Winning a game in the NHL as a goalie is a nightmare. Honestly, think about it. You’re standing there for 60 minutes while frozen rubber discs fly at your face at 100 miles per hour. If you mess up once, a red light goes off, a siren wails, and 20,000 people scream because you failed. Now, imagine doing that well enough to win 691 times.
That is the mountain Martin Brodeur built.
The list of all time NHL goalie wins is more than just a spreadsheet of names; it’s a map of hockey’s different eras. You have the "Original Six" workhorses who played without masks, the 80s superstars who survived the highest-scoring era in history, and the modern technicians who benefited from the introduction of the shootout. But as we look at the standings in 2026, a weird realization is setting in. We might not see anyone touch the top of this list for a very, very long time.
The Big Three and the 500-Win Club
For years, the gold standard was Patrick Roy. He was the guy. When he retired in 2003 with 551 wins, people genuinely thought that was it. The ceiling had been hit. Roy was a revolutionized "butterfly" style goalie who played on powerhouse teams in Montreal and Colorado. He was arrogant, brilliant, and seemingly unbeatable.
Then came Martin Brodeur.
Brodeur didn’t just break the record; he obliterated it. Playing almost his entire career for a New Jersey Devils system that prioritized defense, Brodeur was a model of terrifying consistency. He had eight 40-win seasons. Think about that. To get to 691, you basically have to be elite for twenty years without getting a major injury. He was a puck-handling wizard who acted like a third defenseman, which is a big reason why he stayed so fresh—he didn't have to face as many shots because he cleared the zone himself.
Then we have Marc-Andre Fleury. "Flower" just wrapped up his incredible 21-season run this week, officially retiring with 575 wins. He passed Roy for second place, which is a massive legacy-defining achievement. Fleury was the bridge between the old-school athletic "scramble" goalies and the modern robotic style. He won in Pittsburgh, he won in Vegas, and he finished strong in Minnesota. But even with 21 years of high-level play, he still finished more than 100 wins behind Brodeur.
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That gap is a chasm.
The Current Leaders: Where the Standings Sit in 2026
If you look at the board today, the top ten is a mix of legends and a few guys who are still surprisingly hanging on.
- Martin Brodeur: 691 wins
- Marc-Andre Fleury: 575 wins
- Patrick Roy: 551 wins
- Roberto Luongo: 489 wins
- Ed Belfour: 484 wins
- Henrik Lundqvist: 459 wins
- Curtis Joseph: 454 wins
- Sergei Bobrovsky: 448 wins (and still pushing)
- Terry Sawchuk: 445 wins
- Jacques Plante: 437 wins
It’s wild to see Sergei Bobrovsky up there. A few years ago, people were calling his contract in Florida one of the worst in the league. Now? He’s likely going to pass Curtis Joseph and maybe even Lundqvist before he calls it quits. He’s been a workhorse for the Panthers, and that 2024 Cup run solidified his Hall of Fame trajectory.
But look at the names at the bottom of that top ten. Sawchuk and Plante. These guys played in an era where there were only six teams and the season was shorter. They didn't have shootouts to "gift" them extra wins. If a game was tied after 60 minutes (or a short overtime), it stayed a tie.
The Shootout Factor
We have to be honest about how we measure these wins. Before 2005, games ended in ties. If Martin Brodeur or Patrick Roy played their entire careers with the current "3-on-3 and then a shootout" rules, their win totals would be even more astronomical.
Roberto Luongo, who sits at 4th all-time, is a great example of the "loser point" era. He was incredible, don’t get me wrong, but he also played in an era where you stayed on the ice until someone won. This makes the 445 wins by Terry Sawchuk look even more insane. He did that when you had to actually win the game in regulation or a grueling overtime.
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Why We Won't See a New #1 Anytime Soon
You might look at Andrei Vasilevskiy or Connor Hellebuyck and think, "Hey, those guys win a lot. They'll get there."
Probably not.
Vasilevskiy is currently sitting at 350 wins. He’s 31 years old. To catch Brodeur, he needs another 341 wins. If he wins 35 games a year—which is a huge number—he would need to do that for nearly ten more seasons. That would take him to age 41. In today's NHL, teams are terrified of overworking their starters. The days of a goalie playing 75 games a year like Brodeur did are over.
Most starters now play 50 to 55 games. The "tandem" system is the new meta. Teams would rather have two solid goalies than one legendary one who is exhausted by the time the playoffs start. This shift in philosophy is the biggest threat to the all time NHL goalie wins record.
The Durability Gap
- The Brodeur Era: Goalie starts 70+ games, sees 2,000+ shots, plays both ends of a back-to-back.
- The 2026 Era: Goalie starts 52 games, strictly managed rest days, heavy emphasis on "load management."
Hellebuyck is another interesting case. He’s 32 and has 334 wins. He's a machine in Winnipeg, but even he is starting to see his workload dialed back to keep him fresh for April. To get to 600, let alone 691, everything has to go right. No groin tears. No knee blowouts. No sharp declines in team quality.
The Mid-Tier Legends and the "Almost" Greats
It’s easy to focus on the top five, but some of the most impressive feats are further down the list.
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Take Dominik Hasek. "The Dominator" is 17th all-time with 389 wins. That number seems low for a guy many consider the greatest to ever play the position. But Hasek didn't even become a full-time NHL starter until he was 28. He spent years stuck behind Ed Belfour in Chicago and playing in Europe. If he had started at 21, he might be the one at 700.
Then there’s Curtis Joseph ("Cujo"). 454 wins. Zero Stanley Cups. Zero Vezina Trophies. He is the winningest goalie in history to never win a major individual award or a championship. It’s a bit of a heartbreaking stat, but it shows that wins are often a team stat as much as a goalie stat. Cujo played on some mediocre teams and dragged them to victories through sheer voluntad.
Actionable Insights for Hockey Fans
If you're tracking the record books or playing fantasy hockey, there are a few things to keep in mind regarding how we value wins today:
- Contextualize the Era: Always look at "Ties" vs. "Shootout Wins." A goalie from the 90s with 400 wins is arguably more impressive than a modern goalie with 430, simply because the 90s goalie didn't have the shootout safety net.
- Watch Vasilevskiy and Hellebuyck: They are the last of a dying breed of "true" workhorse starters. If they can't get to 500, no one currently in the league will.
- The Rise of the "Win Percentage": Since total wins are becoming harder to accumulate due to lower GP (Games Played), analysts are shifting toward Win % and GSAA (Goals Saved Above Average) to determine greatness.
- Sergei Bobrovsky's Climb: Keep an eye on the Panthers' schedule. Bobrovsky is currently in a position to jump two or three spots on the all-time list by the end of the 2025-26 season.
The record of 691 wins feels like Cy Young's 511 wins in baseball—a product of a specific time and a specific level of durability that the modern game just doesn't allow anymore. We should appreciate Marc-Andre Fleury’s 575 for what it is: likely the last time we see anyone cross the 550 mark in our lifetime.
If you want to dig deeper into these stats, your best bet is to check out the live-updating leaderboards on Hockey-Reference or the official NHL Records portal. They break down wins by home/away and even by specific franchises, which is a rabbit hole worth falling down if you have an afternoon to kill.