Ranking all 32 NHL goalie tandems for the 2024-25 season - ESPN

The Edmonton Oilers understand the importance of a dependable goalie tandem.

In the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs last season, the Oilers were trailing the Vancouver Canucks 2-1 heading into Game 4. They needed a spark. More importantly, starter Stuart Skinner needed a mental reset. So backup goalie Calvin Pickard entered the series for two games, going 1-1 and playing well. The Oilers rallied with two straight wins after Skinner returned in Game 6, and their starter was mentally locked in from that point all the way through Game 7 of the Cup Final.

Whether it's the regular season or the postseason, today's NHL is such that teams have multiple goaltending options. Sometimes that means having a competent backup to give an overworked star goalie a breather. Sometimes that means having a goalie rotation that goes three netminders deep.

So which teams have the best goaltending depth?

These rankings were formulated through discussions with a variety of goalie experts — coaches, analytics gurus, former players — as well as through stats from sites like Evolving Hockey, Money Puck, Hockey Reference and Stathletes.

Rosters are through Oct. 16. And keep in mind that these rankings are a combination of past performance and projections for the 2024-25 season.

Let the debates begin!

Elvis Merzlikins, Daniil Tarasov

This duo had a bounce-back season after both finished in the bottom 10 in goals saved above replacement in 2022-23. Dean Evason's man-on-man defensive system was beneficial to the Minnesota Wild's defensive metrics during his time as head coach, but he was dealing with a different experience level with much of his personnel there vs. being in Columbus, which had the seventh-youngest roster in the NHL on