2024 Unrestricted Free Agency Preview: Goaltenders

Less than two weeks remain in the regular season, meaning a significant number of teams have already turned their main focus toward the draft and free agency. In the run-up to the playoffs for the other half of the league, PHR will join those front offices in identifying the top targets expected to be available on the open market in July.

Kicking off this year’s free agency preview is the goalie market, which looks to be quite underwhelming yet again. There are no bonafide starters available for teams looking for a major shakeup between the pipes – they’ll have to accomplish that by examining the trade block for players like the Flames’ Jacob Markström, the Predators’ Juuse Saros and the Bruins’ Linus Ullmark. It’s a considerably weaker class than even last year’s, whose major targets (Tristan Jarry, Frederik Andersen, Adin Hill) all ended up re-signing with their previous clubs.

This series will only cover players who have spent time on NHL rosters in 2023-24, not accounting for college, junior, overseas, or otherwise undrafted free agents. Players’ ages are as of July 1, reflecting their true signing age. With that in mind, let’s delve into the options that could be available for teams to add depth:

Fringe Starter/Tandem Options

Cam Talbot, 36
2023-24 team: Los Angeles Kings

No slight to Talbot, but his name appearing first in this article should indicate how weak this UFA goalie class is. He’ll be viewed as the top option available based on 2023-24 play as the only one to play in over half of his team’s games. The journeyman veteran has largely washed away the stink of a forgettable 2022-23 campaign with the Senators, rebounding for a 25-18-6 record with a .915 SV%, 2.48 GAA, and three shutouts in 48 starts and two relief appearances. He’s arguably having his best season since his electric 2016-17 campaign with the Oilers when he led the league with 73 games played and 42 wins as he finished just short of a Vezina nomination and helped them end an 11-year streak of missing the playoffs. His career numbers are decently above average, too, logging a .914 SV%, 2.63 GAA, and 31 shutouts in 461 starts and 21 relief appearances since breaking into the league with the Rangers in 2013.

The aging curve will be a very real concern, however, and will certainly dampen Talbot’s market. He’ll be 37 just a few days into July and has only started more than 40 games twice since his last full season with the Oilers in 2018. As a result, the University of Alabama-Huntsville product will likely settle for a second straight one-year deal, a more palatable option for player and team as he remains eligible for a bonus-laden 35+ contract. This year’s gamble paid out well for Talbot, who perhaps bet on himself too little – his $1MM cap-hit deal with L.A. pays him $2MM in actual salary thanks to a $1MM performance bonus that kicked in once he played 10 games. After a decent workload, likely playoff starts, and top-ten numbers, even with a strong defense in front of him (13.3 goals saved above expected, per MoneyPuck, his highest since 2016-17), he could earn as much as double that on a one-year deal this summer.

Anthony Stolarz, 30
2023-24 team: Florida Panthers

Stolarz has put up the best numbers of any pending UFA, but a smaller sample size than Talbot will limit his market value. His .922 SV% and 2.12 GAA lead all qualified netminders this year, albeit in only 22 starts and three relief appearances while backing up all-world Sergei Bobrovsky in South Florida. A recent sputter in play from Bobrovsky actually gives Stolarz the slight edge in goals saved above expected on the season – exactly 16, per MoneyPuck, remarkably placing him fifth in the league behind Winnipeg’s Connor Hellebuyck, Vancouver’s Thatcher Demko, and the Bruins’ tandem of Jeremy Swayman and Linus Ullmark. He’s no stranger to strong numbers – he logged a strong .917 SV% in 28 appearances (23 starts) while backing up John Gibson behind a bottom-10 Ducks team two years ago. The New Jersey native is undoubtedly ready for a slightly larger role, but he’s unproven even in tandem capacity, never cracking the 25-start mark.

Ilya Samsonov, 27
2023-24 team: Toronto Maple Leafs

It’s been a tale of two seasons for Samsonov, who had what can only be described as a horrid start after guiding the Maple Leafs to their first playoff series win in 19 years last April. He logged an unplayable .862 SV% through his first 15 starts. While the Leafs were able to sneak by with a 5-2-6 record in games where he was awarded the decision, solid play from veteran third-stringer Martin Jones (mentioned later on) allowed them to waive Samsonov and give him a mental reset.

After working with their minor league club’s development staff for the first week and a half of January, he ended up back in the NHL with much more positive results. He hasn’t been a world-beater, but he has put up starter-caliber numbers, recording a 17-4-1 record, .912 SV%, and two shutouts in 22 showings since the calendar flipped to 2024.

