Patrick Roy vs Dominik Hasek: Who is the Best Goalie of All Time?

Today, we have a debate between Naftali Clinton and Jacob Lariviere. Who is the best NHL goalie of all time? It’s been hotly debated for years, so we figured we’d bring that debate to the spotlight right here during the NHL playoffs.

In this debate, Jacob argues on behalf of Patrick Roy, while Naftali argues on behalf of Dominik Hasek.

OPENING ARGUMENT (Jacob)

It is my belief that Patrick Roy is the greatest goalie to ever set foot on NHL ice. There are many names to throw in this conversation, and my colleague Naftali Clinton mentions Dominik Hasek, but I disagree. At the end of the day, each goalie can be debated as the GOAT in terms of goaltenders, but Patrick Roy for me takes the cake. First off, let’s look at simple stats, wins, games played, and awards. Patrick Roy sits at third all time in games played with 1029. In those 1029 games, he was able to win 551 of them, which is currently good for second all time, behind none other than Martin Brodeur. Hasek isn’t even in the top 10 in terms of wins  or even games played. Granted, Hasek made his NHL debut much later, but one of the characteristics for the greatest of all time has to be longevity in my eyes. Roy was also able to win four Stanley Cups compared to Hasek’s two. 

OPENING ARGUMENT (Naftali)

Dominik Hasek was the most dominant goalie in the history of the game of hockey. It wasn’t an accident that he earned the nickname “Dominator”.  His record simply speaks for itself. What makes his story even more remarkable is the fact that he became an NHL starter at the age of 29. 

In a career that spanned nearly two decades, playing for the Chicago Blackhawks, Buffalo Sabres, and Detroit Red Wings Hasek never had an easy game and never took a night off. Hasek is the ultimate success story, beginning with his childhood in Soviet-era Czechoslovakia, to making the NHL and ultimately becoming the greatest goalie to ever don the pads.

I judge goalies by how good they were in their era and how they stack up against other eras. Hasek is simply the best in both of those categories. He has won numerous Stanley Cups, many Vezina Trophies, Hart Trophies, and many other awards and accomplishments over his long career.

He single-handedly dragged the offensively-lacking Buffalo Sabres to the Stanley Cup finals and nearly won them their first championship in franchise history. He came to Detroit with one goal, to win a cup, and he won two there.

He is the greatest goalie of all-time.

REBUTTAL (Jacob)

When it comes to awards, it cannot be understated how dominant Patrick Roy was. Roy was able to begin his NHL career at the age of 20 years old. He performed so well that he won the Calder Trophy as a goaltender. Being a starting goalie at age 20 is an amazing feat, even more so winning the rookie of the year award in that same breath. Roy also won three Vezina trophies as the NHL’s best goaltender of the year. This is less than Hasek’s 6, but it can’t be forgotten that Roy played in the same era as Martin Brodeur, who was able to win four (with the help of an AMAZING defense, who padded his stats tremendously). Roy was also able to secure himself two Trico Goaltending Awards, awarded to the highest save percentage amongst starters when the trophy was in circulation. Roy was the first player to have his jersey number retired by two franchises, which is an impressive feat. My next point is to mention the impact that Patrick Roy was able to make on the game. Before his arrival, butterfly goaltending was virtually nonexistent. Immediately after he established himself in the NHL, the butterfly began growing in terms of play style. Now it’s pretty much an industry standard. If we look at Hasek, he’s a “flop” goalie. A style he was able to pull off amazingly, but it has not been able to catch the same stride, I don’t think I’ve ever seen another goalie use this style successfully ever.

REBUTTAL (Naftali)

My colleague Jacob Lariviere brings up some good points. Yes, Roy played for longer, ended up with more wins and won more Stanley Cups. But if we’re talking about those stats, why not pick Martin Brodeur as the greatest goalie of all-time?

After all, he has far more games played, wins, and shutouts than Roy and won three Cups as well. Brodeur has the best cumulative stats of all-time and in that discussion he takes the cake over Roy any day of the week. That’s why I want this discussion to be about the player, not necessarily the sum of his parts. 

Patrick Roy played 18 seasons and in only three of them did he post a save percentage higher than .920%, which is generally the cutoff between good and very good goalies. In mostly overlapping eras, Hasek played 15 seasons, and had a better than .920% in an astounding eight of them. Including five with a save percentage of better than .930%. 

That level of dominance over a long career, especially considering he was a late bloomer, is simply unheard of. 

CLOSING ARGUMENT (Jacob)

I want to start by saying how thankful I am that my colleague Naftali has brought up Martin Brodeur in this conversation. I’ll say that I don’t even have Brodeur in my top 5 greatest goalies of all time. Brodeur was the benefactor of an amazing defensive core that padded his stats tremendously. If we take a look at a stat that breaks down how many 40+ shot games that NHL goalies have faced, Brodeur is not even in the top 10. The leader in this stat is actually Roberto Luongo, who played 114 games where he saved 40 or more shots. He’s also the only goalie to have more than 100 games with 40 or more saves. Number two being Curtis Joseph with 92 games in this category. Brodeur is actually at the 40th position in this ranking with 31 games where he saved 40 or more shots. For argument’s sake, Dominik Hasek ranks at the 28th position in this ranking with 41 games, and Patrick Roy is at the 21st position with 46. Granted that’s not a massive difference but it’s still a difference nonetheless. It could legitimately be argued that Craig Anderson was a better goalie than Martin Brodeur as Anderson ranks 8th all time in this stat with 64 games where he saved 40 or more shots. One last stat I’d like to bring up is career saves. Those stats were taken from Stat Head by the way.  Naturally, Brodeur ranks first in this metric as he has played more games than any NHL goalie. He leads this stat with 28,928. Roy is third on this list with 25,800. Where is Dominik Hasek you might ask? He’s all the way at the 19th position with 18,648 career saves.

CLOSING ARGUMENT (Naftali)

Patrick Roy is probably a top-three goalie of all-time in my opinion. But at no point in his career did he simply dominate the way “The Dominator” did. He was just good and sometimes very good for a very long time and was fortunate to play on some very talented teams. None of that takes away from him as a player, but you can’t say he was a better goalie than Dominik Hasek or Martin Brodeur.

The best argument in favour of Roy is his three Conn Smythe trophies, which is simply an incredible accomplishment. But is that better than the two Hart Trophies and two Lester B. Pearson Awards that Hasek has?

Additionally, Hasek has six Vezina Trophies to Roy’s three which paints an accurate picture of which one was the better goalie in their era. During his time in Buffalo playing for the Sabres, Hasek was the best player on his team, by far, every night. He single-handedly carried a team with only one 60-pointer to the Stanley Cup finals on his back.

In short, there would have to be some sort of intangible reason why Roy was the better goalie, but I don’t see it.