Welcome to the second part of the summer 2023 edition of my drafted NHL prospect rankings at The Athletic.
This ranking of the league’s top 10 drafted goalie prospects follows my top 50 drafted skaters list.
After initially publishing this project as one combined ranking, the switch to two lists was made in 2020 in order to respond to reader demands for evaluations of a wider range of goaltenders, reflective of the one-sixth share of the players on the ice that they represent (when skaters and goalies were included in a single list, only a couple of netminders usually made it, so this broadens the scope).
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Under my criteria, to be eligible for inclusion, a goalie must:
Wallstedt remains the clearcut best goalie prospect on the planet for me and I thought he found himself nicely (especially considering his age) in the AHL last season after it took him a couple of months to get settled at the new level/in the new league. His game has remarkable polish and maturity. There’s just a control to his game that is so rare in goalies his age. I’ve written about it in the past as almost robotic, and that’s truly the best descriptor for it. His game is impressively sound. Wallstedt’s a big 6-foot-3, 214-pound (he fills the net for his size) goalie who plays sharp lines positionally, holds those lines, and swallows the first shot so that he doesn’t have to make a ton of second saves. He’s incredibly calm in the net, staring down shooters and reading them. He covers the bottom of the net extremely well and doesn’t seem to get beat along the ice. Few shots sneak through him. His movement is compact, he tracks through layers incredibly well to find pucks, and he reads opposing shooters so well that he’s rarely beat cleanly.
There’s a minor question mark or two around every young goalie in the sport and with Wallstedt I don’t see a single hole or area of weakness that worries me. I’d maybe like to see him develop a little more quickness (he’s strong across the net and low-to-high on pushes, but he sits a little heavy over his skates and I wouldn’t say his feet are fast per se). But otherwise, he’s got all of the makings of a true No. 1 starter.
Askarov just turned 21 in June and he is already about to enter his fifth season playing professional hockey. I thought he played well in his first season in North America in Milwaukee last year, too.
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Still, while my belief in his tools or his upside as a starting NHL goalie is not deterred, I have paused at times over the last two seasons in terms of categorizing him in the same light that I do Wallstedt. Askarov’s raw talent certainly makes him unique. His ability to change directions in the net, stay on top of shooters, track their hands, and make reactionary saves is elite. He’s an extraordinarily quick and athletic goalie who regularly makes second- and third-chance saves holding firm in his positioning even when he’s lying on the ice.
But there are tools in his game that still need some refinement. There are still times when he gets frozen over his glove hand, something NHL teams will exploit. He can still look jittery in the net, bouncing on his toes and moving to pucks (which he says is to keep himself focused and make some of those quick-twitch saves I talked about). But his agility and reads are so impressive that he can steal games when he’s at his best, and make the difficult saves that others just can’t get to or stick with. There isn’t a goalie prospect in the world with quicker feet through shuffles or more explosiveness side-to-side or low-to-high than Askarov. That blend of power and speed combined with his extended early track record gives him a high upside. It will be important to keep in mind his age and not rush him despite his pedigree though.
Levi is fresh off two seasons for the ages at Northeastern, winning the Mike Richter Award as college hockey’s goalie in back-to-back seasons as a freshman and sophomore, and finishing his college career with a .942 save percentage (while mixing in three appearances at three different levels for Hockey Canada and a 5-2 record in his first seven NHL starts). His journey from the CCHL to the world juniors and then the Olympics, all during the pandemic, was one of the best stories in hockey for a little while there.
And he has exactly the skills smaller goalies need to be successful. Impressive control on his inside and outside edges (and the patience to hold them). Quick feet on his shuffles so that he can stick with dekes and go post-to-post or low-to-high to get to tough pucks. Good hands. Perfect reads on shooters. Excellent tracking through and under traffic. And a battler’s mentality in the net which keeps him in plays even when he looks like he’s down and out. There aren’t a ton of 6-foot goalies in today’s NHL, at least not starting ones, but Levi, like Calgary’s Dustin Wolf, has all of the tools to become one. I’m a believer.
If you’ve been following my work for any amount of time, you’ll know that Wolf is my favourite goalie prospect in the sport (doesn’t necessarily mean he’s the best, but I love watching him play). When the Flames drafted him at the end of the seventh round, he ranked in the second round of my 2019 draft board, as my second-ranked goalie behind only Spencer Knight. He possesses elite footwork and tracking. He never loses sight of the puck and anticipates the movements of opposing carriers so, so well, making him extremely hard to beat with a deke. You’ll rarely see a player beat him side to side on a breakaway because he can stick on top of them. The results are there across a now-extended track record of success. He’s athletic, he’s a superb positional goalie, and his technical ability is refined. Wolf has everything you look for in a top goalie prospect today except for the size. After a bit of a slow start to his second season in the AHL, he was virtually unbeatable for the final three-quarters of last season. I actually think he might be the best goalie in the Flames organization at the moment. I’m confident he’s going to be really good and debated ranking him as high as second here. His time is coming, too.
