2026 NHL Draft Goalies: 32 Picks, 32 Stories (and the Tracker)
NHL teams held off early — and then the run was on. No goaltender heard his name in the first round of the 2026 NHL Draft, but once the position started coming off the board it did not stop: 32 goaltenders were selected across the seven rounds, from 11 different countries. Below is the complete board, every netminder taken, each linked to a full InGoal profile — but the numbers only begin the story. The goalies behind them are the reason this draft was worth following.
The long wait, then the steady climb
The first goaltender off the board was Tobias Trejbal, taken by the Calgary Flames at No. 42 — the 10th pick of the second round. From there they came off steadily, a few each round, with the third and fourth the busiest. Ten were gone by the end of the third round, and the last to hear his name was Providence College’s John “Jack” Parsons, taken by the Winnipeg Jets at No. 220. In between came 30 more — and a remarkable spread of backgrounds.
Trejbal’s draft day was a story in itself. The Czech had a standing bet with Youngstown teammate Jack Hextall over who would be picked first; Hextall won it the night before — and then Calgary traded up to grab Trejbal and reunite the pair. “It’s funny we got drafted by the same team,” Trejbal told NHL.com. “He won. But it doesn’t matter — it’s just a number.”
A truly international class
Russia led the way with seven goaltenders drafted, followed by Czechia and Canada with six apiece and the United States with four. Slovakia and Belarus each produced a pair, and five more nations put a goalie on the board: Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Latvia and Kazakhstan. In a striking quirk, the first ten goaltenders drafted were all born in Europe or Kazakhstan — the first North American-born netminder off the board was Elliot Lennon, a Kirkland, Quebec product who turned down the major-junior Quebec Remparts for the U.S. prep route, and who waited until No. 110.
Twenty of the 32 played their draft season in North America; the other dozen came up in Europe, eight in Russia’s MHL alone. A few took genuinely improbable roads. Gleb Peshkov, a kid from the Urals, spent his draft year roughly 9,000 kilometres from home on Russia’s Pacific coast, becoming a fan favourite in Vladivostok. Danai Shaiikov, born in Almaty, Kazakhstan, came up through Russia’s Omsk system before landing in the QMJHL, where, he told Radio-Canada, he is learning both English and French and misses borscht more than he enjoys poutine.
Goaltending in the blood
For several of these goalies, the position is a family trade. Samuel Hrenak — the Slovak who scored a goalie goal for the Fargo Force — is the youngest of three hockey-playing brothers; his eldest brother, Dávid, is a Los Angeles Kings draftee who reached the NHL and still mentors him after every game. Carl Axelsson, the only Swedish goalie taken, is chasing his father into the very same crease: Niklas Axelsson tended goal at Minnesota Duluth in the mid-1990s, and Carl — raised on his dad’s stories of the roaring DECC crowd — will be just the third Swede in program history. Michal Orsulak’s father was a goaltender, too.
Others found the net by accident, or against advice. Brady Knowling, Central Scouting’s top-ranked North American goalie, only tried the position because his father — himself a goalie — dared him: “He told me I wasn’t allowed to [complain about our goalie] unless I was willing to try it myself,” Knowling told Elite Prospects. Tobias Tvrznik’s dad, a former pro forward, tried to talk his son out of goaltending; the boy insisted anyway. And Filip Ruzicka and Matthew Minchak share the most relatable origin of all — neither liked to skate. “I wasn’t a good enough skater to be a player,” Minchak, a 6-foot-5 New Jersey kid, told the Kingston Frontenacs; his first coach, he said, joked that he “looked like Bambi out there.”
The overlooked
The back half of the draft was a parade of persistence — passed-over overagers and undrafted free agents who turned a snub into a second chance. Ryder Fetterolf was not even drafted into the OHL; he signed with the Ottawa 67’s as a free agent, then won CHL Goaltender of the Year as a rookie. Minchak took the same free-agent route to Kingston and posted the second-best save percentage in the entire league. Parsons, twice passed over, chose to stay in junior an extra year and seized the Providence net when the starter tore his MCL, going 11-2. Ryan Cameron arrived with a national award already in hand — USA Hockey’s Goaltender of the Year, off a 1.24 goals-against average and a .948 save percentage. And Louis-Antoine Denault, at 6-foot-8 the tallest goalie in the draft, reached the QMJHL as an undrafted walk-on who beat out four drafted goalies, then played his first game in front of 10,000 at the rink where he had grown up watching games. A youth basketball player, he credits the sport for the rare mobility he carries on that frame.
