The 2024 NHL Entry Draft is coming up in June, and with the league’s Scouting Combine coming up soon, it is time to start breaking down some of the top options that could be NHL netminders in the future.
It should come as no surprise that goaltenders are the hardest to scout each year. It is the most fickle position in hockey, which may never change in our lifetime. With that said, the following list is based solely on NHL Central Scouting’s 2024 Draft Prospect Final Rankings.
Honorable Mention: We would be remiss to not at least mention the goaltender that might be the first one selected in the draft. Even though he was ranked at #10 for NHL Central’s North American goaltenders, Ryerson Leenders, who played for the Mississauga Steelheads of the Ontario Hockey League (OHL), is listed in many rankings and mock drafts as being the first netminder selected, possibly as early as the second round. He’s been a beast for the Steelheads this season, a team that can have its struggles in their own zone.
10. Martin Haronik, HC Modre Kridla Slovan / Slovakia2
Central Scouting Ranking: (5th) EU Goaltenders
Haronik is a long-armed, positionally sound left-catching goalie who struggled a great deal in Slovakia’s second-tier men’s league. At 6-foot-5, he is good size and plays with solid movement, effectively cutting down angles. He is calm under pressure and can pull off highlight-reel saves.
He has demonstrated some nice puck anticipation on pucks passed through the offensive zone and is good at waiting for the one-timer to get to the net. His ability to challenge every shot is impressive, and it is a byproduct of his speed and size combination. Haronik’s big frame and impressive speed for his size have made him an intriguing goalie prospect to monitor during the draft.
9. Dawson Cowan – Spokane Chiefs (Western Hockey League)
Central Scouting Ranking: 5th (NA Goaltenders)
What you notice right away about Dawson Cowan is how well he covers the net with his 6-foot-3 frame, especially down low. He has quick legs that make him hard to beat and his active glove hand comes up big often. He can be caught reacting too slowly to a shot, and his rebound control needs improvement. But other times, he will flip a switch and it becomes near impossible to get a shot past him.
Cowan is predominantly a butterfly goalie who starts upright and tall and spreads out as a shot attempt becomes more imminent. He plays quite aggressively at the top of his crease and maintains his depth as much as possible. His movement east-west is very solid and effective. He is also a tremendous athlete, using his legs to explode into recoveries and cross-crease plays. He also reacts to plays incredibly well, which complements his athleticism nicely.
8. Pavel Moysevich – St. Petersburg (KHL)
Central Scouting Ranking: 4th (EU Goaltenders)
The 6-foot-5 Belarusian goaltender has taken a big step forward in his development. His .931 save percentage (SV%) is the 13th-best mark in the VHL, all while playing behind an up-and-down side in SKA-Neva. He has also occasionally made his way into the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) squad, stopping all 34 shots he faced in his first four games. He appeared in 13 KHL games for the season, with a 1.25 goals-against-average (GAA) and a .927 SV%.
Related: THW’s 2024 NHL Draft Guide
The 19-year-old has found his form in professional hockey. He has the height that NHL decision-makers covet too, so a late-round pick could be in the cards, so long as enough scouts get a chance to see him.
7. Nicholas Kempf – USNTDP (USHL)
Central Scouting Ranking: 4th (NA Goaltenders)
There is a wide range of opinions on where Nicholas Kempf ranks among prospects and goaltenders for this year’s draft. Some feel he is one of the best in the class, while others are not so sure if he even belongs in the top ten of this year’s goaltending crop. Generally, they all agree that he is a goaltender with a strong skillset but are bothered by some of his performances in the United States Hockey League (USHL) this season.
Kempf is usually positionally sound and is very good at challenging shooters. Watching him in October 2023 against Utica University, he stopped 37 of the 38 shots he faced against older competition. Utica struggled out of the gate, as this was their first game of the season, but they put some things together in the second and third periods and put much more pressure on Kempf. The biggest takeaway from that game was how athletic he is, as well as his ability to put himself in positions that make it difficult for opponents to get good scoring chances.
6. Lukas Matecha – Tri-City (Western Hockey League)
Central Scouting Ranking: 3rd (NA Goalies)
Lukas Matecha is in his first year in North America, and his numbers have been good despite often getting shelled with Tri-City. He’s no stranger to 40-shot contests and often plays some of his best hockey when busy. At 6-foot-3, he has the size teams crave, and it is unlikely he will go undrafted again this time around.
Matecha, from Pardubice, Czechia, spent the 2022-23 season with his hometown HC Dyname Pardubice U20 team, going 14-18 with a .918 SV% and 2.54 GAA. After attending Detroit Red Wings prospects camp ahead of the 2023-24 season, he joined the Americans and had a strong season going 13-19-1-1 with a .901 SV% and a 3.42 GAA. He was also named to the Canadian Hockey League (CHL)/NHL Top Prospects Game and turned aside all 19 shots he faced during his game action, helping Team Red win 3-1.
