*Article was updated in October 2025
Backup goalies in the NHL are tragically underappreciated. It’s hard enough for a team to find a starting goaltender that they can rely on game in, game out. It is an outright luxury to have a dependable backup goalie. Top NHL backups need to be able to perform well during their intermittent opportunities, but they also need to be ready to step up for long stretches if their partner goes down to injury. It’s a thankless, tireless, and underpaid position. But the best are some of the most valuable players in the league, and some of the best teams in the league are those that have two fantastic goalies to lean on.
Backup goalies get their position in numerous ways. They might be former starters near the end of their career or future starters getting their first shot in the big leagues. The names on this list come from all backgrounds. Some are even among the top goaltending prospects in the NHL. They have different backgrounds and different futures, but they share one thing in common: they can be relied on in a pinch, and their teams are very thankful to have them.
10) Eric Comrie — Winnipeg Jets
Eric Comrie is now on his third stint with the Winnipeg Jets. Something must compel the organization to keep bringing him back. Backing up two-time Vezina Trophy winner Connor Hellebuyck certainly isn’t the hardest job, but during his career, it’s been the job Comrie is most comfortable with. Despite struggling in other homes, he’s put up his best numbers in Manitoba. In parts of six seasons there, he’s maintained a .912 save percentage (SV%) and 2.68 goals against average (GAA), with 10.2 goals saved above average (GSAA). They’re not mind-blowing numbers by any stretch, but you don’t need a superstar behind the best goaltender on the planet. Winnipeg was happy to give Comrie a two-year contract to return in 2024, and it would be surprising if the player and team don’t reach a deal to keep him around after this season. They seem to be made for one another.
9) Jesper Wallstedt — Minnesota Wild
The Minnesota Wild entered the season with a real conundrum on their hands: they had a very good, young goaltender due a big contract extension in Filip Gustavsson, and behind him, one of the better goaltending prospects in the world in Jesper Wallstedt. They answered any questions about the former’s future by signing Gustavsson to a five-year contract extension in October. That leads to questions about Wallstedt’s future in the Twin Cities over the long term. But for now, they have one of the best goaltending tandems in the league.
The Wild traded up to draft Wallstedt in the first round back in 2021, and he’s done nothing to make them regret their decision since. He was the best goaltender at the 2022 World Junior Championship, helping. Sweden win bronze almost single-handedly, and was an AHL All-Star two consecutive seasons. He has yet to shine at the NHL level, but the time is coming. Wallstedt’s future is extremely bright.
8) Kevin Lankinen — Vancouver Canucks
You don’t get the five-year, $22.5 million contract extension Kevin Lankinen signed with the Vancouver Canucks unless your team really believes in you. Lankinen stepped up and delivered for the Vancouver Canucks at a time when Thatcher Demko’s future was extremely uncertain, and even though the 2024-25 campaign was a trainwreck for Vancouver, he was one of the few bright spots. Now, his future is set: he’ll be a Canuck for a long time to come. And while he might not be viewed among the elite goaltenders in the NHL, the Canucks are happy to have his solidity with questions about Demko’s health lingering.
7) Cam Talbot — Detroit Red Wings
Cam Talbot is the definition of a journeyman. He’s a long time from his stint in Edmonton, where the Oilers worked him like a draft horse, asking him to start 73 and 67 games in consecutive seasons. While his workload may have diminished with time, his impact is still significant, and the Detroit Red Wings are happy to have him backing up their newly acquired starter, John Gibson.
Talbot has played for eight NHL teams, but Detroit is on track to be his second real home after leaving Edmonton. He was strong for the Red Wings last season, and with Gibson now in the fold, the pair have the potential to be a force and one of the best tandems in the league. Talbot is now 38 years old, and will be a free agent after this season. It’s hard to know what the future holds for him. But in the present, he’s a very strong backup goaltender, which is all the Red Wings can ask for.
6) Scott Wedgewood — Colorado Avalanche
The Colorado Avalanche started the season without Mackenzie Blackwood, who finally returned in late October. In his place, Scott Wedgewood stepped up more than admirably, starting 10 games, with an .899 SV%, 2.58 GAA, 1.0 GSAA, and, most importantly, six wins. Now that Blackwood is back, Wedgewood will return to spending more of his time on the bench, a role he’s occupied frequently throughout his career. But he’s proven once again that in a pinch, he can be relied on as a serious NHL goaltender, which is the most anyone can expect from a backup.