Small nations, big nights
Two of the class’s most compelling stories came from hockey’s smaller nations. Patriks Plumins, drafted by Toronto, is already a Winter Youth Olympic gold medalist; at the U18 World Championship he stopped 43 of 45 shots to upset the United States and carry Latvia to its first U18 semifinal ever, extending the proud Latvian goalie lineage of Elvis Merzlikins and Arturs Silovs. Anton Wilde Larsen, a homegrown Dane drafted by Dallas, earned his pro debut at 17 in an emergency call-up and once stopped 50 of 52 shots against Team USA — all while working a part-time job at his hometown waterpark.
The giants — and the technicians
If size is what you want, 2026 delivered. Denault is taller than any goaltender currently in the NHL, and behind him stands a towering group: 6-foot-7 prospects Ruzicka and Yegor Rybkin — the latter a goalie named Yegor, from a town called Yegoryevsk — plus a cluster of 6-foot-5 netminders. At the other end stands proof the position still rewards craft: CHL Goaltender of the Year Fetterolf and self-described “hidden gem” Vladimir Proskurin, both a comparatively modest 6-foot-0.
Six teams doubled up
Goaltending was clearly a league-wide priority: six franchises drafted two goalies — Boston, Philadelphia, Winnipeg, Toronto, Carolina and Colorado. One of those pairs had already shared a net: Philadelphia’s Martin Psohlavec and Marek Sklenicka were Czechia’s goaltending tandem at the 2026 U18 Worlds, where they won bronze together before the Flyers reunited them.
Storylines worth remembering
Yuri Ivanov, Boston’s second-round pick and the youngest goaltender in the draft — eligible by roughly four days — stepped in for an injured starter and carried Spartak Moscow’s juniors to the Kharlamov Cup Final, the only team in the playoffs to use three goalies. Two netminders scored goals in their draft seasons: Hrenak and Roberto “Leo” Henriquez, the latter one of the very few players of Dominican heritage anywhere in hockey. Henriquez’s Slovak mother and Dominican father met after his father came to Slovakia on vacation and decided to stay; when Roberto first pulled on Slovakia’s national-team jersey, his father wept, the Slovak outlet Sportnet reported.
And then there is Matvei Nikonovich, who at 16 moved from Minsk to Russia on his own — his parents stayed behind for work — after Dinamo Minsk told him they did not see him in the league or on the national team. He answered with a .939 save percentage and a place on the MHL’s Symbolic Team of the Season. Asked what he missed most from home, he did not mention hockey at all. It was the toy poodle he had left behind. “I even dreamed about walking with him,” he told hockey.by.
Thirty-two goaltenders, eleven countries, and a hundred different roads to the same weekend in Buffalo. Every one of them is below — sortable, and linked to a full InGoal profile. Click a name, and dig in.
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| Goalie # | Pick | Goaltender | Drafted by | League | Born | Country |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | #42Rd 2 | Tobias Trejbal |  Calgary Flames | USHL | Nov 9, 2007 | 🇨🇿 Czechia |
| 2 | #56Rd 2 | Yuri Ivanov |  Boston Bruins | Russia Jr. | Sep 12, 2008 | 🇷🇺 Russia |
| 3 | #62Rd 2 | Martin Psohlavec |  Philadelphia Flyers | Czechia Jr. | May 6, 2008 | 🇨🇿 Czechia |
| 4 | #67Rd 3 | Danai Shaiikov |  New York Rangers | QMJHL | Apr 13, 2007 | 🇰🇿 Kazakhstan |
| 5 | #70Rd 3 | Dmitri Borichev |  Nashville Predators | Russia Jr. | Jun 19, 2008 | 🇷🇺 Russia |