5. Kim Saarinen – HPK U20 / U20 SM-sarja (Finland)
Central Scouting Ranking: 3rd (EU Goaltenders)
Kim Saarinen has steadily improved his draft stock over the past year. He was solid for HPK at the U20 level, already has a win under his belt at the Liiga level, and saw time in net at the U18 Worlds for Finland. He stands tall at 6-foot-4, allowing him to cover so much of the net, but he’s athletic enough to stretch out to make more difficult stops when needed. He is a hybrid goalie. When in the butterfly, he keeps his body upright and shoulders high. His legs flare out in the butterfly, shutting down the bottom of the net while creating an effective seal against the ice.
He struggled this past February in the U18 Five Nations tournament but generally has done well against U20 competition. One of the knocks on him, which was also an issue in the Five Nations, was his tendency to let in too many soft goals. But he is very good at screened shots and uses his vision effectively to find the puck.
He is an absolute wall when it comes to high-danger situations. Saarinen uses his premier ability to shut down the lower half of the net in combination with his large torso to make it hard for shooters to find a hole.
4. Ilya Nabokov – Metallurg Magnitogorsk (KHL)
Central Scouting Ranking: 2nd (EU Skaters)
What has been most impressive with Ilya Nabokov’s game is his stability in the crease. He does not make the flashy plays because he does not need to; he is well-positioned and makes the saves you would expect all goaltenders to make. He is great at moving post to post, forcing the opposition to make a perfect shot to find the back of the net. He is not afraid to move to the top of the crease to block a shooter’s angle, and his glove and blocker are fast enough to make any save up high.
While Nabokov is smaller at 6-foot-1, 179 pounds and that is likely the reason he went undrafted in 2023, it is not an issue, at least it should not be viewed as one. It was likely feared he would not be able to translate his success to the premier Russian league, and he proved doubters wrong this past season. It is hard to find a poor performance of his, and it appears he may become an outlier to the stereotype of Russian goaltenders being inconsistent.
3. Carter George – Owen Sound Attack (OHL)
Central Scouting Ranking: 2nd (NA Skaters)
What has predominately stuck out about Carter George’s game this season has been his quick yet poised movement in the crease. He can move side-to-side smoothly and quickly to close out shooters’ chances on him, even as a smaller goalie. His disciplined play in between the pipes for the Owen Sound Attack has been tied in with his poise as well, being able to find himself in the right position most times and exuding confidence as a rookie in the OHL.
While playing on an Attack team that has underperformed this season, George has stolen wins for his team, having had numerous games of 40 or more saves, including a 50-save shutout against the Barrie Colts on Nov. 23, 2023. He has been one of the OHL’s best goaltenders in his first full season of junior hockey after a strong showing in the Hlinka Gretzky Cup with Team Canada. He was also a standout at this year’s CHL/NHL Top Prospects game.
2. Mikhail Yegorov – Omaha Lancers (USHL)
Central Scouting Ranking: 1st (NA Goalies)
Scouts see a ton of potential from the 6-foot-4 keeper in spite of an 8-25-3 record with the Omaha Lancers. He was even named to the All-USHL Rookie Second Team. Mikhail Yegorov appeared in 43 games, the most among rookie goalies in the league and third most among all netminders, finished in the top 15 in SV% (.892), was one of 15 goaltenders to record a shutout, as well as played 2,117 minutes on the season.
His size helps, but he battles so hard. He never gives up on a play, even with a terrible lineup in front of him. The Boston University commit is very athletic for his size and seems to stay focused no matter what. We could see Yegorov be one of the biggest goaltender steals of this draft because he has all the tools needed to succeed, but just doesn’t have the results.
1. Eemil Vinni – JoKP (Mestis)
Central Scouting Ranking: 1st (EU Goaltenders)
Eemil Vinni jumped into the number one spot in the final 2024 NHL Central Scouting rankings for European goaltenders. As a promising prospect, he started moving up the rankings after the 2023 Hlinka Gretzky Cup, where he backstopped Finland to a third-place finish. He posted a 1.75 GAA and .927 SV% at the tournament in four games. He was equally as good in the 2022 Hlinka Gretzky Cup as he didn’t have the net to start the tournament but established himself as the No. 1 for Finland as the week rolled along.
Scouts also like how Vinni is mentally focused and has the team feeding off his confidence. He usually stops that first shot. He lets the play come to him, doesn’t waste movements, and rarely overcommits. He displays good technique, plays the angles well, absorbs shots in his soft pads, and limits rebounds.
Some of the concerns around Vinni are that he tends to give up some soft goals and needs to be quicker with his side-to-side movements. One area that he has improved over previous seasons is his overcommitting to shots. Overall, Vinni has no major flaws and has incredible numbers as an 18-year-old in Finland’s second-tier pro league (Mestis).
NHL teams will be intrigued by the Finnish stopper, who enters the draft with good size, at 6-foot-2, and has tremendous athleticism and control of his movements.
Goalies don’t get to play anywhere near as much as skaters do, so the sample size to judge them is much smaller. In a lot of cases, scouts have to figure out if a goalie is getting crushed because of the team in front of them or if they are truly just not good enough. In a year where there is no clear-cut future No. 1 starter, it will be interesting to see where these players land in the draft.
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