If Lewis Hamilton played hockey: goalie, rated 89

Lewis Hamilton as a hockey player: scouting report

Lewis Hamilton goes in net, and the logic is reaction time. A Formula One driver makes decisions at more than two hundred miles an hour, braking and turning in fractions of a second, and a goalie lives in that same tiny window between a shooter's release and the puck arriving. He started racing karts as a boy in Stevenage, England, and has spent most of his life sharpening reflexes most athletes never need. Skating is the best mark on his card, with goaltending right behind, so he moves across the crease with the precision of a car hitting its apex.

His record says he does not crack under pressure. He won seven Formula One world championships, level with Michael Schumacher for the most ever, and he holds the records for most race wins and most pole positions. That is the mindset of a goalie who can let in a bad one, reset and stop everything after it. His passing is excellent for a netminder, so he will rim pucks around the boards to his defensemen, and his defense mark says he reads the play in front of him well. Racing is a team sport disguised as a solo one, and he is used to talking constantly with his engineers, which translates to a goalie who communicates with his defense all game.

Shooting is the weakest part of his card, which matters little in goal. If your crease is already spoken for, center is his next best spot, where his skating and passing would make him a quick transition player, and defenseman is close behind. Knighted in 2021, he has handled pressure at the top of motorsport for nearly two decades. Draft him as a first goalie, put a mobile defense in front of him and let his reflexes win the close games. He is the kind of netminder who makes the hard save look like a routine lap.

Plays like A lightning quick goalie with a racer's reaction time

Put Lewis Hamilton in your lineup

8 rolls, a starting six and a bench, 82 games. Can you go 82-0? Free, no account.