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Filip Gustavsson joined an exclusive club on Tuesday night, becoming just the 15th goalie in NHL history to be credited with a goal.
Gustavsson is now an accredited NHL goal-scorer, and he’s having fun with it.
“I should be on the power-play meetings now,” Gustavsson told ESPN’s Emily Kaplan post-game.
But if Gustavsson is to join the Mount Rushmore of NHL goalie goal-scorers, he’s got his work cut out for him. Not all goalie goals are made equal. Some happen purely by chance, while others take a heroic effort by the goalie to sail the puck nearly 200 feet to the empty net. Some come during desperate attempts by the opposition to tie the game, while one came during a shutout.
Here’s the list of the greatest goalie goal-scorers in NHL history:
1. Martin Brodeur
The only goalie to get three goals, Brodeur is the undisputed goalie-scoring champion.
His first goal came in the Stanley Cup playoffs, a distinction shared with Ron Hextall. Brodeur stopped the puck behind his net and saucered it toward the goal. Luckily, Brodeur’s low shot had a clear path to the cage, as no Montreal Canadiens were plugging up the neutral zone.
Brodeur is also the only goalie in NHL history credited with a game-winning goal. As the last New Jersey Devil to touch the puck in a 2-1 game against the Philadelphia Flyers, Brodeur was credited with the tally when the Flyers’ Daymond Langkow lost control of the puck near his net. The Flyers scored later in the third period to make it a 3-2 game, making Brodeur’s goal the winner.
His third goal came 13 years later when the Carolina Hurricanes’ Jordan Staal sent an errant pass by his teammate on the blueline and into their empty net. Brodeur was the last Devil to touch the puck.
2. Ron Hextall
Hextall is one of only two NHL goalies to score twice and the very first to intentionally go for a goalie goal. Since he scored both of his goals on shots, some might say he’s deserving of the No. 1 spot, but goals are goals, and Brodeur has three.
The difficulty of shooting a puck that distance with a wooden goalie stick shouldn’t be underestimated. Luckily, for his first goal in 1987, Hextall had a moment to load up on his twig before elevating the puck over the Bruins’ blueline and into the net.
Two years later, in a playoff game against the Capitals, Hextall corralled the puck behind his net and ripped another one over center ice and in. Even more entertaining is the fact that…