Martin Brodeur holds the NHL records for wins with 691, shutouts with 125 and games played by a goaltender with 1,266. Dominik Hasek holds the record for career save percentage at .9223.
Those two sentences are the entire argument, and they do not overlap anywhere. Brodeur ranks 40th on the save-percentage list that Hasek leads. Hasek ranks 17th on the wins list that Brodeur leads by 116 over the second-placed goalie.
And the rate gap is not a rounding question. Hasek’s third-best season at a starter’s workload, .9304 in 1994-95, is better than any single season Brodeur ever posted. Brodeur’s career high is .9265.
Brodeur vs Hasek: the career records
NHL regular season, both careers complete. Save percentage is total saves divided by total shots and goals-against average is computed from goals and ice time, rather than averaged across seasons.
| Brodeur | Hasek | |
|---|---|---|
| Seasons | 22 | 16 |
| Games | 1,266 | 735 |
| Games started | 1,251 | 714 |
| Wins | 691 | 389 |
| Losses | 397 | 223 |
| Ties and overtime losses | 154 | 95 |
| Shots faced | 31,709 | 20,220 |
| Saves | 28,928 | 18,648 |
| Goals against | 2,781 | 1,572 |
| Save percentage | .9123 | .9223 |
| Goals-against average | 2.24 | 2.20 |
| Shutouts | 125 | 81 |
| Minutes played | 74,438 | 42,836 |
| Vezina Trophies | 4 | 6 |
| Hart Trophies | 0 | 2 |
| Jennings Trophies | 5 | 3 |
| Stanley Cups | 3 | 2 |
| Clubs | 2 | 4 |
Brodeur leads eleven of these and Hasek five. Each of Hasek’s five is a rate or a trophy for individual excellence; each of Brodeur’s, except the Cups and the clubs, is a volume measure.
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How many games did Brodeur win?
Six hundred and ninety-one, the most in NHL history, and not close to being threatened.
| Goalie | Wins |
|---|---|
| Martin Brodeur | 691 |
| Marc-Andre Fleury | 575 |
| Patrick Roy | 551 |
| Roberto Luongo | 489 |
| Ed Belfour | 484 |
| Henrik Lundqvist | 459 |
| Sergei Bobrovsky | 457 |
| Curtis Joseph | 454 |
| Dominik Hasek (17th) | 389 |
His margin over second place is 116 wins, which is larger than the gap between second and eighth. He won 48 games in 2006-07, started 1,251 games, and played eleven seasons of 70 games or more. Hasek played one.
That is the case for Brodeur in its strongest form, and it is not really a save-percentage argument at all. It is an argument about being the guy, every night, for twenty-one years in New Jersey.
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What was Hasek’s career save percentage?
.9223, from 18,648 saves on 20,220 shots, and it is the highest career figure in NHL history among goalies who played at least 250 games.
| Goalie | Save percentage |
|---|---|
| Dominik Hasek | .9223 |
| Johnny Bower | .9219 |
| Ken Dryden | .9215 |
| Tuukka Rask | .9210 |
| Ben Bishop | .9205 |
| Tim Thomas | .9199 |
| Jacques Plante | .9197 |
| Roberto Luongo | .9187 |
| Henrik Lundqvist | .9180 |
| Cory Schneider | .9179 |
| Martin Brodeur (40th) | .9123 |
His peak seasons are where the separation lives. .9366 in 1998-99, .9316 in 1997-98, .9304 in 1994-95 and .9298 in 1993-94 — four seasons any one of which would be a career year for almost anybody, and all four better than Brodeur’s best.
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What were their goals-against averages?
Hasek 2.20, Brodeur 2.24, and this is the one rate measure where they are genuinely close.
The gap is smaller here than on save percentage because goals-against average rewards the team in front of the goalie, and Brodeur’s teams were built to concede very few shots. He faced 31,709 shots in 74,438 minutes, which is 25.6 shots per 60 minutes. Hasek faced 20,220 in 42,836, which is 28.3. Hasek stopped a higher share of a heavier workload, and the two effects nearly cancel in the goals-against column.
That is also why Brodeur has five Jennings Trophies, awarded to the goalies on the team conceding the fewest goals, compared with Hasek’s three.
How many shutouts did each of them have?
