Top 10 NHL Backup Goaltenders

*Article was updated in Oct. 2024

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 bests 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 embarking on his third stint with the Winnipeg Jets. Something must compel the organization to keep bringing him back. Now, 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 five seasons there, he’s maintained a .909 save percentage (SV%) and 2.95 goals against average (GAA), with 0.8 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 last summer, and he’s a solid option when Hellebuyck needs a break.

9) Ilya Samsonov — Vegas Golden Knights

The Toronto Maple Leafs took on Ilya Samsonov as a reclamation project after the young Russian netminder never quite reached his ceiling with the Washington Capitals. The project seemed to be a success initially, with Samsonov posting a .919 SV%, 2.33 GAA, and 17.4 GSAA — all fantastic numbers. But in his second season, he collapsed and sank to an .890 SV% and 3.13 GAA, with minus-14.9 GSAA. Over the course of the season, it became clear that Joseph Woll would become the starter in Toronto (more on that later). And the Maple Leafs chose not to re-sign Samsonov as a free agent.

Spotting an opportunity as they often have, the Vegas Golden Knights signed Samsonov for a season at a discount — bringing him in to replace Logan Thompson, who they traded to Washington. It’s early days, but Samsonov has made three great starts in the desert. And we know at his best that he can be a very good goaltender. Backing up Adin Hill, the spotlight won’t be on him and he should continue to excel.

8) Arturs Silovs — Vancouver Canucks

Arturs Silovs place on this list is tenuous. As of this writing, he’s played all of 11 regular season games over three seasons. But he earned consideration with his postseason heroics last year. With Thatcher Demko on the shelf, Silovs stepped up and delivered, helping power the Canucks past the Nashville Predators. While his numbers over all 10 games, including seven against the eventual Western Conference Champions, were not overly impressive, any 23-year-old who can step in and steer his team to another playoff round is a pretty solid backup to have in the back pocket.

7) Casey DeSmith — Dallas Stars

Casey DeSmith had a very good career with the Pittsburgh Penguins, at times even making a case to be their full-time starter. But the Penguins traded him to the Vancouver Canucks to clear some salary cap space. With one season left on his deal, he struggled in British Columbia, having the worst season of his career.

No longer viewed as a potential starter, DeSmith settled for a three-year, $3 million contract with the Dallas Stars. It’s very early days, but it looks like he’s settling back in as a clear backup to Jake Oettinger. He’s had three starts, claiming one shutout, and maintaining a .936 SV% and 1.69 GAA. It’s a small sample size, but when considered alongside his time in Pittsburgh, it’s pretty easy to assume that Vancouver was the exception and DeSmith is a very good backup goaltender, even if he can’t quite manage the spotlight of the starter’s net.

6) 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 79 in two-plus seasons with the Capitals (counting five games so far this season). In 2023-24, he became the Capitals de facto starter, but their trade for Darcy Kuemper over the summer returned him to a 1B role at best. He’s been great in that role for Washington, though. He’s got a .906 SV% and 2.80 GAA with 5.4 GSAA over the course of his two-plus seasons there.

5) Justus Annunen — Colorado Avalanche

There’s a good chance Justus Annunen won’t be a backup for very long. He played just 14 games in the NHL in 2023-24 but played well enough for at least a few fans to call for him to start in the postseason, especially after Alexandar Georgiev’s shaky first few games. That never panned out, but now that Georgiev has started the 2024-25 season disastrously, it might be Annunen’s job full-time very soon.

The Finnish netminder has quite a pedigree. He was the top starter for goalie factory Finland’s World Junior Championship (WJC) squad for three straight years (once as a U-18, where he helped them win gold, and twice at the U-20 tournament). He posted the best GAA and SV% in Liiga in Finland during the 2019-20 season. But he struggled at the American Hockey League (AHL) level, dimming optimism about his NHL future temporarily. But he had a .928 SV% and a 2.25 GAA last season, and in four starts so far this season, he’s playing just as well. With Georgiev’s horrendous start, Annunen will get more and more looks and, if he keeps playing this well, he will be off this list and ranked among the starters pretty soon.

4) 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 onto 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 38, Quick has looked 10 years younger at Madison Square Garden. In 26 starts last season, he had a .911 SV% and 2.62 GAA, with 5 GSAA. He’s close to the end of his career, but he still can go. And in a pinch, we now he can shine in the spotlight. The Rangers are thankful to have him.

3) 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 into backup 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). Despite the Blues’ failure to make the playoffs, they were one of the best tandems in the NHL. And early returns in the 2024-25 season make it seem as if neither has lost a step. Hofer is primed goaltender of the future for the Blues — a franchise that has done a good job of keeping consistently strong options between the pipes for the entirety of general manager Doug Armstrong’s tenure.

2) Anthony Stolarz — Toronto Maple Leafs

As mentioned earlier, the Maple Leafs entered the season expecting Woll to be the starter. But given his injury history and their streak of poor luck in the crease, general manager Brad Treliving needed an insurance policy, and he got a good one by signing Anthony Stolarz to a two-year, $5 million contract. Though it was on a limited sample size, he was one of the best goaltenders in the league last season, backing up Sergei Bobrovsky. He led the NHL in both SV% (.925) and GAA (2.03). And so far, Treliving’s insurance policy is already paying off. Woll suffered an injury early in the season and Stolarz stepped up. He’s another candidate to take over the starter’s net if he keeps playing this well.

1) Semyon Varlamov — New York Islanders

There’s an undisputed king of the mountain when it comes to backup goaltenders, and it’s time to give Semyon Varlamov his flowers. He’s had a fantastic NHL career and is criminally underlooked when evaluating the best goaltenders of the generation. Many asked questions when the New York Islanders gave him a four-year, $20 million contract in 2019, despite having Ilya Sorokin in the wings. Why pay a veteran so much to do a job he would clearly lose over time? But Varlamov was worth every penny over the life of that contract, and he earned another four-year extension in 2023.

Over his time with the Islanders, he has a .916 SV% and 2.57 GAA in 157 starts, with 49.8 GSAA. It’s the best run of his career, and this is a goaltender who was the Vezina Trophy runner-up in 2013-14. It’s been a rough start to 2024-25 as of this writing, but that’s likely to pass. Even if it doesn’t’, the evidence is strong that there’s no better backup to have than Varlamov in net.

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.