It's the dog days of summer as far as the National Hockey League is concerned but despite that there are plenty of people talking hockey after something of a controversial list from the NHL Network was published on Sunday night.
That list comes in the form of a ranking of the league's Top 10 goaltenders with plenty of debate about not only where goalies were ranked, but about who made the list altogether. First, here's a look at the NHL Network's Top 10 goalie ranking:
#1 Andrei Vasilevski - Tampa Bay Lightning
#2 Connor Hellebuyck - Winnipeg Jets
#3 Igor Shesterkin - New York Rangers
#4 Ilya Sorokin - New York Islanders
#5 Jeremy Swayman - Boston Bruins
#6 Logan Thompson - Washington Capitals
#7 Jake Oettinger - Dallas Stars
#8 Dan Valdar - Philadelphia Flyers
#9 Jesper Wallstedt - Minnesota Wild
#10 Jakub Dobes - Montreal Canadiens
One of the hot button issues seems to be the inclusion of Canadiens goaltender Jakub Doves who has only played a grand total of 59 regular season games so far in his NHL career. Dobes inclusion is however likely based entirely on his strong performance in the 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs where he had a 9-10 record and posted a 2.66 goals against average and a .908 save percentage.
For the opposite reason the inclusion of Jets goaltender Connor Hellebuyck at #2 is likely to result in plenty of debate. Hellebuyck's reputation has taken a bit of a hit after some shaky performances in the Stanley Cup playoffs and he's coming off a season in which he had a 2.86 goals against average and a career worst .895 save percentage over 57 games.
While it will be hard to argue that the #1 spot shouldn't belong to the reining Vezina trophy winner in Vasilevskiy, the top two finalist for the award in Sorokin and Swayman find themselves much further down the list. Islanders and Bruins fans won't be thrilled about that decision.
Let me know what you think the NHL Network's biggest mistake was in the comments.