, it sure isn’t between the pipes. Though there were some struggles this month, the 25-year-old, Anchorage Alaska native still showed flashes of the outstanding goaltending he can provide, such as the back-to-back wins on February 19 and 21 versus the Dallas Stars and Edmonton Oilers respectively, in which he faced over 40 shots in each. Swayman is set to become a restricted free agent this summer and it will be interesting to see what kind of money gets thrown his way.

8. Laurent Brossoit – Winnipeg Jets

February rank: 7

Season stats: 10-4-2, 2.24 GAA, .921 SV%

February stats: 2-1-0, 3.02 GAA, .908 SV%

Key February performance: 36 saves on 38 shots in a 4-2 win vs St. Louis Blues – Feb 27

Brossoit is quietly having one of his best NHL seasons. The 10-year veteran currently has his second most season wins, third highest save percentage (min 10 games), second best goals against average (minimum 10 games), and second best quality starts percentage (min 10 games). He appears in the top ten on 12 of the 25 statistical categories used for this list and in the top three in seven of them. It’s even more impressive that he’s doing this while only getting 27% of the team’s starts behind the number one ranked, and current Vezina favourite, Connor Hellebuyck. When you play so infrequently, it’s really difficult to get into a rhythm and build momentum, plus you feel more pressure to do well because you know it will be a while before your next opportunity so a bad outing can leave a bad taste in your mouth and weigh you down for weeks at a time before you get a chance to attempt redemption.

9. Sergei Bobrovsky – Florida Panthers

February rank: 29

Season stats: 30-11-2, 2.30 GAA, .918 SV%, four shutouts

February stats: 6-1-0, 1.57 GAA, .946 SV%, one shutout

Key February performance: 34 save shutout in a 4-0 win vs Colorado Avalanche – Feb 10

The one they call Goalie Bob (named after me, I’m assuming) makes the second biggest jump in the power rankings (Pyotr Kochetkov of the Carolina Hurricanes jumped from 40 to 19) and makes his first appearance on this list this season. The wins have been there, he’s had one streak of five wins and two streaks of seven wins, but his performance hasn’t always been there. In six of his wins this season, the 35-year-old had a save percentage below .900, but it appears he has worked past that and, at the time of this article, Bobrovsky has posted ten straight games with save percentages of .913 or higher, winning nine of those games. Bobrovsky has two seasons left after this one on his $10 million per year contract, making him the second highest paid goalie in the NHL, behind only Carey Price of the Montreal Canadiens at $10.5 million. Many suggest that the only way that contract can be justified is if the Russian netminder helps deliver the Stanley Cup to Florida, something that they were only three wins away from doing last season.

10. David Rittich – Los Angeles Kings

February rank: 4

Season stats: 9-4-3, 2.32 GAA, .914 SV%, one shutout

February stats: 4-3-0, 2.68 GAA, .898 SV%, one shutout

Key February performance: 26 save shutout in a 4-0 win vs Edmonton Oilers – Feb 10

It was the month of the second stringers as Rittich is the fourth backup to appear in the top-ten this month. The eight-year veteran is currently sporting his career best save percentage and goals against average. Big Save Dave was pressed into action when Kings starter, Cam Talbot (ranked 30th) descended into an atrocious eleven-game losing skid, and the man who started the season as part of the Los Angeles goalie tandem, Pheonix Copley (unranked), had his season end with a torn ACL. Rittich brought some much needed stability to the sinking Kings ship, helping the team win four of his five starts from Jan 31 to Feb 17. This gave Talbot some time to work on his game and it appears to have worked as he, at the time of this article, has won four of his last five starts now.