Brodeur: 125, which is the record. Hasek: 81, tied for sixth.
| Goalie | Shutouts |
|---|---|
| Martin Brodeur | 125 |
| Terry Sawchuk | 103 |
| George Hainsworth | 94 |
| Glenn Hall | 84 |
| Jacques Plante | 82 |
| Alec Connell | 81 |
| Dominik Hasek | 81 |
| Tiny Thompson | 81 |
| Roberto Luongo | 77 |
Brodeur’s 125 is 22 clear of second, and he recorded 12 in 2006-07 alone. Hasek’s 13 in 1997-98 is the higher single-season figure of the two. Per hundred games, Hasek is at 11.0 shutouts and Brodeur at 9.9, which is the pattern of the whole comparison in miniature: Hasek better per game, Brodeur far ahead on the total.
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Was Hasek better than Brodeur?
The honest answer is that Hasek was the better goaltender and Brodeur had the better career, and which of those you weigh more is a question about what the word “better” is doing.
The individual awards side with Hasek, and they do so emphatically. Six Vezina Trophies to four, and two Hart Trophies to none. The Hart is the league MVP award and goalies almost never win it; Hasek won it in consecutive seasons, 1996-97 and 1997-98, voted the most valuable player in the league ahead of every forward. Brodeur never finished first in that vote.
He also won two Ted Lindsay Awards in those same two seasons, which is the players’ own MVP vote. So in 1997 and 1998 both the writers and the players named a goaltender the best player in hockey, and it was the same goaltender.
Brodeur’s answer is three Stanley Cups to two, 302 more wins, 44 more shutouts, 531 more games, and the most durable career any goalie has had. One of Hasek’s two Cups, in 2008, came as Detroit’s backup: he played four playoff games that spring, went 2-2 and stopped 88.8% of his shots.
Did they play in the same league?
Largely yes, and the era adjustment does not help Brodeur, which is worth stating because it usually does help the later player.
| Season | League save percentage | Hasek | Brodeur |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1993-94 | .895 | .9298 (+.035) | .9152 (+.020) |
| 1996-97 | .905 | .9297 (+.025) | .9265 (+.022) |
| 1997-98 | .906 | .9316 (+.026) | .9171 (+.011) |
| 1998-99 | .908 | .9366 (+.029) | .9063 (−.002) |
| 2003-04 | .911 | — | .9165 (+.006) |
| 2006-07 | .905 | .9129 (+.008) | .9216 (+.017) |
| 2007-08 | .909 | .9018 (−.007) | .9196 (+.011) |
Hasek’s great seasons came when the league stopped fewer shots, and Brodeur’s came when it stopped more. Hasek’s margin over the league average peaked at thirty-five points of save percentage in 1993-94. Brodeur’s best margin is twenty-two. Adjusting for era widens the rate gap rather than closing it.
Which of them was better in the playoffs?
Brodeur played nearly twice as many games, and Hasek was slightly better per game.
| Brodeur | Hasek | |
|---|---|---|
| Playoff games | 205 | 119 |
| Record | 113-91 | 65-49 |
| Shots faced | 5,258 | 3,283 |
| Save percentage | .9186 | .9251 |
| Goals-against average | 2.019 | 2.017 |
| Shutouts | 24 | 14 |
Both men raised their save percentage in the postseason, Brodeur from .9123 to .9186 and Hasek from .9223 to .9251. Their goals-against averages in the playoffs are two thousandths apart, which is as close as any two measures in this article get.
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How many teams did each of them play for?
Brodeur two, Hasek four.
Both lists are in the order they played for the clubs, not by games. Hasek’s Detroit spell came in two parts, either side of his one season in Ottawa, which is why the season column is not continuous.
| # | Club | Seasons | Games | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brodeur | 1 | New Jersey Devils | 1991-92 to 2013-14 | 1,259 |
| Brodeur | 2 | St. Louis Blues | 2014-15 | 7 |
| Hasek | 1 | Chicago Blackhawks | 1990-91 to 1991-92 | 25 |
| Hasek | 2 | Buffalo Sabres | 1992-93 to 2000-01 | 491 |
| Hasek | 3 | Detroit Red Wings | 2001-02, 2003-04, 2006-07, 2007-08 | 176 |
| Hasek | 4 | Ottawa Senators | 2005-06 | 43 |
99.4% of Brodeur’s games were for one franchise, which is close to unmatched at that volume. Hasek spent two seasons as a backup in Chicago, 25 games in all, before Buffalo acquired him, and he was 28 before he played his first 50-game season.
Did Brodeur really score goals?
Yes, twice. He also recorded 45 assists, against Hasek’s 19 and no goals.
Where does Patrick Roy fit?
The short answer is that Roy sits between them on both axes. He won 551 games, third all time behind Brodeur and Marc-Andre Fleury, with a career save percentage of .9102 and 66 shutouts, and he won three Conn Smythe Trophies, which neither Brodeur nor Hasek won once. He has more Stanley Cups than either.
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