| 6 | #71Rd 3 | Samuel Hrenak |  Winnipeg Jets | USHL | Mar 19, 2008 | 🇸🇰 Slovakia |
| 7 | #78Rd 3 | Dmitri Ivchenko |  Vancouver Canucks | Russia Jr. | Jun 29, 2008 | 🇷🇺 Russia |
| 8 | #79Rd 3 | Michal Orsulak |  Detroit Red Wings | WHL | Aug 26, 2007 | 🇨🇿 Czechia |
| 9 | #85Rd 3 | Juuso Ainasto |  Toronto Maple Leafs | Finland Jr. | Mar 17, 2008 | 🇫🇮 Finland |
| 10 | #89Rd 3 | Yegor Rybkin |  Los Angeles Kings | Russia Jr. | Dec 3, 2007 | 🇷🇺 Russia |
| 11 | #110Rd 4 | Elliot Lennon |  Ottawa Senators | Prep (MA) | Mar 5, 2008 | 🇨🇦 Canada |
| 12 | #114Rd 4 | Patriks Plumins | Toronto Maple Leafs | Latvia | Jan 7, 2008 | Latvia |
| 13 | #115Rd 4 | Carl Axelsson |  Utah Mammoth | USHL | Nov 21, 2006 | 🇸🇪 Sweden |
| 14 | #120Rd 4 | Marek Sklenicka | Philadelphia Flyers | WHL | Aug 27, 2008 | 🇨🇿 Czechia |
| 15 | #123Rd 4 | Vladimir Proskurin |  St. Louis Blues | Russia Jr. | May 28, 2008 | 🇷🇺 Russia |
| 16 | #125Rd 4 | Ryder Fetterolf |  Carolina Hurricanes | OHL | Jan 5, 2008 | 🇺🇸 United States |
| 17 | #126Rd 4 | Tobias Tvrznik |  Colorado Avalanche | WHL | Jul 29, 2007 | 🇨🇿 Czechia |
| 18 | #127Rd 4 | Brady Knowling |  San Jose Sharks | USNTDP | Mar 9, 2008 | 🇨🇦 Canada |
| 19 | #137Rd 5 | Filip Ruzicka |  Minnesota Wild | WHL | Mar 24, 2008 | 🇨🇿 Czechia |
| 20 | #142Rd 5 | Parker Snell |  Columbus Blue Jackets | WHL | Apr 21, 2008 | 🇨🇦 Canada |
| 21 | #149Rd 5 | Daniil Rusakovich |  New Jersey Devils | Russia Jr. | Apr 17, 2008 | 🇧🇾 Belarus |
| 22 | #160Rd 5 | Matvei Nikonovich |  Pittsburgh Penguins | Russia Jr. | Jun 28, 2008 | 🇧🇾 Belarus |
| 23 | #165Rd 6 | Zachary Jovanovski | Carolina Hurricanes | OHL | Oct 7, 2007 | 🇨🇦 Canada |
| 24 | #170Rd 6 | Roberto Henriquez | Boston Bruins | USHL | Apr 29, 2007 | 🇸🇰 Slovakia |
| 25 | #178Rd 6 | Gleb Peshkov |  Anaheim Ducks | Russia Jr. | Nov 5, 2007 | 🇷🇺 Russia |
| 26 | #186Rd 6 | Stepan Shurygin |  Tampa Bay Lightning | OHL | Aug 26, 2007 | 🇷🇺 Russia |
| 27 | #187Rd 6 | Anton Emil Wilde Larsen |  Dallas Stars | DENMARK | Mar 4, 2008 | 🇩🇰 Denmark |
| 28 | #191Rd 6 | Matthew Minchak |  Vegas Golden Knights | OHL | May 23, 2007 | 🇺🇸 United States |
| 29 | #212Rd 7 | Ryan Cameron |  Edmonton Oilers | USHL | Aug 21, 2007 | 🇺🇸 United States |
| 30 | #215Rd 7 | Alexandre Raymond | Colorado Avalanche | QMJHL | Nov 13, 2007 | 🇨🇦 Canada |
| 31 | #217Rd 7 | Louis-Antoine Denault |  Florida Panthers | QMJHL | Sep 26, 2006 | 🇨🇦 Canada |
| 32 | #220Rd 7 | John Parsons | Winnipeg Jets | H-EAST | Jan 15, 2006 | 🇺🇸 United States |
Goalie Draft — Fun Facts
How many goalies were drafted in the 2026 NHL Draft?
Which country produced the most drafted goalies?
Which teams drafted two goalies in 2026?
Who is the biggest goalie in the 2026 class?
Who was the first goalie taken in the 2026 NHL Draft?
Who was the first North American-born goalie drafted in 2026?
Which drafted goalies have scored a goal?
Who is the youngest goalie drafted in 2026?
How many of the drafted goalies played in North America?
Were any goalies drafted straight out of college hockey?
Sources & credits: Reporting in this piece and the linked profiles draws on club, league and local-media coverage — among them NHL.com and the NHL clubs, the CHL and its member leagues (OHL, WHL and QMJHL), the USHL and NAHL, USA Hockey, Hockey Canada and the IIHF, Elite Prospects, and outlets including Radio-Canada, Le Soleil, the Slovak daily SME, Denník Šport, hokej.cz, hockey.by and Sports.ru. Direct quotes are credited to their original source where used.