The National Hockey League released its list of the Top 10 NHL Goalies on Sunday night. Of course, some of the best net-minders in league history are at the top of the list, and there is plenty of depth at this position across the league.
Goalies as a whole are better than ever. It’s as hard to score a goal as it’s ever been, and a lot of it has to do with how good these men are. Without good goaltending at precisely the right time, a team cannot win when it counts.
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In the same breath, some goalies can vary from year to year. A guy could be in the mix for the Vezina Trophy one year and struggle hard the next. His team will likely reflect those results too. It can be random, but most of the guys on this list are elite every season.
The Chicago Blackhawks have an outstanding goaltender in Spencer Knight. They have some good young goalies in the system, but the trade to acquire Knight gave the rebuild some juice because he is a young player (25) who is already great at the NHL level.
It would have been reasonable for him to come in the second half of the top-10, but he was snubbed.
Knight is going to finish higher than those in the top seven for a while, but he has played just as well, if not better, than the rest on a much worse team.
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With the Blackhawks, who have been one of the worst defensive teams during his tenure, Knight has made them a much more formidable squad.
During the 2025-26 season, his first full year in Chicago, he posted a record of 19-25-11 but managed to have numbers near his career average as he had a 2.82 goals-against average and .902 save percentage.
Those aren’t top-flight numbers, but they are great for a guy facing 30+ shots every single night, and sometimes much more than that.
Knight’s numbers also started to fall off a bit after the trade deadline, when the team traded away a few of their top defensive players, including Nick Foligno, Jason Dickinson, and Connor Murphy.
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With a good team in front of him, he is an outstanding goalie. In Knight’s final 23 games with the Florida Panthers, the 2024-25 season before being traded, he was 12-8-1 with a .907 save percentage and a 2.40 goals-against average.
Now, Knight has to work hard to get himself back into consideration for that list. It is going to be a challenge, with the Blackhawks scheduled to be in front of him again, but they have improved a bit.
Nobody questions Knight’s ability to be a starting goalie in the NHL anymore. It’s just a matter of how good he can become and whether or not he is on a team that will allow him to take that next step.
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