The Florida Panthers opened the door to draft week by making a couple of trades on Sunday, with the Brady Tkachuk blockbuster headlining the day. Those moves set the tone for the trade market, and was followed up by four other trades on Tuesday.
As the days have passed, the Tkachuk move is still being digested. What did that mean for the Senators, who have no desire to step back? They acquired William Eklund from San Jose. What does it mean for other American players, especially those who were on the gold medal-winning Olympic team? Dylan Larkin has already asked for a trade, Zach Werenski and the Blue Jackets will have a conversation about his future, and rumours swirl around Connor Hellebuyck.
And as excited as Panthers fans were about acquiring a second Tkachuk, and seeing how deep their top three lines go now, even Florida is left with one huge question about their roster.
Who is going to start in net next season?
That’s not a position you want to be unsure about for long.
Sergei Bobrovsky and Daniil Tarasov were the two Panthers goalies last season and neither are under contract for the next one. Bobrovsky won two Cups with the Panthers, but will turn 38 in September and his contract demands may be too rich for the team. According to Nick Kypreos, “there are some suggestions that his ask is as high as $42 million over six or seven years.”
That is likely not going to work for the Panthers, who have just over $7 million of cap space.
“Until doors close you never know,” Panthers GM Bill Zito said Tuesday. “Bob is a guy that has done so much for our organization and we continue to evaluate every single day. Try to be better. There are no doors closed here ever.”
While it still is possible the two sides could come to an agreement, we have to start thinking about what else the Panthers might do in their crease, whether through trade or free agency.
And they aren’t the only ones.
• It’s believed the Buffalo Sabres, with Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen and Alex Lyon under contract, would like to upgrade at the position.
• The Toronto Maple Leafs, with Anthony Stolarz, Dennis Hildeby and Samuel Ersson on the team, have been linked to Bobrovsky in free agent rumours, so they could be a player in the market.
• Ottawa has been assessing its netminding and would like to pair Linus Ullmark with a reliable backup.
• Tristan Jarry is the only goalie the Edmonton Oilers have under contract right now. They surely need another netminder, considering Jarry lost the crease to Connor Ingram last season, and Ingram’s contract is about to expire.
• The Pittsburgh Penguins have two goalies whose contracts are expiring. Stuart Skinner would become a UFA on July 1 and Arturs Silovs an RFA. Might they look for a tandem starter, or more?
And there could be others who want to try something new at the position.
The goalie trade market is always a difficult one to get a handle on. Top players at the position are seldom traded, and don’t often make it to free agency in their prime either. Then again, Carolina won the Stanley Cup with Brandon Bussi in the crease during the Final. They claimed him off waivers from Florida before the season began.
So, while goaltending can be tricky to figure out and you might find a solid one where you least expect, it’s also the most important position to get right.
There are a number of netminders who might be attainable this summer too, from bonafide starters, to tandem options, or upside players.
We wanted to go through what the goalie market looks like this summer, and who could possibly be had, whether in free agency or through trade.
Connor Hellebuyck, Winnipeg
Until and unless a trade request has been made (and there’s no confirmation of that yet) the Jets don’t have to move — and certainly won’t want to move — Hellebuyck. The 33-year-old still has five years remaining on his contract at an $8.5 million cap hit. He’s part of a locked-in core Winnipeg wants to win with.
But if a request is made, GM Kevin Cheveldayoff will have the most sought-after, available, netminder to trade. This would be no small deal. The last time a three-time Vezina Trophy winner was traded it was Dominik Hasek going from Buffalo to Detroit in 2001 for Vyacheslav Kozlov and a first-round pick. Hasek was 35 and went on to win a Cup with the Red Wings in his first year with the team.
Options to come in and immediately take over the No. 1 job
Sergei Bobrovsky, Florida, pending UFA
If the Panthers and Bobrovsky don’t come to terms in the coming days, it will be interesting to see if any other team meets his asking price, or if it will come down at all. While Bobrovsky has won two Vezina Trophies and two Stanley Cups, his 2025-26 season was the roughest at his career. How much of that was due to the injured team in front of him? How much of that was due to three straight runs to the Stanley Cup Final wearing on him? And how much was due to age-related decline?
Despite those numbers, he’ll still be used as an NHL starter though potentially his regular season workload could be lessened on a new team.
