Cap League Goalie Rankings – September 2026

Alexander MacLean

2026-09-26

Very little movement here, though we did have a big drop from Scott Wedgewood, whose career history as a backup and outlook this season with some reduced volume shifts him down below the main starters and slightly better backup bargains. He's being drafted as though he's not a career backup in his mid-30s, but instead that the run he went on last season is certainly going to continue into this season, and that's far from guaranteed.

Aside from that, try to be patient and not overreact to all things goalie related, and you'll usually be better off.

Standard pre-rankings note:

Cap hit is used for the player cost, so if your league uses salary or AAV, please account for that, as it can greatly change the impact of entry-level deals. The rankings are set up so as to provide the most value in the current season, while providing some value in future years, based on modeling for predicted salary increases and production growth.

The stats used for the goaltenders attempt to balance both ratio stats as well as volume. For those of you with variations towards either end of the spectrum, leaning more towards volume or rate stats, you will want to account for that change in value. Same thing goes for setting variations such as: number of teams, salary space, or roster positions. This list is made to be a baseline guide for player evaluation, and to promote discussion and understanding of how to optimize rosters in a cap league setting.

The goalie list comes not only with a value system, but with value tiers. The tiers (also computed by a formula of mine) represent a more general view on a goalie's value taking into account a few overarching factors. Cheap backups can have higher ratings but show up lower down the tier rankings. The high ranking is due to their low cap hits coupled with an established floor with some possible upside. The lower tier is a result of them having uncertain volume, and the lower likelihood of hitting their upside in any given year. In general, aim to have the highest rated players if you are looking to be most cap efficient, but use the tiers if you just want to focus on having the best goalies and you are comfortable paying a little more for that security (my preference is usually to lean towards the more cap efficient options because of how variable goalies can be).

If you note a mistake, or have any further questions about the ranking system, please let me know. You can find me on Twitter here @alexdmaclean.

Comments help with optimizing the values, because they're not perfect and they never will be.

We're sticking with the +/- 5.0 rating that Dobber uses on all of his rating schemes as the range for approximately equivalent value. The skater and goalie rankings are synched so that the value of a skater against a goalie can be compared, though the scale of the ratings has changed a little since the last update.

NameAgeCap HitYrsValueTierPrev Rnk
1Jakub Dobes25$965,0001273.111
2Brandon Bussi28$1,900,0003256.512
3Karel Vejmelka30$4,750,0004219.014
4Logan Thompson29$5,850,0005189.915
5Jesper Wallstedt23$2,200,0001188.616
6Andrei Vasilevskiy32$9,500,0002178.317
7Mackenzie Blackwood29$5,250,0004174.818
8Jake Oettinger27$8,250,0007164.619
9Jeremy Swayman27$8,250,0006158.0110
10Filip Gustavsson28$6,800,0005139.6111
11Dan Vladar29$3,350,0001195.8212
12Pyotr Kochetkov27$2,000,0001184.5213
13Lukas Dostal26$5,500,0005172.7214
14Jet Greaves25$5,000,0003164.2218
15Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen27$4,750,0003161.5216
16Ilya Sorokin31$8,250,0006159.9217
17Spencer Knight25$5,833,3333155.7219
18Linus Ullmark33$8,250,0003142.1221
19Jacob Fowler21$923,3332112.4220
20Yaroslav Askarov24$2,000,0001194.1322
21Stuart Skinner27$3,750,0002178.6329
22Joel Hofer26$3,400,0001175.8315
23Scott Wedgewood34$2,500,0001172.633
24Juuse Saros31$7,740,0007155.9324
25John Gibson33$6,400,0001155.7323
26Arturs Silovs25$2,800,0001153.7325
27Dustin Wolf25$7,500,0007143.6326
28Igor Shesterkin30$11,500,0007143.3327
29Joey Daccord30$5,000,0004141.8328
30Connor Hellebuyck33$8,500,0006131.5330
31Michael DiPietro27$812,500141.5331
32Jake Allen36$1,800,0004176.5432
33Anton Forsberg33$2,250,0001152.44NR
34Alex Nedeljkovic30$3,000,0002150.8433
35Alex Lyon33$1,500,0001148.7434
36Carter Hart28$2,000,0001138.5451
37Darcy Kuemper36$5,250,0001138.0436
38Tristan Jarry31$5,375,0002134.5438
39Sergei Murashov22$861,1101133.0453
40Akira Schmid26$2,000,0002122.3440
41Kevin Lankinen31$4,500,0004113.5439
42Jordan Binnington33$6,000,0001107.1441
43Thatcher Demko30$8,500,000380.2442
44Dylan Garand24$875,000261.2443
45Drew Commesso24$875,000255.5444
46Clay Stevenson27$3,000,000248.24NR
47Devon Levi24$812,500144.6460
48Frederik Andersen36$1,000,0001171.7545
49Dennis Hildeby25$841,6672156.5561
50Casey DeSmith35$1,000,0001152.7547
51Devin Cooley29$1,350,0002135.6548
52Anthony Stolarz32$3,750,0004132.6549
53Samuel Montembeault29$3,150,0001120.7559
54Nico Daws25$1,100,0002115.75NR
55Jacob Markstrom36$6,000,0002112.5550
56Adin Hill30$6,250,0005106.7555
57Sergei Bobrovsky38$7,000,000391.2556
58Elvis Merzlikins32$5,400,000172.2554
59Ilya Nabokov23$975,000115.85NR
60Trey Augustine21$1,075,000314.35NR
61David Rittich34$1,000,0001133.4646
62Justus Annunen26$1,250,0002122.0662
63Colten Ellis25$775,0001117.56NR
64Vitek Vanecek30$1,000,0001113.36NR

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