Consistency has plagued Samsonov throughout his five-year NHL career, never putting together back-to-back above-average seasons. He is still one of the youngest and highest-ceiling options on the market, though. A contender shouldn’t feel comfortable putting all their eggs in Samsonov’s basket to take them to the promised land, but he’s valuable as a 1A netminder with solid support – just like he’s had in Toronto with Jones and young backup Joseph Woll, both putting together solid campaigns.

David Rittich, 31
2023-24 team: Los Angeles Kings

Rittich actually started the season in the minors, but an early season-ending injury to Kings backup Pheonix Copley allowed him to get back to the top level. He hasn’t disappointed, putting an airtight seal on the number-two role behind Talbot and putting up the best numbers of his eight-year career. This year’s .919 SV% and 2.21 GAA are well above his career averages, and like Stolarz and Talbot, his 12.8 goals above expected (per MoneyPuck) are top 10 in the league. This is another case of small sample size limiting a player’s value, though, as 21 starts and two relief appearances aren’t enough for a team to bet on him suddenly being able to be a high-end 1A option after that experiment fizzling out a few years back with the Flames. However, he has restored his market value as a 1B option after a string of below-average seasons.

Laurent Brossoit, 31
2023-24 team: Winnipeg Jets

Brossoit returned to Winnipeg last summer for his second stint as Connor Hellebuyck’s backup after capturing a Stanley Cup ring last year with the Golden Knights. His career numbers resemble that of a yo-yo, but he’s caught himself on the upswing for a second straight year and has excelled with a .925 SV%, 2.10 GAA, two shutouts, and 13-5-2 record in 20 starts and one relief appearance. His highs and lows have essentially made his numbers that of a garden-variety backup over his career, however, taking him out of consideration for any 1A roles. He could be in line for a slight increase in starts in a 1B slot if a team is willing to give him the chance.

Alex Nedeljkovic, 28
2023-24 team: Pittsburgh Penguins

Nedeljkovic has had a bounce-back campaign after being demoted to the AHL for an extended period last season, even wrangling away the starter’s crease from Tristan Jarry down the stretch as the Pens find themselves back in the playoff push. The two-year, $6MM deal he signed with Detroit in 2021 to be their starter after a breakout campaign as part of a three-goalie rotation with the Hurricanes didn’t pan out, but he’s back to putting up above-average numbers in a larger-than-expected role in Pittsburgh this season.

He has a .907 SV% and 2.82 GAA through 28 starts and five relief appearances, along with a 16-6-6 record, but his 1.8 goals saved above expected (MoneyPuck) are the lowest of anyone on this list so far outside of Samsonov. This year’s showing has confirmed that a 1B role with about 30-35 starts is likely what suits him best, and while he’s in line to earn a raise on his current $1.5MM cap hit, it likely won’t be much. He could be a solid value pickup for somebody, but like many others on this list, doesn’t appear to have a lot of upward mobility.

Kaapo Kähkönen, 27
2023-24 team: San Jose Sharks/New Jersey Devils

It’s hard to gauge any netminder who’s logged time behind the 2023-24 Sharks, one of the worst teams of the salary cap era. His numbers there weren’t all that catastrophic considering and even bordered on average, compiling a .895 SV% and 3.81 GAA despite winning only six of his 27 starts. In five starts with the Devils since a trade deadline swap for Vítek Vaněček, he’s been downright solid with a .918 SV% and 2.92 GAA, along with one shutout. The team in front of him hasn’t given him much help either way either, as that’s only translated into one win. There will likely be some teams interested in what he can do behind a more competent and healthy defense, and he could be one of the bigger wild cards on the market after spending the past few years toiling behind a rebuilding San Jose squad.

Backups/Depth

Kevin Lankinen, 29
2023-24 team: Nashville Predators

The 6’2″ Finn has only four years of NHL experience under his belt to differing results. An undrafted free agent pickup by the Blackhawks in 2018, he made his NHL debut three years later and earned himself some fringe Calder consideration after going 17-14-5 with a .909 SV% and 3.01 GAA in 37 starts in the starter’s net during the abbreviated 2020-21 season. His numbers nosedived the next season, however – his -28.6 goals saved above expected were the second-worst in the league behind Seattle’s Philipp Grubauer. That took him out of starter/tandem consideration upon reaching free agency in 2022, but he’s rebuilt his value with two above-average campaigns backing up Juuse Saros in Nashville. He has a .911 SV% and 2.84 GAA in that time but has started less than 20 games each season, likely dissuading teams from relying on him for a tandem workload.

