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.
| Name | Age | Cap Hit | Yrs | Value | Tier | Prev Rnk | |
| 1 | Jakub Dobes | 25 | $965,000 | 1 | 273.1 | 1 | 1 |
| 2 | Brandon Bussi | 28 | $1,900,000 | 3 | 256.5 | 1 | 2 |
| 3 | Karel Vejmelka | 30 | $4,750,000 | 4 | 219.0 | 1 | 4 |
| 4 | Logan Thompson | 29 | $5,850,000 | 5 | 189.9 | 1 | 5 |
| 5 | Jesper Wallstedt | 23 | $2,200,000 | 1 | 188.6 | 1 | 6 |
| 6 | Andrei Vasilevskiy | 32 | $9,500,000 | 2 | 178.3 | 1 | 7 |
| 7 | Mackenzie Blackwood | 29 | $5,250,000 | 4 | 174.8 | 1 | 8 |
| 8 | Jake Oettinger | 27 | $8,250,000 | 7 | 164.6 | 1 | 9 |
| 9 | Jeremy Swayman | 27 | $8,250,000 | 6 | 158.0 | 1 | 10 |
| 10 | Filip Gustavsson | 28 | $6,800,000 | 5 | 139.6 | 1 | 11 |
| 11 | Dan Vladar | 29 | $3,350,000 | 1 | 195.8 | 2 | 12 |
| 12 | Pyotr Kochetkov | 27 | $2,000,000 | 1 | 184.5 | 2 | 13 |
| 13 | Lukas Dostal | 26 | $5,500,000 | 5 | 172.7 | 2 | 14 |
| 14 | Jet Greaves | 25 | $5,000,000 | 3 | 164.2 | 2 | 18 |
| 15 | Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen | 27 | $4,750,000 | 3 | 161.5 | 2 | 16 |
| 16 | Ilya Sorokin | 31 | $8,250,000 | 6 | 159.9 | 2 | 17 |
| 17 | Spencer Knight | 25 | $5,833,333 | 3 | 155.7 | 2 | 19 |
| 18 | Linus Ullmark | 33 | $8,250,000 | 3 | 142.1 | 2 | 21 |
| 19 | Jacob Fowler | 21 | $923,333 | 2 | 112.4 | 2 | 20 |
| 20 | Yaroslav Askarov | 24 | $2,000,000 | 1 | 194.1 | 3 | 22 |
| 21 | Stuart Skinner | 27 | $3,750,000 | 2 | 178.6 | 3 | 29 |
| 22 | Joel Hofer | 26 | $3,400,000 | 1 | 175.8 | 3 | 15 |
| 23 | Scott Wedgewood | 34 | $2,500,000 | 1 | 172.6 | 3 | 3 |
| 24 | Juuse Saros | 31 | $7,740,000 | 7 | 155.9 | 3 | 24 |
| 25 | John Gibson | 33 | $6,400,000 | 1 | 155.7 | 3 | 23 |
| 26 | Arturs Silovs | 25 | $2,800,000 | 1 | 153.7 | 3 | 25 |
| 27 | Dustin Wolf | 25 | $7,500,000 | 7 | 143.6 | 3 | 26 |
| 28 | Igor Shesterkin | 30 | $11,500,000 | 7 | 143.3 | 3 | 27 |
| 29 | Joey Daccord | 30 | $5,000,000 | 4 | 141.8 | 3 | 28 |
| 30 | Connor Hellebuyck | 33 | $8,500,000 | 6 | 131.5 | 3 | 30 |
| 31 | Michael DiPietro | 27 | $812,500 | 1 | 41.5 | 3 | 31 |
| 32 | Jake Allen | 36 | $1,800,000 | 4 | 176.5 | 4 | 32 |
| 33 | Anton Forsberg | 33 | $2,250,000 | 1 | 152.4 | 4 | NR |
| 34 | Alex Nedeljkovic | 30 | $3,000,000 | 2 | 150.8 | 4 | 33 |
| 35 | Alex Lyon | 33 | $1,500,000 | 1 | 148.7 | 4 | 34 |
| 36 | Carter Hart | 28 | $2,000,000 | 1 | 138.5 | 4 | 51 |
| 37 | Darcy Kuemper | 36 | $5,250,000 | 1 | 138.0 | 4 | 36 |
| 38 | Tristan Jarry | 31 | $5,375,000 | 2 | 134.5 | 4 | 38 |
| 39 | Sergei Murashov | 22 | $861,110 | 1 | 133.0 | 4 | 53 |
| 40 | Akira Schmid | 26 | $2,000,000 | 2 | 122.3 | 4 | 40 |
| 41 | Kevin Lankinen | 31 | $4,500,000 | 4 | 113.5 | 4 | 39 |
| 42 | Jordan Binnington | 33 | $6,000,000 | 1 | 107.1 | 4 | 41 |
| 43 | Thatcher Demko | 30 | $8,500,000 | 3 | 80.2 | 4 | 42 |
| 44 | Dylan Garand | 24 | $875,000 | 2 | 61.2 | 4 | 43 |
| 45 | Drew Commesso | 24 | $875,000 | 2 | 55.5 | 4 | 44 |
| 46 | Clay Stevenson | 27 | $3,000,000 | 2 | 48.2 | 4 | NR |
| 47 | Devon Levi | 24 | $812,500 | 1 | 44.6 | 4 | 60 |
| 48 | Frederik Andersen | 36 | $1,000,000 | 1 | 171.7 | 5 | 45 |
| 49 | Dennis Hildeby | 25 | $841,667 | 2 | 156.5 | 5 | 61 |
| 50 | Casey DeSmith | 35 | $1,000,000 | 1 | 152.7 | 5 | 47 |
| 51 | Devin Cooley | 29 | $1,350,000 | 2 | 135.6 | 5 | 48 |
| 52 | Anthony Stolarz | 32 | $3,750,000 | 4 | 132.6 | 5 | 49 |
| 53 | Samuel Montembeault | 29 | $3,150,000 | 1 | 120.7 | 5 | 59 |
| 54 | Nico Daws | 25 | $1,100,000 | 2 | 115.7 | 5 | NR |
| 55 | Jacob Markstrom | 36 | $6,000,000 | 2 | 112.5 | 5 | 50 |
| 56 | Adin Hill | 30 | $6,250,000 | 5 | 106.7 | 5 | 55 |
| 57 | Sergei Bobrovsky | 38 | $7,000,000 | 3 | 91.2 | 5 | 56 |
| 58 | Elvis Merzlikins | 32 | $5,400,000 | 1 | 72.2 | 5 | 54 |
| 59 | Ilya Nabokov | 23 | $975,000 | 1 | 15.8 | 5 | NR |
| 60 | Trey Augustine | 21 | $1,075,000 | 3 | 14.3 | 5 | NR |
| 61 | David Rittich | 34 | $1,000,000 | 1 | 133.4 | 6 | 46 |
| 62 | Justus Annunen | 26 | $1,250,000 | 2 | 122.0 | 6 | 62 |
| 63 | Colten Ellis | 25 | $775,000 | 1 | 117.5 | 6 | NR |
| 64 | Vitek Vanecek | 30 | $1,000,000 | 1 | 113.3 | 6 | NR |