Even at the best of times, it’s easy to worry about goaltending. Performances at that position are notoriously volatile and — even with all the ways hockey has evolved — nothing can sink your hopes quicker than softies.
Given that, it might really be time to fret for any crease-concerned club that was eyeing an off-season fix.
The 2025 UFA goalie market has taken a beating in the past few months, with Mackenzie Blackwood, Logan Thompson, Charlie Lindgren and Karel Vejmelka all inking substantial extensions with their current clubs. The last hope for meaningful goaltending help came in the form of 2023 Cup-winner Adin Hill, but he re-upped on March 14 for six years with Vegas.
That has left the market, to be kind, a little thin.
If there’s any good news to be found on the goalie landscape, it’s that the unpredictable nature of the position acts as a double-edged sword and, every so often, you can find a crease solution where you least expect.
Consider some of those names we just mentioned that are now on new contracts. Colorado understood its Cup hopes were going to be sewered by sub-par goaltending, so it made in-season moves to get both Blackwood and Scott Wedgewood. Since the former joined the club in mid-December, the Avs have the 11th-best five-on-five save percentage in the league (.919).
Thompson was acquired for a song by the Capitals from Vegas early last summer, as the Knights moved off the final year of his deal. Today, only five goalies with 25 starts have a better save percentage than his .917 mark. One of those stoppers is Anthony Stolarz, who — after being a career backup — inked a modest two-year deal with the Leafs and now sports a .918 SP.
The guy Thompson replaced in Washington, Darcy Kuemper, was involved in what was — at the time, anyway — essentially a swap of contract problems last summer, when the Caps unloaded his hefty deal to L.A. in exchange for Pierre-Luc Dubois’ big dollars. Since Jan. 1, the only goalie with a better save percentage than Kuemper’s .924 is the .925 posted by Tampa’s Andrei Vasilevskiy.
You just never know where your saves might come from.
Still, there’s no denying the dearth of obvious goalie answers for teams in search of help. Suffice it to say, Marty Brodeur ain’t T-pushin’ through that door. (And if he did, it would probably be an old double-pad stack.)
Can you find someone who might throw down a .914 in 35 games, however? Maybe.
With that in mind, let’s examine a few UFA goalie options and, just for fun, throw in a couple of potential trade candidates as well.
Potential UFAs
Frederik Andersen, Carolina Hurricanes
The injury history is undeniable, but so is the body of work. Among active goalies with at least 400 games on their career resume, Andersen’s .916 save percentage in 511 contests is the fourth-best mark in the league. The only goalies with superior marks — and it’s just by a tick — are three guys with .917 SPs. They are megastars Connor Hellebuyck and Andrei Vasilevskiy, as well as sneaky-good Semyon Varlamov.
Also, how about this for consistency: In 125 games with Anaheim, Andersen had a .918 SP, then he went .914 in 268 games with the Leafs before posting a .918 in 118 contests with the Canes. Andersen is on a real heater right now, too, going 5-1-0 in his past half dozen showings with a .939 SP.
You’re not tapping him for 55 starts — especially since he turns 36 in October — but the big Dane knows how to stop a puck.
Jake Allen, New Jersey Devils
Allen was dealt to the Devils before the 2024 deadline and took a little while to settle in. Since Jan. 1, though, his .924 save percentage is second-best in the NHL among goalies with at least 15 games, trailing only Vasilevskiy (.925). His goals saved above expected per 60 minutes this season is an NHL-best 0.805 among tenders with 20 games played
The veteran stopper turns 35 in August, but clearly still has something left in the tank.
Ville Husso, Anaheim Ducks
Remember when Husso was already the darling of the open market, inking a three-year deal worth just over $14 million with the Red Wings on the strength of 40 good games with St. Louis?
You can’t say it enough; this is not an easy position to predict.
Husso’s time with the Wings mercifully came to an end when he was traded in late February to the Ducks for future considerations, allowing Detroit to clear some room on its books.
Husso obviously needs a reset, but he only turned 30 a few weeks before the trade and might be somebody who comes through for you on a dirt-cheap, one-year show-me deal.
Vitek Vanecek, Florida Panthers
For the first three years of his career with Washington and New Jersey, Vanecek played at least 37 games each campaign and never posted an SP under .908. He wasn’t part of the solution during his second season in Jersey, 2023-24, when the team was blasted with injuries. (Related; will the injury bug ever let this club go?)
Vanecek began this season in San Jose on one of the worst teams in the league and is presently the backup in Florida for the defending Cup champs.
It's been a rough couple seasons, no doubt, but three years of decent goaltending is not nothing. Maybe somebody will give him a look as a No. 2 and he’ll run with it.
Potential trade candidates
John Gibson, Anaheim Ducks
Like his Ducks teammate Trevor Zegras, Gibson’s name has been in trade rumours for what feels like forever. Injuries have been a consistent concern, as is his $6.4-million cap hit (which runs for two more seasons after this one) and the fact he has not posted a save percentage over .900 since 2021-22. That said, the American — who turns 32 in the summer — has been sharp this year. He’s got a .912 SP in 27 outings and, for the first time in five seasons, the underlying numbers paint a favourable picture of Gibson’s play.
With Lukas Dostal the presumed No. 1 for both now and the future in Anaheim, Gibson is a really expensive backup. Any transaction would likely require some kind of salary solution — whether that’s Anaheim retaining a portion or taking a bloated contract back — but Gibson might be able to come in and help stabilize a crease somewhere, maybe even as a 1B.
Jordan Binnington, St. Louis Blues
A Binnington trade appeared at least plausible back when St. Louis was swirling toward a third straight year out of the playoffs. With the hard-charging Blues now looking like a real threat to snag a post-season spot, that top-to-bottom roster examination in Missouri may be on hold.
Still, if St. Louis slides out of the chase, perhaps the Blues circle back and think about moving a big-game goalie — that 4 Nations showing is going to stick with him for a long time — to a contender who is far less concerned with how Binnington performs in January than May.
The 2019 Cup winner will be 32 at the beginning of next year with two years to go on a contract that counts for $6 million annually against the cap.
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