5) Joel Hofer — St. Louis Blues
Joel Hofer first burst onto the scene with his gold medal performance in 2020, which was equally surprising as it was dominant. Since then, he has been generally viewed as a top 10 or so goaltending prospect. He earned AHL All-Star honors and helped Canada once again capture gold at the World Championships in 2022-23, paving the way for him to make his full-time NHL debut.
Stepping in to back up Jordan Binnington with the St. Louis Blues — who had struggled for several seasons — didn’t look to be an easy task. But Binnington righted the ship, and Hofer did fantastically behind him as a rookie, starting 27 games, posting a .913 SV% and 2.65 GAA with 8.2 goals saved above average (GSAA). Hofer’s sophomore season was more of the same excellent play.
As we write this early in the 2025-26 season, something seems seriously wrong with Hofer, who has looked abysmal in his first few starts. But for now, we’re betting that that’s an anomaly. The track record for the young goaltender is too strong, and once he rights the ship, he should be back to being one of the better backup goaltenders in the NHL.
4) Joseph Woll — Toronto Maple Leafs
Joseph Woll could be one of the league’s best goaltenders if he could simply stay healthy. This season, he missed time from the Toronto Maple Leafs not due to injury, but due to an undisclosed personal issue. Now that he’s back, the Maple Leafs are excited to reunite one of the better tandems in the NHL.
A native of Dardenne Prairie, MO, Woll has had a fantastic start to his NHL career when healthy. He’s maintained a career .910 SV% and 2.74 GAA, with 19.8 GSAA. He really broke onto the scene during the 2022-23 playoffs, when he was forced into action and held a .915 SV% and 2.43 GAA. The following postseason, he had a .964 SV% and a staggering 0.86 GSAA. Woll’s young career is off to a promising start, and he has a bright future in Toronto if his injury troubles are behind him.
3) Jake Allen — New Jersey Devils
Jake Allen has done everything in his career. He was the St. Louis Blues’ starter and presumed long-term answer in net until the meteoric rise of Jordan Binnington. Since then, he’s been a backup in several different spots. But he has now found a steady home at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey backing up Jacob Markstrom for the Devils. He’s played so well, in fact, that he’s worked his way into the conversation to play for Team Canada at the Olympics.
Without slighting Allen, it’s fair to speculate that that has more to do with Canada’s paucity of talent at the position than Allen’s outstanding play. But it’s still a remarkable testament to how steady Allen has been since landing in New Jersey. He’s still only 35, so he could have several strong seasons left in his career. But a selection for Team Canada would be the ultimate feather in the cap of the Fredericton, New Brunswick native. And it just so happens that his former general manager with the Blues, Doug Armstrong, is in charge of that selection.
2) Jonathan Quick — New York Rangers
Jonathan Quick will always be a goaltending legend, but his career with the Los Angeles Kings came to a shocking end with a (short-lived) trade to the Columbus Blue Jackets in 2023. He’d move on to the Vegas Golden Knights before settling as a free agent with the New York Rangers — playing just about 90 minutes from his hometown in Connecticut.
Backing up the Igor Shesterkin isn’t a tough assignment, but at 39, Quick has looked 10 years younger and reinvigorated his career at Madison Square Garden. In 49 starts with the Rangers as of this writing, he’s had a .911 SV% and 2.49 GAA, with 4.5 GSAA. He’s close to the end of his career, but he still can go. And in a pinch, we know he can shine in the spotlight. The Rangers are thankful to have him.
1) Charlie Lindgren — Washington Capitals
Charlie Lindgren was just your typical journeyman backup until a brief stint in relief with the St. Louis Blues saw him win five straight games and post a .958 SV%. That put him on the radar of the Washington Capitals, who gave him a three-year contract the following summer. It’s been a wise investment for them. He had played 29 NHL games over six seasons before arriving there, but has started 115 in three seasons with the Capitals (counting 38 games this season). In 2023-24, he became the Capitals’ de facto starter, but their trade for Logan Thompson returned him to a 1B role at best. He’s been great in that role for Washington, though, even starting nearly half the games during the Capitals 2024-25 campaign which saw them finish as runners-up for the Presidents’ Trophy.
Haves and Have Nots
The NHL’s goaltending landscape is diverse. Some teams are searching for any worthwhile solutions. Others have a workhouse and no one to give him a break. The teams that have a strong starter and a reliable backup are truly wealthy in this netminding economy. These 10 backup goalies are the best of the best, and their organizations are very lucky to have them.
