What was already a thin goalie market to begin with has gotten even thinner just a few days into free agency. Only two goalies remain on our Top 50 UFA list, Karri Ramo and Jhonas Enroth.
While there aren’t many notable goalies still available, there aren’t many vacancies to fill either. Here is a closer look at each team’s goaltending situation:
Anaheim: John Gibson, Dustin Tokarski, Matt Hackett
Arizona: Mike Smith, Louis Domingue, Justin Peters
Boston: Tuukka Rask, Anton Khudobin, Malcolm Subban
Buffalo: Robin Lehner, Anders Nilsson, Linus Ullmark
Calgary: Brian Elliott, Chad Johnson, Jon Gillies
Carolina: Cam Ward, Eddie Lack, Daniel Altshuller
Chicago: Corey Crawford, Scott Darling, Lars Johansson
Colorado: Semyon Varlamov, Calvin Pickard (RFA), Jeremy Smith
Columbus: Sergei Bobrovsky, Curtis McElhinney, Joonas Korpisalo
Dallas: Kari Lehtonen, Antti Niemi, Maxime Lagace
Detroit: Petr Mrazek (RFA), Jimmy Howard, Jared Coreau (RFA)
Edmonton: Cam Talbot, Jonas Gustavsson, Laurent Brossoit
Florida: Roberto Luongo, James Reimer, Reto Berra
Los Angeles: Jonathan Quick, Jeff Zatkoff, Peter Budaj
Minnesota: Devan Dubnyk, Darcy Kuemper (RFA), Alex Stalock
Montreal: Carey Price, Al Montoya, Mike Condon
Nashville: Pekka Rinne, Marek Mazanec, Jusse Saros
New Jersey: Cory Schneider, Keith Kinkaid, Scott Wedgewood
NY Islanders: Jaroslav Halak, Thomas Greiss, J-F Berube (RFA)
NY Rangers: Henrik Lundqvist, Antti Raanta, Magnus Hellberg
Ottawa: Craig Anderson, Andrew Hammond, Matt O’Connor
Philadelphia: Steve Mason, Michal Neuvirth, Anthony Stolarz
Pittsburgh: Marc-Andre Fleury, Matt Murray, Tristan Jarry
San Jose: Martin Jones, Mantis Armalis, Aaron Dell
St. Louis: Jake Allen, Carter Hutton, Jordan Binnington (RFA)
Tampa Bay: Ben Bishop, Andrei Vasilevskiy, Kristers Gudlevskis
Toronto: Frederik Andersen, Jonathan Bernier, Garret Sparks
Vancouver: Ryan Miller, Jacob Markstrom, Thatcher Demko
Washington: Braden Holtby, Philipp Grubauer, Joe Cannata
Winnipeg: Ondrej Pavelec, Michael Hutchinson, Connor Hellebuyck
In terms of starting goalie vacancies, there really aren’t any. It’s believed that Dallas would like to improve their starter but they already have over $10MM committed to their tandem so any goalie they acquire would have to see one of Lehtonen or Niemi sent the other way. That could be a problem for teams like Pittsburgh or Tampa Bay who could potentially part with their veterans (Fleury and Bishop respectively) but wouldn’t want someone else making #1 money coming back the other way.
As for backup openings, Anaheim and San Jose are in need of a new #2 after losing Andersen and Reimer respectively this offseason. While Ramo and Enroth are the best of who’s still available, there are a trio of other goalies on the UFA market that have some backup experience in Joni Ortio, Ben Scrivens, and Anders Lindback.
If those teams can’t come to terms with (or don’t want to sign) any of those players, there are a handful of teams with a surplus between the pipes. While the Jets re-signed Hutchinson earlier this offseason, Hellebuyck showed last year that he’s ready for full-time NHL duty which could make Hutchinson expendable. Condon was supposed to be a backup last year but due to injuries played in 55 games in 2015-16. However, his spot appears to have been filled with the addition of Montoya which could make Condon available. The Panthers have a trio of goalies with NHL experience and could potentially part with Berra although he is insurance for Luongo whose hip injury has his availability to start next season in question.
While there are still several strong forwards and defensemen available, the same can’t be said for goalies. Aside from the Ducks and Sharks adding a backup and some teams signing their restricted free agents, it’s shaping up to be a quiet few months in terms of news between the pipes.