Top 10 Goalie Tandems in Boston Bruins History

The NHL made a rule change before the 1965-66 season that stated, “teams are required to dress two goaltenders for each regular-season game”. The rule brought in an era of goalie tandems, instead of a single goalie playing all or the bulk of a team’s games. A good pairing can add to morale and success, as well as giving netminders proper rest and recovery time.

The Boston Bruins goalie situation is in question, as their tandem of the past three seasons has been broken up, with Linus Ullmark being traded to the Ottawa Senators in the summer, and Jeremy Swayman remaining unsigned. So as the Bruins decide their future between the pipes, here is a list of the top 10 goaltending tandems in Bruins history.

10. Pete Peeters & Doug Keans

Coming off of a 40-win, Vezina season in 1982-83, Pete Peeters needed some relief and legitimate back-up in net. Peeters played in 63 of the 80 regular season games and all 17 playoff games. In May 1983, the Bruins signed Los Angeles Kings depth-goaltender, Doug Keans, off waivers for just $100.

Keans did not make much of an impression in Los Angeles, nor was he given the opportunity to. In the 1983-84 season, he broke out and went 19-8-3 with a .883 SV% and a 3.11 GAA, and posted two shutouts. Peeters fell off just a bit from the previous season, but still went 29-16-2 with a .876 SV% and a 3.16 GAA. The Bruins landed in first place, but got swept in the Division Semi-Finals by the Montreal Canadiens. Peeters was in net for all three losses, recording a .853 SV% and a 3.33 GAA.

In 1984-85, the Bruins fell from first place to fourth in the standings. Peeters only won 19 games, the first time he had under 20 wins since the 1978-79 season. Keans had a solid season, going 16-6-3 and then led the B’s into the Division Semi-Finals against the Canadiens, losing the series 3-2. Keans went 2-2 with a .864 SV% and a 3.78 GAA. Peeters was in net for game three of the series, losing 4-2.

On November 14, 1985, the Bruins traded Peeters to the Washington Capitals for goaltender, Pat Riggin. Keans continued to play on the Bruins until his final game in 1988.

9. Tuukka Rask & Chad Johnson

After the Bruins lost the 2013 Stanley Cup Final and then lost their back-up netminder, Anton Khudobin to free agency, they signed goalie Chad Johnson to a one-year, $600,000 contract. Johnson had not played more than five games in a season up to that point in his three-year career.

Johnson managed to put up a 17-4-3 record with a .925 SV% and a 2.10 GAA, also posting two shutouts in his full-season debut. Bruins starting goaltender, Tuukka Rask, also picked up where he left off the previous season, going 36-15-6 with a .930 SV% and a 2.04 GAA. Rask had seven shutouts on the season, leading the league for the second straight year. All of this would earn Rask the Vezina Trophy, the only one of his career.

The Bruins made it to the second round of the playoffs, only to be ousted by the Canadiens in seven games. Rask went 7-5 with a .928 SV% and a 1.99 GAA with two shutouts in the postseason. In the offseason, Johnson’s contract was up and he signed a two-year, $2.6 million contract with the New York Islanders.

8. Tim Thomas & Manny Fernandez

The Bruins made a deal in the summer of 2007, where they sent forward Petr Kalus and a 2009 fourth-round draft pick to the Minnesota Wild, for veteran goaltender Manny Fernandez. Tim Thomas had worked 66 of the 82 games in the previous season, and needed a partner in net. Unfortunately, Fernandez injured his left knee in practice on October 30 and was sidelined for the rest of the season. He was 2-2 with a .832 SV% and a 3.93 GAA with one shutout before his season abruptly ended.

At the beginning of the 2008-09 season, both Fernandez and Thomas were healthy and ready to go. Thomas went 36-11-7 on the season, with a .933 SV% and a 2.10 GAA with two shutouts, while Fernandez put up a 16-8-3 record, with a .910 SV% and a 2.59 GAA with one shutout. The season they had was good enough to earn Thomas and Fernandez the Jennings Trophy, with Thomas also winning the Vezina Trophy. 

The Bruins swept the Canadiens in the Conference Quarter-Finals, but were eliminated from the playoffs in the Semi-Finals by the Carolina Hurricanes in seven games. Thomas worked every playoff game, going 7-4 with a .935 SV% and a 1.35 GAA with one shutout. Fernandez’s contract expired when the season was over and quietly retired from the NHL.

7. Gilles Gilbert & Ross Brooks

In May 1973, the Bruins acquired goaltender Gilles Gilbert from the Minnesota North Stars in exchange for forward Fred Stanfield. That same day, the B’s announced they would be sending their veteran goalie, Eddie Johnston, to the Toronto Maple Leafs in payment for the Jacques Plante trade made in March.

