How Many Goalie Goals Have Been Scored in the NHL?

NHL goaltenders are usually preoccupied with keeping pucks out of their own net, not putting it into their opponents’ net nearly 200 feet away. So-called “goalie goals,” where a goalie puts a point on the scoreboard, do happen from time to time, but they’re extraordinarily rare: Only 17 NHL goalies have scored goals in the league’s entire history!

Curious which goalies have scored goals in the NHL? Here’s the full list of every goalie goal ever scored.

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Every NHL Goalie Goal Ever Scored

The NHL started way back in 1917, but a goaltender didn’t score an official goal until 1979. Before we take a look at every goalie goal scored since then, let’s get some important terminology out of the way.

A goalie can score a goal in one of two ways: as a credited goal or as a shot goal.

Credited goal: The goalie is credited with the goal if they are the last player from their team to touch the puck before it enters the opponents’ goal. An example would be when a goalie makes a save and the puck remains live, then a player from the opposing team picks it up, mishandles a pass and ends up shooting the puck into their own goal. That’s how the most recent goalie goal, scored by Ilya Sorokin in 2025, happened.

Shot goal: This is when a goalie intentionally shoots the puck down-ice themselves and scores, most often on an opposing empty net. The most recent shot goalie goal was scored by Alex Nedeljkovic playing for the Pittsburgh Penguins, also in 2025.

Here’s the complete list of every goalie goal scored in the NHL’s history.

Date	Goalie	Team	Opponent	Shot vs. Credited	Notes
Nov. 28, 1979	Billy Smith	New York Islanders	Colorado Rockies (now New Jersey Devils)	Credited	First-ever NHL goalie goal. Credited after opponent scored on own net late in game
Dec. 8, 1987	Ron Hextall	Philadelphia Flyers	Boston Bruins	Shot	First shot goalie goal
Apr. 11, 1989 (Playoffs)	Ron Hextall	Philadelphia Flyers	Washington Capitals	Shot	Only goalie playoff goal and only shorthanded goalie goal
Mar. 6, 1996	Chris Osgood	Detroit Red Wings	Hartford Whalers (now Carolina Hurricanes)	Shot	First goalie shot goal in over a decade since previous shot goal
Apr 17, 1997 (Playoffs)	Martin Brodeur	New Jersey Devils	Montreal Canadiens	Shot	Brodeur’s first shot goal in the playoffs
Jan 2, 1999	Damian Rhodes	Ottawa Senators	New Jersey Devils	Credited
Feb 15, 2000	Martin Brodeur	New Jersey Devils	Philadelphia Flyers	Credited	Only game-winning credited goalie goal
Jan 2, 2001	José Théodore	Montreal Canadiens	New York Islanders	Shot	Théodore scored a goalie goal in a game where he also recorded a shutout
Mar 10, 2002	Evgeni Nabokov	San Jose Sharks	Vancouver Canucks	Shot	First goalie power-play goal
Feb 14, 2004	Mika Noronen	Buffalo Sabres	Toronto Maple Leafs	Credited
Apr 15, 2006	Chris Mason	Nashville Predators	Phoenix Coyotes	Credited	Credited after opponent scored on own goal during a delayed penalty
Dec 26, 2011	Cam Ward	Carolina Hurricanes	New Jersey Devils	Credited
Mar 21, 2013	Martin Brodeur	New Jersey Devils	Carolina Hurricanes	Credited	Brodeur’s third career goalie goal
Oct 19, 2013	Mike Smith	Phoenix Coyotes (now Utah Mammoth)	Detroit Red Wings	Shot	Empty netter scored with 0.1 seconds remaining in play
Jan 9, 2020	Pekka Rinne	Nashville Predators	Chicago Blackhawks	Shot
Feb 25, 2023	Linus Ullmark	Boston Bruins	Vancouver Canucks	Shot	First Bruins goalie to score
Nov 30, 2023	Tristan Jarry	Pittsburgh Penguins	Tampa Bay Lightning	Shot
Oct 15, 2024	Filip Gustavsson	Minnesota Wild	St. Louis Blues	Shot	First Wild goalie goal, empty netter
Jan 18, 2025	Alex Nedeljkovic	Pittsburgh Penguins	Buffalo Sabres	Shot	First goalie to record a goal and an assist in same game, and first goalie to score in the NHL, AHL and ECHL
Jan 27, 2025	Ilya Sorokin	New York Islanders	Nashville Predators	Credited

Goalie Goals by Team

Here’s a breakdown of which NHL teams have the most goalie goals. New Jersey leads the pack with three, all thanks for Brodeur’s efforts.

Team	Number of Goalie Goals
New Jersey Devils	3 (all by Martin Brodeur)
Pittsburgh Penguins	2 (Tristan Jarry, Alex Nedeljković)
Nashville Predators	2 (Chris Mason, Pekka Rinne)
Philadelphia Flyers	2 (Ron Hextall ×2)
New York Islanders	2 (Billy Smith, Ilya Sorokin)
Boston Bruins	1 (Linus Ullmark)
Montreal Canadiens	1 (José Théodore)
Detroit Red Wings	1 (Chris Osgood)
Arizona/Phoenix Coyotes	1 (Mike Smith)
San Jose Sharks	1 (Evgeni Nabokov)
Buffalo Sabres	1 (Mika Noronen)
Carolina Hurricanes	1 (Cam Ward)
Minnesota Wild	1 (Filip Gustavsson)

How Many NHL Goalies Have Scored a Goal?

Any goalie that records a goal in the NHL, whether it’s shot or credited, joins rare company: Only 17 goalies have ever done it, for a collective 20 goals.

Martin Brodeur, the legendary New Jersey Devils netminder, is the only goalie to score three goalie goals in his career, and only he and the Flyers’ Ron Hextall have accomplished the feat more than once.

Has a Goalie Ever Scored in the Olympics?

Besides the NHL, many professional ice hockey players end up at the Winter Olympic Games, one of the biggest stages for ice hockey in the world. Most goalies never make it to the Olympics, and the ones who do have limited ice time in the two-week span the Games are held. As such, there’s no record of a goalie ever having been able to score a goalie goal in the Winter Olympics.

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