Best Lightning Goalies All-Time Not Named Andrei Vasilevskiy
Vasilevskiy is the Lightning’s greatest goalie, but who else deserves some love?
It’s not even up for debate who the greatest goalie is in the history of the Tampa Bay Lightning. That honor belongs to Andrei Vasilevskiy. Year to year, he is viewed as one of the top goalies in the world let alone the best on the team.
But after that, there’s a little more room for debate. The top spot is locked down, but what about number two or number three? Here we look at four other goalies that are hard to argue are NOT in the top five all time along side Vasilevskiy.
None of these will be in any particular order. Feel free to rank them in your head as you read along.
Ben Bishop (Lightning Tenure: 2013-2017)
A good place to start is with the guy Vasilevskiy backed up for the first two and half seasons of his career. Bishop came in via through a Steve Yzerman masterclass steal of a trade. He was Tampa Bay bound in exchange for forward Corey Conacher and a 2013 fourth-round pick.
While Bishop finished 3-4-1 in nine appearances after the trade deadline, he still showed what was to come with a .917 save percentage.
The following season, the Lightning would go on a run that you could argue continues to this day. They finished 46-27-9 (101 points) with Bishop playing 63 games and winning 37 games.
