Fantasy hockey goalie back-to-backs: who starts the second night
In 2025-26 the same goalie started both nights of a back-to-back 35 times in 430. Every team's split, and how to set goalies in a back-to-back week.
By The Parlae deskPublished 5 min read
The number that decides goalie weeks
In the 2025-26 regular season, NHL teams played 430 back-to-backs. The same goalie started both nights 35 times, 8.1%. In the other 395, two different goalies split the two games.
Twelve teams never used one goalie on both nights. Thirteen did it once. The New York Islanders did it the most, 5 times in 16 back-to-backs. Calgary did it 3 times in 9, the highest rate in the league.
For fantasy, the rule follows from the count. If your goalie's team plays a back-to-back, plan on him starting one of the two games, not both. Teams broke that pattern 35 times all season.
Which night the starter takes
Each team's most-used goalie started 258 of the 430 first nights, 60%, and 159 of the 430 second nights, 37%. Starters lean toward the first game and leave the second to the backup, but not every team works that way.
| Team | Most-used starter | Starts | Back-to-backs | Same goalie both nights | Starter took first night | Starter took second night |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| New York Islanders | Ilya Sorokin | 54 | 16 | 5 | 10 | 9 |
| Ottawa Senators | Linus Ullmark | 49 | 14 | 4 | 6 | 6 |
| Columbus Blue Jackets | Jet Greaves | 53 | 16 | 4 | 9 | 11 |
| Calgary Flames | Dustin Wolf | 55 | 9 | 3 | 6 | 6 |
| Colorado Avalanche | Scott Wedgewood | 43 | 12 | 2 | 8 | 4 |
| Washington Capitals | Logan Thompson | 58 | 14 | 2 | 12 | 2 |
| New Jersey Devils | Jacob Markstrom | 43 | 15 | 2 | 8 | 7 |
| Winnipeg Jets | Connor Hellebuyck | 57 | 9 | 1 | 7 | 0 |
| Anaheim Ducks | Lukas Dostal | 55 | 11 | 1 | 7 | 4 |
| Chicago Blackhawks | Spencer Knight | 55 | 12 | 1 | 8 | 2 |
| Boston Bruins | Jeremy Swayman | 54 | 13 | 1 | 10 | 4 |
| Detroit Red Wings | John Gibson | 57 | 13 | 1 | 12 | 2 |
| Vancouver Canucks | Kevin Lankinen | 43 | 13 | 1 | 7 | 7 |
| New York Rangers | Igor Shesterkin | 51 | 13 | 1 | 7 | 5 |
| Carolina Hurricanes | Brandon Bussi | 39 | 15 | 1 | 8 | 7 |
| Tampa Bay Lightning | Andrei Vasilevskiy | 58 | 15 | 1 | 11 | 3 |
| Toronto Maple Leafs | Joseph Woll | 38 | 15 | 1 | 7 | 4 |
| Pittsburgh Penguins | Arturs Silovs | 38 | 16 | 1 | 9 | 8 |
| Montreal Canadiens | Jakub Dobes | 42 | 16 | 1 | 7 | 8 |
| Los Angeles Kings | Darcy Kuemper | 50 | 16 | 1 | 8 | 6 |
| Minnesota Wild | Filip Gustavsson | 49 | 14 | 0 | 9 | 5 |
| Buffalo Sabres | Alex Lyon | 34 | 13 | 0 | 7 | 3 |
| Dallas Stars | Jake Oettinger | 54 | 12 | 0 | 9 | 3 |
| Utah Mammoth | Karel Vejmelka | 63 | 11 | 0 | 8 | 3 |
| Philadelphia Flyers | Dan Vladar | 51 | 14 | 0 | 9 | 5 |
| Nashville Predators | Juuse Saros | 59 | 13 | 0 | 11 | 2 |
| Vegas Golden Knights | Akira Schmid | 29 | 12 | 0 | 11 | 1 |
| Seattle Kraken | Joey Daccord | 46 | 13 | 0 | 2 | 9 |
| San Jose Sharks | Yaroslav Askarov | 47 | 16 | 0 | 6 | 9 |
| Florida Panthers | Sergei Bobrovsky | 51 | 13 | 0 | 11 | 2 |
| Edmonton Oilers | Connor Ingram | 30 | 13 | 0 | 2 | 5 |
| St. Louis Blues | Joel Hofer | 43 | 13 | 0 | 6 | 7 |
Source: NHL goalie summary and per-game reports, 2025-26 regular season (82 games per team), read Oct 13 2026.
Three patterns stand out.
First-night starters. Connor Hellebuyck started 7 of Winnipeg's 9 first nights and none of the second nights. Logan Thompson in Washington (12 first, 2 second), John Gibson in Detroit (12 and 2), Juuse Saros in Nashville (11 and 2), Sergei Bobrovsky in Florida (11 and 2), Andrei Vasilevskiy in Tampa Bay (11 and 3) and Akira Schmid in Vegas (11 and 1) followed the same shape.
Second-night starters. Seattle went the other way. Joey Daccord started 9 second nights and 2 first nights. San Jose's Yaroslav Askarov (6 first, 9 second) and Columbus's Jet Greaves (9 and 11) also took more second nights than first.
Even splits and shared nets. Ottawa's Linus Ullmark and Calgary's Dustin Wolf took 6 of each. Some teams had no clear number one: Vegas's most-used goalie started 29 games and Edmonton's 30, out of 82.
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What it means for a weekly lineup
In a league where you set goalies once a week, count starts, not games. A starter whose team plays 4 games with a back-to-back inside the week projects to 3 starts, because 92% of back-to-backs last season had different goalies on the two nights. A 3-game week with no back-to-back can give him all 3. That is a projection from last season's habit, not a promise for any week.
Starts are the whole game for a goalie in fantasy. In Parlae points scoring a goalie earns 3 per win, 0.15 per save and 2 per shutout, and loses 1 per goal against. A goalie who does not play scores nothing.
The 2026-27 schedule has 377 back-to-backs across the 32 teams, with Pittsburgh at 15 and Vegas and Calgary at 8. The light nights and schedule guide has every team's count.
What it means for a daily lineup
In a daily league, the second night of a back-to-back is where backups play. For teams whose starter took the first night last season, such as Winnipeg, Washington, Detroit, Nashville and Florida, the backup is the likelier starter on the second night. For Seattle and San Jose last season, it ran the other way.
Goalie depth charts change between seasons, so treat a team's 2025-26 split as a habit to check, not a rule. Confirm who is in net on the day.
What to do with this
- Count one start per back-to-back. When you set a weekly lineup, give your starter one of the two nights. Same-goalie back-to-backs were 35 of 430 last season.
- Stream backups on second nights. In daily leagues, a backup on a team that plays its starter on the first night is a cheap second-night start. Compare options on the goalie rankings.
- Check the starter before every slate. Patterns from last season are a guide only. Use the start/sit page on the day before you set a goalie.
Sources
- NHL stats reports (api.nhle.com/stats/rest: skater summary, time on ice, realtime; goalie summary and per-game), 2025-26 and 2026-27 regular seasons, read Oct 13 2026
- NHL 2026-27 regular-season schedule, all 32 club schedules from api-web.nhle.com, read Oct 13 2026
- Definitions used here: a back-to-back is two games on consecutive dates, counted once, on its second night. A team's starter is the goalie with the most starts for that team in 2025-26. Same goalie both nights counts any goalie who started both games, starter or not. Team is the 2025-26 team whose games are counted.
By the Parlae deskGuide updated Oct 13, 2026 at 8:00 AM ETHow this is builtReport a wrong number