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In this edition of the hotstove we rank the top-5 goaltenders in the NHL age 23 and under.
Todd Cordell
1. Matt Murray - His NHL career is still in its infancy but he put up a .930SV% in 13 regular season games and posted a .923SV% in the playoffs while leading the Pittsburgh Penguins to the Stanley Cup. He has to be No. 1 on this list until proven otherwise.
2. John Gibson - He owns a solid .920SV% through 66 NHL games to date. Has had trouble with injuries but if healthy I think he can be a solid starter. The Anaheim Ducks are definitely banking on that being the case.
3. Connor Hellebuyck - No goaltender that logged at least 1,000 minutes at 5 v 5 last season posted a higher save percentage. His overall .918SV% doesn't jump off the page but his numbers were sunk by Winnipeg's dreadful penalty kill.
4. Andrei Vasilevskiy - He didn't have a great regular season but was excellent for Tampa Bay in the playoffs when Ben Bishop went down. I can't wait until Bishop is out of the picture so we can see just how good Vasilevskiy can be.
5. Joonos Korpisalo - I'm not sure he will be as good as he was for the Blue Jackets last season but he started 30 games and showed well so he deserves some credit.
Adam French
This one is tough since having a clear number one at the age of 23 is always a challenge. Even the players you know will be elite goalies might be mediocre at the NHL at 23. It's the hardest position and the hardest to judge. Plus...who the hell is a starter at 23? Also...before anybody asks, I had to go with players that turned 23 this year , because otherwise this list would be Murray, Vasilevski and a host of garbage.
1. Matt Murray
I suppose it's rather cliché to pick the recent Cup winning goalie as the best goalie...but this does happen to be the U23 list. Murray does not have the pedigree of say Gibson or even Vasilevsky in terms of overall bodies of work, yet he's number one for now and that's all that matters. He took charge of the net for the Penguins and provided a star performance when it was asked against the Caps and a strong enough performance the rest of the way to win it all. What I love is the vast strides he has taken and how quickly he has taken them. The lanky goaltender has shown that the junior leagues and the professional game are worlds apart and on a more level playing field of hockey talent, a goaltender with size, some agility and good positioning can shine in a way that the mismatched junior talent of squads can overshadow.
2. John Gibson
We keep waiting for Gibson to win his Vezina since every sports writer seems to wish it will happen. Regardless Gibson is well on his way to becoming a premier starter in the NHL. I’m not going to say he has Carey Price levels of growth…but he does. So I did. I’m a liar. So it seems…and is apparent. All this nonsense said, Gibson has split starts with Freddy Andersen for the competitive Ducks for two years and has shown how talented and strong he truly is. Pedigree and performance wise he is probably actually better than Murray, sadly I’m a coward and it’s Murray’s time…now.
3. Andrei Vasilevsky
Vasilevsky is my favourite goalie on this list and my personal pick for becoming the best of the lot. I have a long term investment in that line going to 2011, but his skill and development are helping me out. He has come to NA, he has started dominating and is well ahead of ANY of his European contemporaries. We always find our great European goalies as older goalie simply because they tend to wait until they are in their prime to show up and dominate. It sucks to say, but it’s true that it’s easier to enter the league as a goalie at 25 like Schneider, Bishop, Rask, Lundqvist or Quick than it is at 20 with all the weight of the world.
4. Connor Hellebuyck
This is where this gets sad and why the U23 part is silly. Hellebuyck had a fine rookie season…fine. Just fine. He was good. Fantastic. He’s the second GREAT GOALIE from Winnipeg to not be “GREAT” in the past year. Maybe they just need to realize a rookie goaltender will not be their saviour no matter how highly anticipated they are or how poor Pavelec is. The large goaltender has high potential and showed some great promise…however last year I’m sure Hutchinson was #1 on the “List of Future Star Goalies.”
5. Joonas Korpisalo
He’s number 5. That’s it. Korpisalo will be out of the NHL in 2 years, but he got a shot with Bobrovsky out. I’ve seen him play nearing 40 games in every various level, this includes tournaments, the SM-liiga, AHL and NHL. Sadly, goalies under 23 are rare…so...yes Korpisalo is on here for having a decent stretch as an unknown goalie to NA shooters.
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