Who was the best Goalie of all time?

[Ashartus]

I would add Sawchuck to the conversation if it is all time, but as pointed out earlier really hard to compare across eras and modern goalies are way better than their predecessors, we can really only compare based on how they performed relative to their peers and their accomplishments.

We can compare the 3 in the first post since they were playing in the same era, while all 3 had incredible careers in terms of sheer talent and ability I'd have to go with Hasek.

[troutman]

Battlin' Billy Smith

[Sutter_in_law]

It's Freddy Brathwaite for me, and it's not even really close...

[CliffFletcher]

Hasek. Switch teams with Roy and then see who has the most Cups.

[SuperMatt18]

IMO Hasek had the highest peak as nobody was even close to him from 93/94 to 98/99

Over that 6 year stretch he had a .930 save percentage...Roy was the next closest at a .915, which is just remarkable. He really should have won 6 straight Vezina's in that time as he had a .920 save percentage to Carrey's .906 that year.

It's tough to compare goalies between era's, especially the transition from the 80s to the 90s but all 3 of Brodeur, Roy, and Hasek played from 93-94 to 02-03 and are directly comparable.

In that time frame:

Hasek: .926
Roy: .916
Brodeur: .912

[Textcritic]

Originally Posted by habernac

Love both of these guys, but Roy willed two #### Habs teams to the Cup. Colorado doesn't win one without him. Three Conn Smythes. No one else has that. Not Gretzky, not Lemieux.

This is a fairly meaningless point, though, since the same is rightly said for the other two. Very, very few SC Champions won in spite of their goalies, and every goalie who put on a spectacular performance for his team in the playoffs (Cam Ward, Tim Thomas, JS Giguete, Nikolai Khabibulin, Jordan Binnington, to name a few) that was indispensable to winning is not among the very best of all time.


Sent from my SM-G986W using Tapatalk

[TheScorpion]

Six Vezinas for Hasek is just absurd. Him.

[Ford Prefect]

It’s always tough to compare players across eras, but based on statistical dominance in their eras and my eye test…Hasek, Dryden (as much as it pains me to say), Hall and Sawchuk. For about a 3-4 year period Bernie Parent was as good as any of them, but he didn’t have the sustained body of work the others did. Same with Kipper…he was truly elite for a few years, but not for his whole career like Hasek, Dryden, Hall and Sawchuk.

[Parallex]

Hasek. Not a doubt in my mind.

[edslunch]

It’s hard to compare players between eras, but it should be possible bro compare players to their peers. I don’t know what Glenn Hall’s stats were but how did they stand out at the time? Awards and wins are more comparable since they demonstrate dominance against peers, though you also need to consider team strength. Dryden is one of the all-time greats but he also played on stacked teams so his number of cups isn’t quite as meaningful.

[SeanCharles]

Hasek and Roy are the top 2.

[Sainters7]

Originally Posted by Gemnoble

My vote is and always has been Patrick Roy. He popularized Butterfly, revolutionizing the position and he has the most cups. Kind of where it starts and ends for me.

Yeah that's my argument when I defend Roy as the goalie GOAT as well. Having that type of impact on the position should be a big factor in these types of debates.

[dammage79]

I'll give Hasek this, he posted 6 vezinas in an era absolutely dominated by all time goalies. All the G.O.A.T.S came from that era and he accomplished all his accolades then.


Personally, and this isn't based on statistical data but Belfour is my #1 all time. Also a late bloomer and absolutely flew under radar while all the others where taking all the limelight.

It's insane to think that the Blackbawks had them both on their roster at the same time.

[Reggie Dunlop]

Les Binkley

[CorsiHockeyLeague]

I seriously can't believe there is an argument here. I thought it was just a total consensus for Hasek.

[FanIn80]

Roy holds the NHL record for playoff MVPs. No other player in history has won as many as Roy has.

Another way to look at it... Brodeur has won 3 Stanley Cups, but not a single Conn Smythe. In fact, for one of his cup wins, the opposing goalie (JS Gigure) won the MVP - so Brodeur wasn't even the best goalie in those playoffs, nevermind the most valuable player.

Compare that to Roy... 4 Stanley Cups (2 each on 2 different teams). 3 Conn Smythes (both of his cup wins in MTL, and one of his cup wins - the last one, the "Ray Bourque" one - in COL).

If you're like me, and you value playoff performance much higher than regular season performance, then the greatest goalie of all-time is St. Patrick.

[CroFlames]

TIL Roy has three Conn Smythes. I thought Sakic won the Conn Smythe for the 96 and 01 wins.

I think Hasek is the best goalie ever, but Roy has done nothing but win and so it's hard to say ultimately. Individual skill wise, no one was better than Hasek. Six Vezinas. But how do you argue against all the winning Roy has done?

[sketchyt]

I can't pick a goalie who doesn't even hit the top 20 for games played.

Career longevity is something that I value when it comes to 'best whatever' categories.

But Hasek was so good he's definitely in the top 3 discussion and has the rest of the hardware/numbers to back it up.

As a goaltending nerd, it's a two horse race between Roy and Brodeur as they both revolutionized the position in different ways (i.e. butterfly and puck handling).

Brodeur is an interesting case to me as well because he was successful in different eras of hockey.

There's really no wrong answer here.

[Goriders]

I’d say Hasek. But hard to compare.

[CroFlames]

Originally Posted by sketchyt

I can't pick a goalie who doesn't even hit the top 20 for games played.

Career longevity is something that I value when it comes to 'best whatever' categories.

But Hasek was so good he's definitely in the top 3 discussion and has the rest of the hardware/numbers to back it up.

As a goaltending nerd, it's a two horse race between Roy and Brodeur as they both revolutionized the position in different ways (i.e. butterfly and puck handling).

Brodeur is an interesting case to me as well because he was successful in different eras of hockey.

There's really no wrong answer here.

Your answer is wrong since you don't include Hasek.