Joel Hofer is ready to take over the crease in St. Louis and started more games than Binnington last season (43 to 39). Hofer, 25, has one more year on his contract before becoming an RFA, while Binnington has one more year until he becomes eligible for unrestricted free agency.
Binnington will still be seen as a starter by a team that acquires him, but it’s worth pointing out that the 32-year-old lost his grip on the crease because his numbers were so much worse than Hofer’s last season. Still, he played well for Canada at the Olympics and might bounce back in a better defensive environment. That bit of uncertainty might make him more attainable (could he be had for less than a first-rounder?) but does make him a risky bet to be a reliable starter.
The Stanley Cup-winning goaltender with Vegas when they won it the first time in 2023, Hill lost the crease to Carter Hart at the end of this past season and didn’t see one minute of playoff action. Even when Hart started to struggle a bit in the Final, Hill was stapled to the bench.
Now Vegas is pinned against the cap, with just $4.625 million in space with eyes on re-signing Rasmus Andersson and Pavel Dorofeyev too. Vegas needs to create space. That could come by trading William Karlsson or Tomas Hertl (who is on Kypreos’ trade board), but Hill makes $6.25 million for another five years, which is a lot for someone who might be the backup. Hart has one year left on his contract and can extend as of July 1, so the timing might be right for Vegas to pivot at the position.
Stuart Skinner, Pittsburgh, pending UFA
Whether you view Skinner as starting goalie material or not, he did play that role in Edmonton for three years and two runs to the Stanley Cup Final, but they moved off of him when they traded Skinner to Pittsburgh last season. With the Penguins he shared duties with Arturs Silovs, but was their starter come playoff time, only losing the net when Pittsburgh fell behind 3-0 in their opening-round series.
In 50 games played between the two teams last season, Skinner’s 8.3 Goals Saved Above Expected ranked 22nd out of 98 NHL goalies. You will want a reliable backup to pair with Skinner, and he might land somewhere that utilizes him in a tandem role, but he’s in his prime at 27 years of age.
While Gustavsson has emerged as a starter in Minnesota and is paid as such ($6.8 million for five more years), all the momentum at the end of the year was going Jesper Wallstedt’s way after Wallstedt was the rumoured trade candidate when 2025-26 opened. The Wild may prefer to keep both, but they have roster needs (especially at centre) and want to drive forward as a contender. If that can be accomplished through trading Gustavsson, it has to be an option.
However there is a complicating factor here that may turn teams off of acquiring him for now. Gustavsson is having off-season hip surgery and his availability for the start of next season is in question.
Options to consider splitting starts with another netminder
When healthy, Andersen can be a very good goalie. We saw him at his best through three rounds of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, when he was making a heckuva case for the Conn Smythe Trophy. But after losing two of the first three games in the Final and allowing 12 goals against, Bussi came in to finish the job.
Andersen’s availability can be an issue and he also can be a streaky netminder, which puts him firmly into the tandem category. He was exactly that in his time with Carolina. Pair a quality partner with Andersen and you’ll probably get a duo good enough to help a contender go on a playoff run. The only question is if the 36-year-old retires after winning the Cup this year.
Markstrom probably straddles the starting/tandem goalie tier because his $6 million contract (for two more years) is starter money and that has been his role across the last three teams he played on. However, the 2025-26 season was a rough one for Markstrom, finishing 88th out of 98 goaltenders in Goals Saved Above Expected. This is another goalie whose age we have to consider, because Markstrom will turn 37 midway through next season. What does he have left in the tank?
Connor Ingram, Edmonton, pending UFA
Acquired in a nothing trade for future considerations before last season, and starting out in the minors, 29-year-old Connor Ingram worked his way into Edmonton’s crease and became the playoff starter by the time it was over. Now he’s a pending UFA who could head to market on July 1.
Ingram is probably not someone you want to rely on for 50-plus games, but might perfectly align with a program where he can split starts or be the slightly less-used backup. He’s shown to have the upside to run a crease for a while and his age isn’t a concern.
While Grubauer was disappointing as Seattle’s starter when he first had that job in 2021-22 and has since lost that role to Joey Daccord, it is worth mentioning that his 2025-26 season was the best one he had since leaving Colorado. Grubauer’s .909 save percentage was well above league average. His Goals Saved Above Expected was 27th in the league, squeezed between Jake Oettinger and Connor Hellebuyck.
