NHL teams manage goalie workload by sharing starts, splitting many back-to-backs, limiting backup duties, and adjusting practice or travel. The aim is to balance a rested starter with a backup who is ready to play—not to follow one league-wide starts limit or a universal rest formula.
What counts as goalie workload?
Workload is more than the number of starts. A goalie who dresses as the backup still has pregame preparation and must be ready to enter. Practice demands, travel, and the mental strain of staying prepared between starts also affect a goalie’s schedule.
In November 2025, NHL.com described Seattle keeping Joey Daccord out of the lineup on nights he was not starting. That approach removed backup duties as well as game action. A modified backup warmup can reduce physical effort, but it does not eliminate the need to prepare and remain mentally ready. NHL.com’s report on rest during a condensed schedule gives examples of those choices.
How do teams manage starts and rest?
Share starts through a tandem
Instead of relying on one goalie for most games, a team can rotate two goalies and give both regular opportunities. NHL.com described tandem use and shared workloads as a trend over the preceding decade in a March 2025 feature, contrasting it with the older pattern of a dominant starter playing more than 60 games and sometimes around 70. That is a dated description of a trend, not a target for every team or goalie. The NHL.com feature on backup-goalie game rhythm also details the drawbacks for goalies who wait a long time between appearances.
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Columbus offered one snapshot of this approach early in the 2025-26 season: through its first 12 games, coach Dean Evason had alternated Jet Greaves and Elvis Merzlikins. The team’s November 4 report documents that stretch, not a promise that the rotation continued all season. Columbus’s account of the early-season goalie partnership describes the example.
Split back-to-back games
When a team plays on consecutive days, it often assigns one game to each goalie. Coaches can choose the order based on the opponent and how long each goalie has gone since playing. Seattle’s January 2022 explainer described this as an established NHL practice. The Kraken’s goalie-workload explainer also cautioned that estimates of the performance cost of back-to-backs differ; it does not establish a single causal penalty that applies to every goalie.
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Give the scheduled starter a full game-day break
A team with a third goalie available—or an AHL goalie it can call up—may keep the planned starter off the game roster entirely rather than dress that goalie as backup. NHL.com reported examples involving Seattle, Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, and Carolina in its November 2025 coverage.
In one Toronto example, Anthony Stolarz did not dress for the second game of an October 24-25 back-to-back; an AHL call-up started, while another goalie served as backup. In Ottawa, Linus Ullmark sat out a game after starting five consecutive games, then returned for the second game of a back-to-back. These were choices made with particular rosters and schedules, not standing rules for those clubs.
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Adjust travel and practice
Teams can reduce demands without changing who starts. Seattle sent Matt Murray ahead to Washington for his scheduled start while Joey Daccord and Philipp Grubauer handled the first game in Philadelphia. Murray avoided the late road transfer with the team. Vancouver, meanwhile, used a practice goalie for some team work to reduce the practice demands on Thatcher Demko. Both are team-level options rather than league-wide policies, as NHL.com’s November 2025 report describes.
Why not rest the starter every time?
Workload sharing helps a starter get more recovery and creates opportunities for the backup. But backups need game rhythm, too. In NHL.com’s March 2025 feature, Winnipeg goalie Eric Comrie described the uncertainty of a long gap between starts: “If I don’t play well this game, when am I going to play next?” A coach weighing rest against readiness has to consider how prepared both goalies will be for the next game, not just how many nights the starter has played.
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Roster flexibility matters as well. A third goalie or call-up can make a full break possible, but teams do not always have that option. A two-goalie tandem can distribute starts without adding a roster spot, while leaving a non-starting goalie off the bench may require another goalie to cover the game.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What the available numbers do—and do not—show
Seattle’s January 2022 explainer, citing NaturalStatTrick.com, reported an average of 31.5 shots on goal and 28.4 saves per goalie-game across 1,019 NHL games through January 2, 2022. Those figures are historical context, not current league averages. Its hypothetical calculation of an 11 percent save-percentage reduction was an illustration, not a measured finding that back-to-back fatigue causes that decline.
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The cited reporting documents tactics and tradeoffs; it does not establish an ideal maximum number of starts, a universal rest interval, or a definitive size for any back-to-back performance effect. A goalie’s form, the opponent, the schedule, travel, and the backup’s readiness all shape the decision.
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