Marc-André Fleury, 39
2023-24 team: Minnesota Wild

The second-winningest goalie of all-time is technically a pending UFA, but he won’t be on the open market. He’s already made it clear that retirement or re-upping with the Wild are his two options this summer. The three-time Stanley Cup winner has a 17-13-5 record, .899 SV% and 2.87 GAA in 34 starts and four relief appearances in Minnesota this year.

Martin Jones, 34
2023-24 team: Toronto Maple Leafs

Jones cleared waivers to begin the season and spent two months with AHL Toronto after losing the backup/1B job to Woll during training camp. He was recalled in early December after Woll sustained an ankle injury, though, and he’s remained in the majors since. It’s been an underwhelming past half-decade for the former All-Star starter with the Sharks, but he’s been quite solid this season with an 11-7-1 record, .908 SV%, 2.70 GAA, and two shutouts in 18 starts and three relief appearances. His 8.3 goals saved above expected are better than both Samsonov’s and Woll’s, putting up his first above-average season since 2018. That long track record of mediocrity will scare teams away from giving him a major role, but he has rebuilt his value as an NHL-caliber backup.

James Reimer, 36
2023-24 team: Detroit Red Wings

Reimer, who’s only started five of 15 games for the Wings since the trade deadline, has seen the least action of his 14-year career this season. The Manitoba native will be eligible for a bonus-laden 35+ contract but is solidly a veteran backup option at this stage of his NHL tenure. He’s put up a 9-8-2 record in Detroit this season, posting a .906 SV% and 3.03 GAA with two shutouts in 18 starts and five relief appearances. He’ll likely only be in line for one-year deals, similar to the $1.5MM agreement he inked in Hockeytown last offseason.

Casey DeSmith, 32
2023-24 team: Vancouver Canucks

DeSmith was part of the monster three-team Erik Karlsson trade last summer, heading from the Penguins to the Canadiens for cap management purposes. With Montreal having three other goalies ready for NHL time in the crease, they flipped him to the Canucks, who were happy to take his $1.8MM cap hit and deploy him as Demko’s backup. He’s put up passable but unimpressive results, which have nosedived lately, down to a .891 SV% and 2.96 GAA in 26 starts and two relief appearances. He’s received most of the workload over the past few weeks as Demko nears a return from a lower-body injury, but his late-season lack of success in pinch-starter duty keeps him firmly on the backup market this summer despite having started upwards of 30 games twice in his career.

Calvin Pickard, 32
2023-24 team: Edmonton Oilers

Pickard spent most of the past five seasons in the minors but got another NHL chance after Jack Campbell was demoted to AHL Bakersfield in November. He’s responded quite well, reaching 20 appearances for the first time since 2017 and recording a .913 SV% and 2.38 GAA with a 12-6-0 record. After spending the last three seasons on two-way deals, he’s likely in line for a one-way pact this summer and could be a cheap full-time backup for a cash-strapped team.

Scott Wedgewood, 31
2023-24 team: Dallas Stars

A minor-league option through most of his early-to-mid 20s, Wedgewood has since settled in as a solid backup/1B option for the Coyotes and Stars post-COVID. However, this season has disappointed after a three-year run of above-average play. He’s got a .899 SV% and 2.85 GAA in 28 starts and four relief appearances behind a strong defense, his worst numbers since his rookie campaign with Arizona in 2017-18. That’s quieted talks of relying on him for 30+ starts for now.

Antti Raanta, 35
2023-24 team: Carolina Hurricanes

Raanta has been with AHL Chicago since deadline day, actually posting worse numbers than his already disastrous NHL showing this season. A rock-steady tandem option who couldn’t stay healthy throughout his prime, Raanta hadn’t put up anything worse than a .905 SV% since his rookie season. He came crashing down in 2023-24, though, logging a .872 SV% and 2.99 GAA in 20 starts and four relief appearances before Carolina sent him to the minors for good to end the season. He’s failed to win a game in Chicago since this latest demotion, although he did log one win earlier in the campaign. He has only a .865 SV% in six games there, and while someone may give him a chance to see if he can recapture his previous form, the end appears near for Raanta’s NHL career.

Photos courtesy of USA Today Sports.