Best Countries By Goalie

As I was watching the Rangers-Lightning season opener on Tuesday night, something dawned on me.  The next time we actually get an international hockey tournament with NHL players, how is anyone beating Russia (provided they're allowed to participate)?  Andrei Vasilevskiy and Igor Shesterkin are arguably the two best goalies in the league...and they're both Russian!  Seriously, how do you score against them?  And which one is the starter?  Does that even matter?

Of course, "Russia" (or whatever name they're forced to play under) is currently banned from international hockey, so those might be moot questions.  If they're back by the 2024 World Cup of Hockey, however, they'll be among the favorites simply because of those two goalies.

Who else would be, though?  Well, there's the usual suspects (Canada, United States, Finland) that have plenty of options to choose from, but they're far from the only countries with NHL-caliber goalies.  In fact, there are nine nations represented among the 64 starting and backup goaltenders that started the season on NHL rosters.  How do those nine nations rank?  Let's see...

9. Slovakia (Jaroslav Halak)
Believe it or not, Halak is the only Slovakian-born goalie on an NHL roster to begin the season.  And he's a 37-year-old backup!  If this was a few years ago and Halak was still the Islanders' starter, Slovakia would be a little higher.  But, as it is, I see their goalie coming from their bronze medal-winning Olympic team.

8. Denmark (Fredrik Andersen)
Denmark ranks ahead of Slovakia simply because Andersen is better than Halak.  He's one of the biggest reasons why the Hurricanes are as good as they are.  With him in net, the Danes would possibly be able to pull the upset against an opponent like Sweden or the Czech Republic (or is it Czechia?).

7. Germany (Thomas Greiss, Philipp Grubauer)
There are only two German goalies currently in the NHL, but they're both quality.  The "starter" would also be pretty clear.  Seattle gave Grubauer a massive free agent contract to be the face of the franchise in its expansion season.  Greiss is the backup in St. Louis and would be Grubauer's backup on the German team, but he's a good guy to have as a backup.

6. Czech(ia) Republic (Pavel Francouz, Petr Mrazek, Vitek Vanecek)
I'd have the Czechs (Czechians?) ranked much higher if the options behind Francouz were better.  As it is, his backups aren't the best.  Still, Francouz was part of a Cup winner last season, so he's not a bad guy to have as the starter.  It's just that there are five starters better than him (who have better backups, too).

5. Sweden (Magnus Hellberg, Jacob Markstrom, Linus Ullmark)
If you wanted to swap Sweden and the Czech Republic, I'd have no problem with that.  I just happen to think Markstrom is slightly better than Francouz, which is why I give the Swedes the nod.  Of course, we're well past the days of Sweden having the best goalie in the world on its side.  None of these guys are Henrik Lundqvist.

4. United States (John Gibson, Connor Hellebuyck, Jonathan Quick)
Beyond Hellebuyck, the clear starter, there are plenty of options for backups.  There's Thatcher Demko of the Canucks, Jeremy Swayman of the Bruins and Spencer Knight of the Panthers to name just a few.  But I'm going with Jonathan Quick of the Kings, who was the U.S. starter before Hellebuyck, and Anaheim's John Gibson as an insurance policy since he could probably handle being a No. 3 better than the others.  Still, Hellebuyck is a clear No. 1.

3. Finland (Ville Husso, Antti Raanta, Juuse Saros)
Finland's had some great goalies over the years.  There was Miika Kiprusoff, then Tuukka Rask, then, of course, the great Pekka Rinne.  Rinne's successor in Nashville was Juuse Saros, who'll also be his successor as the No. 1 for the Finnish National Team.  I like Raanta and Husso better than the second and third American goalies (whoever they may be), which is why I have Finland ranked a spot higher.

2. Canada (Jordan Binnington, Tristan Jarry, Darcy Kuemper)
Once we finally do have another international tournament with NHL players, I'm curious to see who the Canadian No. 1 will be.  Because they don't have a Martin Brodeur or Carey Price or even a Marc-Andre Fleury anymore.  My guess is that it would be Darcy Kuemper, who's in Washington now after winning the Cup last year in Colorado, but I wouldn't be surprised if it's either Binnington or Jarry.  Regardless, the Canadian depth is enough to put them in the 2-spot.

1. Russia (Sergei Bobrovsky, Igor Shesterkin, Andrei Vasilevskiy)
You know a team has ridiculous goalie depth when Sergei Bobrovsky is the third goalie!  Frankly, all three of them would be clear starters if they were all from different nations.  As it is, you can flip a coin between Shesterkin and Vasilevskiy.  You can't go wrong either way.  The crop of Russian goalies in the NHL is so strong, in fact, that there's a pretty good group who wouldn't even make the team.  And that doesn't even include the guys playing in the KHL!

Goalie is obviously just one position.  But it's the most important position.  As we've seen plenty of times in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, a hot goalie can win you a series.  Especially in a short tournament like a World Cup or an Olympics, a hot goalie can really make the difference. 

Which is why, regardless of what skaters the other teams put on the ice, Russia would have to be a favorite just on the strength of its goaltending alone.  Hopefully we'll get the chance to see one of those best-on-best international tournaments again soon.  Whether Russia should/will participate is a separate issue that I'm staying out of.  But if they do play, they'd arguably be the team to beat.