Cossa is a huge (6-foot-6), powerful, athletic goalie, and those last two things don’t always come with the first. He’s a fiery, confident, talkative competitor who doesn’t like to get beat (which contrasts with the stoic demeanour we see in many goalies) and wants to command the net and the room. Bigger goalies often struggle with their movements and their recoveries, but neither is an issue for Cossa. His positioning (he does a really good job holding his outside edges to be patient on shots) and reflexes (he’s got great hands up high) help him block and grab a lot of pucks. But it’s his ability to bounce back into his stance or change directions with passes that separates him. His power through his pushes gives him rare side-to-side ability for a goalie that big as well.
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But there are also some question marks. Some of them are contextual, like how good the Oil Kings were in front of him for three years, and some of the leaks his game has displayed while playing behind teams with less structure in front of him (including in Hockey Canada camps and then last year in spurts in the ECHL, a league that’s notoriously hard on goalies — although he did find his groove). But other questions are about the tools, including some of the trouble he faces closing his five-hole because of his size (this is a major recurring issue, even though he does a really good job kicking pucks aimed for the lower corners) and the way he can occasionally lose himself in his net on scramble plays (those strong pushes to get to tough lateral saves can pull him off his lines). He can get pulled out of his net overcommitting on dekes, too.
His natural gifts give him undeniable upside, though. When he’s set and square to shots, he’s tough to beat. I’ve seen him look unflappable and make point-blank save after point-blank save when he’s dialed in. I’ve also seen him look rattled as shots sneak through holes they shouldn’t be finding. I still think he’s got starter upside due to his combination of size, dexterity and explosiveness in the net, but he’s got work to do, and patience will be imperative.
The definition of calm, cool, and collected, Augustine is the best goalie prospect to come through the national program since Knight. I like him more now than I liked Blackhawks goalie prospect Drew Commesso at the same age, for example.
He’s just dialed in, by all accounts just as much off the ice in the way he carries himself and goes about his business as on the ice, where his game has rare detail for a netminder his age. He’s got a good glove hand. He’s good moving on his knees/in a crouch. He’s good at tracking pucks through traffic and across ice on seam plays. He plays good, sharp angles. His rebound control steering pucks into the corners is good. He’s good at getting down into his butterfly to close his five-hole quickly. He’s just a good goalie. And while he’s not big for a goalie and I’m not 100 percent certain he’s the best of a strong 2023 draft class in net even though he’s ranked that way for me, he’s the one I’d feel most comfortable with starting a game for my team tomorrow.
Early on last season, when Hrabal arrived from Czechia’s junior league and took the USHL by storm, putting up gaudy numbers through September and into early November, there was first-round buzz about him. Here was this massive goalie with an impressive track record. Then he hit a really rough rut into the new year, lost his job for a spell, only to regain form in March and April, both down the stretch with the Lancers and then as one of the top three players on Czechia at U18 worlds, where I thought he was mostly excellent.
The size jumps out at you right away, but there are layers, good and bad, to the rest of his game. Hrabal gets down into his butterfly a little slowly, opening up his five-hole for shooters (a common problem for bigger goalies). Once he’s on his knees he actually scrambles well for a goalie as tall as he is. He’s got a good glove hand but has a tendency to try to catch low shots instead of making a pad save (I know he wants to improve his hands but I think he needs more work blocker side than glove side), I suspect because he doesn’t trust his rebound control on quick shots. I’ve seen him look completely in command, fill the net, and take everything away from shooters, and I’ve also seen him look clumsy and off-kilter. I would like to see him working on his game playing the puck. The upside is hard to ignore though, and a team is going to be on it higher than this ranking.
Dostal’s on a run of four really strong age-adjusted seasons and is owed a full-time NHL job at this point.
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He’s an average-sized goalie who has turned his 6-foot-2 frame into an asset by adding some strength (he’s now over 190 pounds, which is about 20 pounds of muscle from where he was not long ago) and power to a game that was already built on agility. He’s got pristine technical ability, great hands (especially his glove), and quick feet, which help him stick with dekes, track the play through screens, and make recovery saves on scrambles. Plus, he holds his lines on his edges extremely well, limiting his movements when he needs to, staying compact, and playing his angles head-on. He has also proven, time and time again, that while his game requires movement, he’s in complete control and rarely swims. He’s going to be one of the Ducks’ two goalies long-term. The question now is just which one. He has certainly turned me from cautious a few years ago into a believer.