Gilbert joined Bruins goalie Ross Brooks to form an impressive duo in the net. In the 1973-74 season, Gilbert had a 34-12-8 record with a .901 SV% and a 2.96 GAA with six shutouts on the season. Brooks had a 16-3 record with a .917 SV% and a 2.36 GAA with three shutouts. The Bruins finished first place in the East Division and made it all the way to the Stanley Cup Final, after sweeping the Leafs in the quarterfinal and beating the Chicago Blackhawks in six games in the Semi-Finals. Boston lost the Stanley Cup Final in six games to the surging Philadelphia Flyers. Gilbert worked every playoff game, going 10-6 with a .912 SV% and a 2.64 GAA with one shutout.

After losing in the Cup Finals, Gilbert and Brooks looked to rekindle their magic the next season. In 1974-75, Gilbert went 23-17-11 with a .893 SV% and a 3.14 GAA with three shutouts. Brooks posted a record of 10-3-3 with a .884 SV% and a 2.98 GAA. The Bruins finished second in the Adams Division, but were taken down by the Blackhawks in the preliminary round of the playoffs, 2-1. Gilbert started all three games of the preliminary round and went 1-2 with a .859 SV% and a 3.86 GAA.

In October 1975, Ross Brooks wast sent down to the AHL. He played one season with the Rochester Americans before deciding to retire from hockey.

6. Tuukka Rask & Jaroslav Halak

The Bruins had lost backup goalie Anton Khudobin when the Dallas Stars signed him to a contract on July 1, 2018. The same day, Boston went out and signed veteran goaltender, Jaroslav Halak, to a two-year, $5.5 million deal. 

In their first season as a duo, Rask went 27-13-5 with a .912 SV% and a 2.48 GAA with four shutouts, while Halak went 22-11-4 with a .922 SV% and a 2.34 GAA with five shutouts. The Bruins finished second in the Atlantic Division, and made it all the way to the Stanley Cup Final after getting rid of the Maple Leafs and the Columbus Blue Jackets in the first two rounds of the playoffs, then sweeping the Hurricanes in the Conference Finals. The Bruins were not able to bring home the Cup, losing to the St. Louis Blues in seven games. Rask started all the playoff games, going 15-9 with a .934 SV% and a 2.02 GAA with two shutouts.

No one could have predicted what was to come in the 2019-20 season. Rask went 26-8-6 with a .929 SV% and a 2.12 GAA with five shutouts while Halak went 18-6-6 with a .919 SV% and a 2.39 GAA with three shutouts. The season was suspended by the NHL on March 12 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. On May 26, it was announced the season would resume and finish in a 24-team playoff. With the regular season officially over, the Bruins had won the Presidents’ Trophy, while Rask and Halak combined to win the Jennings Trophy. The B’s went 0-3 in the Round Robin games, but got past the first round, defeating the Hurricanes in five games. The Bruins were not so lucky in the second round, getting knocked out of the playoffs by the Tampa Bay Lightning in five games. Halak played the majority of the games in the ‘bubble’ playoffs, going 4-5 with a .902 SV% with a 2.76 GAA while Rask went 1-3 with a .904 SV% with a 2.57 GAA.

The Bruins had signed Halak to a one-year extension before the season resumed, but Halak was relegated to third-string goalie by the end of the 2020-21 season with the emergence of Jeremy Swayman. Halak went 9-6-4 with a .905 SV% and a 2.53 GAA with two shutouts in his final season with the Bruins. Rask would put up a record of 15-5-2 with a .913 SV% and a 2.28 GAA with two shutouts, and went 6-4 with a .919 SV% and a 2.36 GAA in the playoffs,

5. Linus Ullmark & Jeremy Swayman

With Tuukka Rask recovering from hip surgery, and Jaroslav Halak signing with the Vancouver Canucks in the offseason, the Bruins needed to sign a goaltender to pair with Jeremy Swayman. On July 28, 2021, the B’s signed Linus Ullmark to a four-year, $20 million deal.

In their first season together, both Ullmark and Swayman put up over 20 wins. Ullmark went 26-10-2 with a .917 SV% and a 2.44 GAA with one shutout, while Swayman went 23-14-3 with a .914 SV% and a 2.41 GAA with three shutouts. The Bruins finished fourth in the Atlantic Division and qualified for the playoffs, but were knocked out in seven games by the Hurricanes. Swayman went 3-2 with a .911 SV% and a 2.63 GAA, while Ullmark went 0-2 with a .860 SV% and a 4.16 GAA.

