Every year, we see some great performances by backup goaltenders, forced to come into a game early or to make a start because the regular starter is unavailable. I have no stats on this at all (I know, that’s not like me) but it seems to me that there have been a lot of such performances this season.

The life of a backup goaltender is similar to that of a cook at a roadside diner: you have long stretches of nothing going on, then suddenly a busload of tourists shows up – and the grill needs to be ready.

I’m sure the backups are as busy as the starters at practices and shootaround and such. But during the game, the backup handles the bench door (including letting players know when they can leave the bench), gives words of wisdom to the starting goaltender during timeouts, and otherwise watches the game as an engaged fan. (There’s probably more to it than that; apologies to the Goalie Union if I’ve missed stuff.) This may last for several games at a time – or even most of a season if you’re the backup to Nick Rose or Christian Del Bianco. But then you are called into action, usually because the starting goaltender is having a bad night. You have to throw on the gloves and helmet and get out there, having warmed up before the game but likely not since, and are expected to instantly stem the tide.

The starter is afforded the luxury of a bad start – we’ve seen plenty of games where the starter “gave up a couple of quick goals but then settled down and was solid the rest of the way”. Both Matt Vinc and Christian Del Bianco did this last weekend. If you’re the backup coming in because the starter has given up too many goals, the last thing your team needs is for you to give up a couple of quick ones. Even if you do settle down after that, it might be too late.

Riley Hutchcraft

In 2025, we’ve seen a bunch of backup goalies either come into a game and play well or make an unexpected start because of an injury to a starter (or because the starter’s wife has gone into labour, which has happened twice this year). Just a few:

• Troy Holowchuk was unexpectedly given the starter’s job in Toronto after the Nick Rose trade, and has performed very well. He’s currently 2–1 with a GAA of 11.16 and a save percentage of 75.8%.
• Riley Hutchcraft was Rochester’s starter for most of last season due to injuries to Rylan Hartley. He wasn’t terrible but didn’t have a great season either, with a GAA up around 13. In 2025, same thing except Hutchcraft has cut more than a point and a half off of his GAA and bumped his save percentage from 75.6% up to 79.1%.
• Philadelphia’s Deacan Knott came into a game in Toronto and played well. He ended up losing the game but it wasn’t really his fault – the Wings only scored eight goals, and Knott had half the GAA of starter Nick Damude.
• Halifax’s Drew Hutchison has won three games this season as Warren Hill’s backup. One was a 19–18 game, in which Hutchison played all 60 minutes and gave up all 18 goals – it was a win, but it wasn’t one of the great performances we’re discussing in this article. Other than that game and one other (14 goals allowed in 49 minutes), he’s been pretty solid. He played 21 minutes of a game against Albany and allowed NO goals at all (another win), had another game where he actually lost but only allowed two goals in 23 minutes, and his third win was just a couple of weeks ago against Ottawa, where he gave up 12 in 53 minutes.
• Nathan Whittom is another backup who doesn’t get much time because he plays behind a workhorse, in this case Dillon Ward. When Ward was out two weeks ago, Whittom started against the Ottawa Black Bears and while he lost the game, I thought he played very well, especially considering it was his first career start.
• Thomas Kiazyk started two straight games when Frank Scigliano was out a couple of months ago and won them both – his first two starts and his first two wins. He was pretty good in the first game, allowing 13 goals and had a 75% save percentage, but was outstanding in the second, only allowing eight and saving almost 82% of the shots he faced.
• Connor O’Toole played about 19 minutes of Vancouver’s game against San Diego a few weeks ago. Similar to Hutchison, he gave up two goals in those nineteen minutes (a GAA of 6.33) and had a save percentage of almost 82% but was tagged with the loss. It’s only a single game but he did play really well. Now, as the third goaltender on a team with Christian Del Bianco, it’s unlikely O’Toole will get a lot of playing time over the rest of the season.

There have certainly been similar excellent performances by backup goaltenders in the past, far too many to name. Have there been more this year than in previous years? I don’t know but I feel like there have been.

Obviously the offensive guys get a ton of credit and glory, and transition guys get some as well, and even the stay-at-home defenders are getting more notice in recent years. The starting goalies certainly get their fair share of credit, but backup goaltenders are also a group that are critical to their team’s success but rarely get the love they deserve.