Jeff Le-Imagn Images
Filip Gustavsson joined an exclusive club on Tuesday night, becoming just the 15th goalie in NHL history to be credited with a goal.
Gustavsson is now an accredited NHL goal-scorer, and he’s having fun with it.
“I should be on the power-play meetings now,” Gustavsson told ESPN’s Emily Kaplan post-game.
But if Gustavsson is to join the Mount Rushmore of NHL goalie goal-scorers, he’s got his work cut out for him. Not all goalie goals are made equal. Some happen purely by chance, while others take a heroic effort by the goalie to sail the puck nearly 200 feet to the empty net. Some come during desperate attempts by the opposition to tie the game, while one came during a shutout.
Here’s the list of the greatest goalie goal-scorers in NHL history:
1. Martin Brodeur
The only goalie to get three goals, Brodeur is the undisputed goalie-scoring champion.
His first goal came in the Stanley Cup playoffs, a distinction shared with Ron Hextall. Brodeur stopped the puck behind his net and saucered it toward the goal. Luckily, Brodeur’s low shot had a clear path to the cage, as no Montreal Canadiens were plugging up the neutral zone.
Brodeur is also the only goalie in NHL history credited with a game-winning goal. As the last New Jersey Devil to touch the puck in a 2-1 game against the Philadelphia Flyers, Brodeur was credited with the tally when the Flyers’ Daymond Langkow lost control of the puck near his net. The Flyers scored later in the third period to make it a 3-2 game, making Brodeur’s goal the winner.
His third goal came 13 years later when the Carolina Hurricanes’ Jordan Staal sent an errant pass by his teammate on the blueline and into their empty net. Brodeur was the last Devil to touch the puck.
2. Ron Hextall
Hextall is one of only two NHL goalies to score twice and the very first to intentionally go for a goalie goal. Since he scored both of his goals on shots, some might say he’s deserving of the No. 1 spot, but goals are goals, and Brodeur has three.
The difficulty of shooting a puck that distance with a wooden goalie stick shouldn’t be underestimated. Luckily, for his first goal in 1987, Hextall had a moment to load up on his twig before elevating the puck over the Bruins’ blueline and into the net.
Two years later, in a playoff game against the Capitals, Hextall corralled the puck behind his net and ripped another one over center ice and in. Even more entertaining is the fact that play-by-play announcer Mike Emrick foreshadowed Hextall’s playoff goal just seconds prior.
3. Jose Theodore
The only goalie to score on a backhander, this one deserves extra credit.
After stopping the puck behind his net on his off side, Theodore quickly flipped the puck up toward the neutral zone. The Islanders players thought nothing of it, with most of them skating to the bench for a line change. But after taking a fortuitous bounce off the Isles’ center ice logo, the puck slowly made its way toward the empty net. It may take a while before we ever see something like this again.
4. Linus Ullmark
Ullmark had to skate out of his net to meet the puck after the Canucks’ dump-in. He then squared up the opposing net to shoot over a wall of Canucks players with their sticks high in the air.
It was the cherry on top of a Vezina Trophy-winning season in 2022-23.
5. Mike Smith
Well-recognized as one of the best puckhandling goalies in NHL history, Smith netted a buzzer-beater against the Detroit Red Wings in 2013.
With Detroit’s Stephen Weiss bearing down on him, Smith launched the puck and it crossed the goal line with 0.1 seconds on the clock.
6. Chris Osgood
For 1996, Osgood had some silky mitts.
After an impressive paddle stop to the left of his net on the Blues’ dump-in, Osgood delivered one of the most satisfying saucers over center ice with stunning height. After landing just before the opposing blueline, there was no doubt it was destined for the net to secure the 4-2 win.
7. Filip Gustavsson
The fact that Gustavsson had to catch Pavel Buchnevich’s shot to set it down before firing gives him more recognition.
While he didn’t have much pressure on him, Gustavsson fired the puck in the air all the way to the top of the opposing offensive zone circles.
8. Tristan Jarry
Jarry kicked off the first season of his $26.9-million contract with a bang in 2023.
Up 3-2 against the Tampa Bay Lightning, Jarry lifted a shot over the crowd that sailed almost 150 feet while airborne into the empty cage at Amalie Arena.
9. Evgeni Nabokov
When the San Jose Sharks’ Nabokov stopped the Canucks dump-in in the last seconds of a 6-4 game against Vancouver, he thought defenseman Brad Stuart would take the puck for him.
When Stuart drifted past him, Nabokov took matters into his own hands. With Canucks players looming, he got it off in a hurry, sending the puck just inside the right post.
10. Pekka Rinne
Seven years after Mike Smith accomplished the feat, Rinne became the next goalie to score. After stopping the Blackhawks’ dump-in, Rinne had ample time to load up on his stick to ensure the puck made it over the neutral zone. Kirby Dach had no chance to save it as it bounced its way into the yawning cage.
11. Billy Smith
It may be one of the eight “own-goal” goalie goals in NHL history, but it was the original. The Colorado Rockies’ Rob Ramage ripped a slapshot from the boards on goal, which Smith easily rebounded. Ramage retrieved the puck in the corner, but nobody covered for him in his spot. So when Ramage fielded a pass back to the blueline, it just kept going.
12. Cam Ward
Ward’s goal is another case in which nobody realized it was a goalie goal until after the fact. In the dying seconds against the Devils and up 3-2, Ward made a point save through traffic that rebounded to Ilya Kovalchuk, whose pass to the blueline whizzed past a diving Adam Henrique and into their net.
13. Mika Noronen
In a nail-biting 5-4 game against the rival Toronto Maple Leafs, Buffalo’s Mika Noronen made a tough stop on a ground puck through bodies before Robert Reichel’s pass from behind the net slipped past all his teammates.
The frenzied atmosphere at the former Air Canada Centre adds to this one.
14. Damian Rhodes
Brodeur was in the building for this goal, but for once, he was on the receiving end. With the Ottawa Senators up 1-0 in the first period, the Devils pulled Brodeur for an extra attacker on a delayed penalty call. The Senators’ Rhodes made a save in tight to redirect the puck to the corner, where New Jersey’s Lyle Odelein sent the puck through Scott Niedermayer’s legs and down the ice.
Rhodes was the first NHL netminder credited with a goal and a shutout in the same game.
15. Chris Mason
In another own goal, the Coyotes’ Geoff Sanderson blasted a puck from the blueline that the Predators’ Mason turned aside.
The Coyotes retrieved the puck, only for the biscuit to skip over a player’s stick and down the length of the ice. It’s one of the less-remembered goalie goals, but Coyotes coach Wayne Gretzky seemed pretty adamant that it shouldn’t have counted.
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