The 2022-2023 season was a historic and record-breaking year for Boston and their goalie tandem. The Bruins set the single-season wins record, going 65-12-5 and set the single season points record (135). Ullmark became the fastest goalie in NHL history to reach 40 wins, and the Bruins became the first team in NHL history to have a 40-win and 20-win goaltender, Ullmark going 40-6-1, while Swayman went 24-6-4. The Bruins were not able to get the job done in the playoffs though, going out in seven at the hands of the Florida Panthers. Ullmark went 3-3 with a .896 SV% and a 3.33 GAA, while Swayman went 0-1 with a .875 SV% and a 3.34 GAA. The duo earned the Jennings Trophy and Ullmark won the Vezina trophy, but for the second consecutive season, the Bruins were bounced from the playoffs in the first round.

For the third straight season, the tandem each tallied over 20 wins individually in 2023-24. Swayman went 25-10-8 with a .916 SV% and a 2.53 GAA with three shutouts, while Ullmark went 22-10-7 with a .915 SV% and a 2.57 GAA with two shutouts. The Bruins also made the second round of the playoffs for the first time in ‘SwayMark’ era, after they put away the Maple Leafs in seven games. Unfortunately, the Bruins fell to the Panthers for the second year in a row, this time in six games. In the playoffs, Swayman went 6-6 with a .933 SV% and a 2.15 GAA, while Ullmark went 0-1 with a .886 SV% and a 3.90 GAA.

In late June, Ullmark was traded to the Ottawa Senators for goaltender Joonas Korpisalo, forward Mark Kastelic, and a 2024 first-round pick. Swayman still remains an unsigned RFA as of September 2024.

4. Gerry Cheevers & Gilles Gilbert

For the first few months of the 1975-76 season, Dave Reece was Gilles Gilbert’s backup in net. Then on January 26, 1976, it was announced that former Bruins goalie, Gerry Cheevers, would be retiring from the WHA due to a dispute with Cleveland Crusaders’ general manager, Jack Vivian. Bruins general manager Harry Sinden commented on the situation and showed interest in bringing him back to Boston, saying the Bruins had been continually scouting him since he left for the WHA. On February 3, Cheevers signed with the Bruins and just five days later he was back in net for a 7-0 shutout victory over the Detroit Red Wings in his big return.

Gilbert finished the season 33-8-10 with a .888 SV% and a 2.90 GAA with three shutouts, while Cheevers went 8-2-5 with a .900 SV% and a 2.74 GAA with one shutout. The Bruins finished first in the Adams Division and beat the Los Angeles Kings in the quarter-finals of the playoffs in seven games. The Bruins went out in the semi-finals though, when they lost to the Flyers in five. Gilbert went 3-3 in the postseason, with a .868 SV% and a 3.17 GAA with two shutouts, while Cheevers went 2-4 with a .917 SV% and a 2.14 GAA with one shutout.

The Bruins then made it to the Stanley Cup Final two straight seasons (1977,1978) but lost to the Canadiens in both trips. Cheevers posted a 30-win season (30-10-5) in the ’76-77 season, while goaltender Ron Grahame did most of the heavy lifting during the ’77-78 regular season (26-6-7 record) as Cheevers was dealing with a knee injury and Gilbert had sprained his ankle. Cheevers had a combined 16-9 record with a .875 SV% and a 2.98 GAA with two shutouts in the ’76-77 and ’77-78 postseasons.

The tandem would not make it to the Stanley Cup Final again in their last two seasons together, but still had great regular seasons. From 1978-1980, the duo had a combined record of 79-37-22 with a combined SV% and GAA of .876% and 3.06 GA with 6 shutouts.

At the end after the 1979-80 season, Cheevers transitioned from player to Bruins Head Coach, and Gilbert was traded to the Red Wings for Rogie Vachon.

2. Tim Thomas & Tuukka Rask

After Manny Fernandez retired in the summer of 2009, Tuukka Rask & Tim Thomas became the goalie tandem in Boston. The 2009-10 season saw Thomas decline a bit from his past couple of seasons, despite having a .915 SV%, a 2.56 GAA, and five shutouts on the season, Thomas posted a losing record of 17-18-8. Rask took over the number one position and went 22-12-5 with a .931 SV% and a 1.97 GAA with five shutouts. Rask played every game of the 2010 playoffs where the Bruins passed the Buffalo Sabres in six games in the Conference Quarterfinals, but then suffered a historic collapse in the Semi-Finals. The Bruins were up in the series 3-0 on the Flyers and then lost the next four games and were eliminated from the playoffs in seven. Rask went 7-6 with a .912 SV% and a 2.61 GAA average.