The 34-year-old has one season left on his contract ($5.9 million AAV) so this is not the player you’re looking to for a long-term fix as a starter. He does fit solidly in the tandem tier, though, and the Kraken might find some value trading him before his contract expires.
It seems almost everything is on the table in Toronto, and if we had done this piece a couple weeks ago Stolarz might have been the more likely trade candidate than Joseph Woll, who has already been traded to the Flyers. Right now Toronto has three goalies on its roster it cannot pass through waivers: Stolarz, Dennis Hildeby and Samuel Ersson so it’s unlikely they’ll get through the summer with this setup. Toronto has been rumoured around Bobrovsky if he hits UFA, which means they’re sniffing around at this position.
So, we’d be remiss to not include Stolarz in a list like this. He was one half of the league’s best tandem by save percentage with Woll two years ago, but sagged this past season and started just 25 games, so there are availability concerns. He is signed for another four years, but at $3.75 million his cap hit is manageable. The 32-year-old won a Cup with Florida as Bobrovsky’s backup in 2024.
Options to either play behind a more solid starter, or to buy into the No. 1 potential of
It’s a bit of scramble mode in Detroit after Larkin requested a trade, and if GM Steve Yzerman strikes a deal for his captain and top-line centre, the hope among fans is that the return will allow the Red Wings to keep pushing for the playoffs. That is the top bit of business for this summer.
In net, Detroit has John Gibson under contract for one more season and he did rather well in his first year with the team. We’re watching out for who’s coming up through the system though. The Red Wings have both Cossa (15th overall in 2021) and Trey Augustine (41st overall in 2023) on the way, the latter of whom has left college and will likely be in the AHL next season. Cossa has been in the AHL for three full seasons now and in 2025-26 he was top-six in the league in GAA and SV%. Will that get him the promotion to Detroit’s pro roster, or might Yzerman look to move him? Cossa comes with solid draft pedigree, he’s performed well through his development, and he’s the youngest goalie on this list so he has the potential to be someone’s fix for a very long time. He’s also only played one NHL game before.
Sam Montembeault, Montreal
From Team Canada’s third stringer at the 4 Nations to the Montreal Canadiens’ third stringer a year later, Montembeault’s crash down the depth chart made way for two younger goalies to make their case why they should be the team’s goalie of the future. That has to leave open the possibility that Montembeault, who has one year left on a contract paying $3.15 million against the cap, could get traded this summer.
At the moment, he would be targeted as someone’s backup netminder, and that team would want to feel like its goalie coaches can help Montembault scratch his way back somewhere close to where he was. But he also fits into the “upside” category. For three years prior to this one, Montembeault has consistent numbers and his value was growing. He’ll turn 30 at the end of October and might be worth taking a shot on.
Maybe more backup than upside, Ersson’s numbers have never been great across his three NHL seasons and, in fact, his save percentage has decline each year. By Goals Saved Above Expected, Ersson ranked 94th out of 98 goalies this season, and 103rd out of 103 goalies last season. Nonetheless, there are reports the Leafs are tying to flip the 26-year-old.
We’ll believe it when we see it
There are not many rebuilding teams but the Rangers would be one of them. Vincent Trocheck is a strong possibility to move, Adam Fox has been rumoured, but could it go as deep as Shesterkin? Trading the 30-year-old, one of the NHL’s top netminders, when he has seven years left on his deal would be a decisive change…and a blockbuster at the position that we haven’t seen since Patrick Roy was dealt to Colorado at the same age.
Seventh in the league by Goals Saved Above Expected this past season, Cooley was one of the league’s top backups, so good that he may eventually be a starter someday, somewhere. But next season will be just Year 1 of a two-year deal he signed in Calgary. A Cooley trade may happen one day, but this off-season is a long shot.
When healthy and on his game, Thatcher can be a real difference maker for a team, but he’s played only 43 games combined the past two seasons. This would be a tough trade to make because Demko is a risky pickup at $8.5 million for a playoff team needing a goalie, but he’s also someone the Canucks would want to get a good return for, to say nothing of his no-movement clause.