NHL Network put Andrei Vasilevskiy at No. 1 over Connor Hellebuyck and I need everyone to stop pretending this is some unforgivable slight. It is not. It is the cleanest “right now” call they have made in years, and the people screaming about it are still living in the 2024-25 highlight package.
NHL Media put it plainly: “Andrei Vasilevskiy is crowned as the top goalie on NHL Network’s list of Top 10 Goalies Right Now!” That is not nostalgia. That is the reigning Vezina Trophy winner reclaiming the throne after a season that looked like a statement. Fifty-eight games. Thirty-nine wins. A 2.31 GAA and .912 save percentage that sat near the top of the workload guys. A 17-0-1 run from late December into February that felt like the old Big Cat footage. He allowed two or fewer goals in 35 of those 58 starts. That is not a legacy ranking. That is a present-tense case.
Hellebuyck dropped to No. 2 for a reason that has nothing to do with disrespect. His 2025-26 was a real regression: 23-23-11, 2.86 GAA, .895 save percentage, zero shutouts. The same guy who had just stacked back-to-back Vezinas, a Hart, a Jennings, and a Presidents’ Trophy year for Winnipeg suddenly looked human in a Jets team that slid with him. I am not erasing the three-time Vezina winner. I am refusing to pretend last season did not happen.
The Flip Was Earned, Not Manufactured
A year ago Hellebuyck sat at No. 1 and Vasilevskiy sat at No. 2. The board flipped because the tape flipped. NHL.com framed the whole exercise the right way: “From Stanley Cup champions to Vezina Trophy winners to All-Stars, the NHL has many great goalies.” Then the producers and analysts ranked the ones who are actually carrying the weight right now. Vasilevskiy just took the Vezina for the second time in his career. Hellebuyck just posted the worst looking volume season of his prime. If you still want Hellebuyck first, you are grading the résumé, not the most recent chapter.
I watched the reaction roll in and it was pure tribal score-settling. Jets fans treating a drop from 1 to 2 like a public execution. Rangers fans shoving Shesterkin into the top two because his five-year save percentage still looks prettier. Islanders people doing the same for Sorokin. Some folks acting shocked that Logan Thompson, Dan Vladar, Jesper Wallstedt, and Jakub Dobes cracked the back half while Sergei Bobrovsky fell off the board entirely. Fine. Argue the 6-through-10 order all night. The top of the list is not the mystery.
Vasilevskiy’s career win total since 2015-16 sits at 363, still first. Hellebuyck is right behind at 345. That gap matters when both guys are in their early thirties and still logging 55-plus starts. Vasy also owns the two Cups and the Conn Smythe that Hellebuyck has never touched. “Right now” does not mean you burn the playoff ledger. It means you weigh the latest Vezina against the latest collapse and decide who is actually the safest bet heading into 2026-27.
Shesterkin Is Great. He Is Not the Story.
Igor Shesterkin at No. 3 is the correct parking spot. First in save percentage over the last five seasons among qualified guys. Still elite. Still the face of a Rangers team that asks him to steal nights. He is not the reigning Vezina winner and he does not have Vasilevskiy’s win volume or Cup hardware. Same bucket for Sorokin at four and Swayman at five. Those are real goalies. None of them just took the trophy Vasilevskiy took.
NHL Media also noted the simple framing that the reigning Vezina Trophy winner Andrei Vasilevskiy comes in at No. 1 on the list. That should end the argument. The Vezina is the positional award for the season that just ended. If you win it and still lose a “right now” ranking to the guy who had the down year, the ranking is broken. They did not break it. They fixed last year’s order.
I keep seeing personal lists that jam Hellebuyck or Shesterkin back on top like the 2025-26 tape is optional viewing. It is not optional. Hellebuyck can climb right back. He has done the volume-king thing for a decade. But you do not get to ignore a .895 and a sub-.500 record because the prior two seasons were historic. That is how these lists become participation trophies.
This Is What Peak Accountability Looks Like
The Lightning made the playoffs for a ninth straight year and still got bounced early. Vasilevskiy still walked away with the Vezina and the No. 1 ranking. That combination tells you how loud his regular season was. Winnipeg went the other direction and Hellebuyck’s numbers went with them. Rankings that pretend environment is everything are cowardly. Rankings that pretend environment is nothing are dumb. This one split the difference and landed on the guy who actually won the hardware.
I am taking Vasilevskiy as the clear 1 heading into the new season. Not the sentimental pick. Not the “remember 2020 and 2021” pick. The guy who just led the league in wins, sat second in the major rate stats among heavy starters, and forced the network to flip its own board. Hellebuyck remains a monster and a future Hall of Famer. He is also correctly sitting at No. 2 until he forces the conversation back. That is not a funeral. That is the sport working the way it is supposed to.
If the next six months look like Hellebuyck’s peak again, I will be first in line to move him. Until then, the crown is back in Tampa where the most recent evidence put it.
