Last Sunday, the Winnipeg Jets were part of hockey history we might not ever see again. And no, I’m not talking about Cole Perfetti and Ryan Hartman. Please. No.
Marc-André Fleury played his 1,000th NHL regular-season game. He joins three other Quebec natives — Martin Brodeur, Roberto Luongo and Patrick Roy — as the only NHL goalies to reach that mark. And it got me reflecting on two levels.
Firstly, the way goaltenders are now managed, I suspect we will never see another NHL goalie ever reach 1,000 games played. Much like baseball, where 300-game winners are no longer possible, the position between the pipes has become one of intense work between games, and starters being paced and rested for the playoffs.
The other note is something a little more relevant to our game. And I mean our game. All four of those goalies — Brodeur, Luongo, Roy and Fleury — are Canadian. They all played for Canada internationally. They were the best. So when next year’s international series takes place, and then the Olympics in Italy in 2026, who will Canada have in goal?
The days of the great Canadian goalie don’t exist in the NHL right now. The last impactful Canadian goaltender was Carey Price. But he’s done. Right now, of the top six goalies in the league, two are American, three are Russian and one is Finnish. Scouring the numbers, the best Canadian-born goalies in the NHL are Cam Talbot, Stuart Skinner, Adin Hill and Connor Ingram. Good goalies, not great goalies.
The Americans are loaded. So are the Finns. And a Swede won the Vezina Trophy last season.
More than any other position on the ice, we have seen Canadian content for goaltenders diminish. Why? Good question. Perhaps it’s a self-fulfilling propehcy. Roy inspired Brodeur, Luongo and Fleury. It was a glamour position. Now every kid wants to be Sid or Connor or Cale or Josh. The glamour is scoring goals, not stopping them.
Goaltending has become the pressure position. Sometimes it’s just not fun.
If Canada is going to continue to be at the top of the hockey table, we need a goalie — a great goalie.
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