When goalies just keep getting results you have to respect them because of the ebbs and flows in performance that most of them face year-to-year. And Kochetkov now has a body of work that you can’t ignore. After bouncing around levels and clubs for a couple of years in Russia in search of the opportunity those numbers demanded, it has been nice to see him find stability over the last two seasons in North America, establishing himself as the Hurricanes’ No. 3 and earning a four-year contract (there’s a full-time job coming for him sooner or later). He used to be a little on the smaller side for a goalie but he grew a couple of inches late in his development to go from 6 feet to 6-foot-3, he’s quick on his feet (and knees), he’s technically sound, and he’s athletic, relying on sharp angles to control the first rebound and his movement to make recovery saves. I like the way he tracks the play, too. My only critique of him for a long time was that he’d let the odd mid-danger shot squeak through his body or occasionally scramble, but he has worked hard to cut down on both of those things. He’s probably not going to become a No. 1, but I like him to become more than a backup as a bit of a strong 1B.
After three seasons in college, Commesso finished his NCAA career with a .914 save percentage and a 43-22-4 record behind a BU team that wasn’t always healthy or reliable defensively in front of him, all from ages 18-20.
I see a mature makeup as a kid and goalie. At 6-foot-2, he’s not big by today’s standards for a goalie, but he blends a studious approach to the position with sharp angles, sound technique, and a calming, poised demeanour to keep shots in his chest, control rebounds, settle down plays and hold firm to his edges. And while he’s not a dynamic athlete, he can fall back on his athleticism when the play does break down, he’s efficient in his movements, he’s quick on his feet and he doesn’t put himself into many scrambles because of the way he reads the play. Commesso reliably makes the saves that he should and plays the same game-to-game. He doesn’t steal a ton of starts and I wouldn’t say he’s got any A-plus tools that really pop, but there’s nothing in his game that you can really nitpick either. I’m not convinced he’s going to be a starter at the next level, but I — and the rest of the hockey world (including USA Hockey, who’ve already brought him to men’s worlds and the Olympics) — fully expect him to become a good NHL goalie.
There were a number of goaltenders that I considered for the last couple of spots in the top 10 here though.
All told, 35 goalies were strongly considered for this year’s ranking, with the 25 who missed the cut featured below as honourable mentions.
As always, the ranking is broken down into tiers below to give you a better sense of where the divisions are between one group and the next. This edition of the ranking is divided into three tiers. They are: 1, 2-5, 6-10+. Consider that fourth tier a wider cluster that runs from 9-35 (though there’s probably one more divide in there between the goalies I seriously considered and the ones who only got passing consideration).
Scott Wheeler's top 10 drafted goalies
Rank
| Player
| Age
| Draft
| Team
|
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Jesper Wallstedt | 20 | 2021 | |
2 | Yaroslav Askarov | 21 | 2020 | |
3 | Devon Levi | 21 | 2020 | |
4 | Dustin Wolf | 22 | 2019 | |
5 | Sebastian Cossa | 20 | 2021 | |
6 | Trey Augustine | 18 | 2023 | |
7 | Michael Hrabal | 18 | 2023 | |
8 | Lukas Dostal | 23 | 2018 | |
9 | Pyotr Kochetkov | 24 | 2019 | |
10 | Drew Commesso | 21 | 2020 |
Justus Annunen (Colorado Avalanche)
Carson Bjarnason (Philadelphia Flyers)
Joel Blomqvist (Pittsburgh Penguins)
Calle Clang (Anaheim Ducks)
Magnus Chrona (San Jose Sharks)
Jakub Dobes (Montreal Canadiens)
Samuel Ersson (Philadelphia Flyers)
Jacob Fowler (Montreal Canadiens)
Adam Gajan (Chicago Blackhawks)
Dylan Garand (New York Rangers)
Mitchell Gibson (Washington Capitals)
Dennis Hildeby (Toronto Maple Leafs)
Joel Hofer (St. Louis Blues)
Niklas Kokko (Seattle Kraken)
Alexei Kolosov (Philadelphia Flyers)
Carl Lindbom (Vegas Golden Knights)
Leevi Merilainen (Ottawa Senators)
Yaniv Perets (Carolina Hurricanes)
Erik Portillo (Los Angeles Kings)
Scott Ratzlaff (Buffalo Sabres)
Arseni Sergeyev (Calgary Flames)
Arturs Silovs (Vancouver Canucks)
Arvid Soderblom (Chicago Blackhawks)
Mads Sogaard (Ottawa Senators)
Joseph Woll (Toronto Maple Leafs)
(Illustration: John Bradford / The Athletic. Photos of Jesper Wallstedt and Dustin Wolf: Andy Devlin, Candice Ward / Getty Images)
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