After Rask’s great regular season, it was assumed by many that he would be taking over the number-one spot from Thomas permanently. However, in the summer of 2010, Thomas went through surgery to repair a torn labrum in his left hip and came back better than ever in the 2010-11 season. Thomas went 35-11-9 with a .938 SV% and a 2.00 GAA with nine shutouts. This would earn him the Vezina Trophy at the end of the season. He went on to have one of the greatest single postseasons in Boston Bruins history, going 16-9 with a .940 SV% and a 1.98 GAA with four shutouts.

The Bruins won the 2011 Stanley Cup, defeating the Vancouver Canucks in seven games. Thomas won the Conn Smythe Trophy, the first American born-goaltender to win the award, and holds the record for most saves in a Stanley Cup Final series (238), most saves in a playoff year (798), among all the accolades he holds for that extraordinary season. 

Thomas kept his number one spot in 2011-12, going 35-19-1 with a .920 SV% and a 2.36 GAA with shutouts. Rask bounced back from his losing season the year before and went 11-8-3 with a .929 SV% and a 2.05 GAA with three shutouts. The B’s were not able to replicate the outstanding postseason from the previous postseason, getting knocked out of the Conference Quarter-Finals by the Washington Capitals in seven games. Thomas went 3-4 with a .923 SV% and a 2.14 GAA with one shutout.

On June 3, 2012, 38-year-old Thomas announced on his Facebook page that he would be sitting out the 2012-13 season to focus on ‘Friends, Family, and Faith’. On February 7, 2013, he was traded to the New York Islanders, but never played a game for the team. Rask played for the Bruins until he retired in 2022 and holds the record for most wins in Bruins history (308), and most playoff wins in Bruins history (57). The duo holds the Bruins record for most regular season shutouts as a pair (29). Tim Thomas holds the NHL record for highest career playoff SV% (.933%) and was inducted into the US Hockey Hall of Fame in 2019.

1. Gerry Cheevers & Eddie Johnston

Gerry Cheevers and Eddie Johnston started as a tandem in the 1966-67 season, the back-end of the worst era in Bruins history, and before long were a key part of arguably the best era in Bruins history. In their first three seasons together, Cheevers and Johnston put up a combined record of 89-75-34 with a .899 SV% and a 3.02 GAA with nine shutouts. In the 1968-69 playoffs, the Bruins swept the Maple Leafs in the Quarterfinals, but were defeated by the Canadiens in six games in the Semi-Finals. Cheevers went 6-3 with a .947 SV% and a 1.68 GAA with three shutouts.

In 1970, the Bruins won their fourth Stanley Cup in franchise history, their first since 1941. Cheevers recorded 24 wins during the regular season and the pair had a combined record of 40-17-19 with a .913 SV% and a 2.85 GAA with seven shutouts. In the playoffs, the Bruins swept their way past the Chicago Blackhawks in the Semi-Finals, and went on to sweep the St. Louis Blues in the Stanley Cup Final. Cheevers went 12-1 with a .925 SV% and a 2.23 GAA in the dominating postseason by the Bruins.

Just two years later, the Bruins won their fifth Stanley Cup in franchise history. Cheevers made history himself during the regular season. He recorded the longest undefeated streak by a goaltender in NHL history, going undefeated in 32 consecutive games from November 14, 1971, to March 25, 1972, a record that still stands today. Cheevers and Johnston split equal time during the regular season and the playoffs, Cheevers going 27-5-8 during the regular season with a .920 SV% and a 2.50 GAA with two shutouts, while Johnston went 27-8-3 with a .899 SV% and a 2.71 GAA with two shutouts.

The Bruins went on to win the Stanley Cup, defeating the New York Rangers in six games. With nearly identical records, Johnston went 6-1 with a .936 SV% and a 1.86 GAA with one shutout, while Cheevers went 6-2 with a .915 SV% and a 2.61 GAA with two shutouts.

After the Stanley Cup season, Cheevers left the NHL to join the newly formed World Hockey Association, but would return to the Bruins in February 1976. Johnston played out the next season for the B’s and on May 22, 1973, was added to a deal made earlier in March that sent a first-round draft pick and future considerations to the Toronto Maple Leafs, in exchange for Jacques Plante and a third-round draft pick.

Cheevers and Johnston have the most regular season wins for a goalie tandem in Bruins history (240) and also hold the record for most postseason shutouts by any duo in franchise history (6). They are the only Bruins tandem to win more than one Stanley Cup championship. Cheevers was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1985.