It's the hardest job in professional sports.

The goaltender is the last line of defense on an NHL rink, asked to stand on ice skates in front of a six-by-four-foot rectangle while facing down frozen rubber pucks that are often traveling toward him at over 100 miles per hour.

So it's no surprise that the great ones are celebrated.

Toward that end, the B/R hockey team gathered for a midsummer review of the best to play the position since 2000 and came up with a list of the top 10 alongside a few honorable mentions—based on factors including wins, championships and leaguewide awards.

Take a look at what we came up with and drop a thought of your own in our app comments.

Honorable Mentions

Braden Holtby: The Saskatchewan native burned brightly across a four-season run from 2014 to 2018, winning 40 or more games three times and capturing a Vezina Trophy (2015-16), a Jennings Trophy (2016-17) and a Stanley Cup (2017-18).

Ryan Miller: One of the best U.S.-born netminders ever, Miller is seventh in wins (391) among all goalies since the start of the 2000-01 season. He won the Vezina and was a first-team All-Star with Buffalo in 2009-10 and was hockey MVP at the 2010 Winter Olympics.

Igor Shesterkin: Certainly among the best of the league's active goalies, Shesterkin was a first-team All-Star and a Vezina winner after a 2021-22 season in which he won 36 games and posted a 2.07 goals-against average alongside a .935 save percentage.

Tim Thomas: The Michigan native was a 1994 draft pick of the Quebec Nordiques and reached the NHL with Boston in 2002-03, flourishing to the point of two first-team All-Star selections, two Vezina trophies and both a Conn Smythe and a Stanley Cup in 2010-11.

Linus Ullmark: The lanky Swede climbed the ladder in obscurity in Buffalo but zoomed to the stratosphere upon signing with Boston in 2021. He went 88-26-10 with the Bruins before a summertime trade to Ottawa, grabbing a Vezina and Jennings after going 40-6-1 in 2022-23.

10. Pekka Rinne

Team: Nashville

Years Active: 2005-06 to 2020-21

As eighth-round picks go, a team could do a lot worse than Pekka Rinne.

The towering Finn, who stands 6'5", was drafted in 2004 and reached the NHL soon after, ultimately taking over as Nashville's starting goalie with a 29-win season in 2008-09. He reached 30 wins five times and exceeded 40 on three other occasions, including a 42-13-4 run in 2017-18 that yielded a Vezina Trophy and a first-team All-Star selection.

Rinne finished with 369 wins in 683 appearances, retired following the 2020-21 season and had his No. 35 sweater retired by the Predators in 2022.

9. Carey Price

Team: Montreal

Years Active: 2007-08 to 2021-22

There aren't many goalies from any era whose trophy cases can compare to the one filled by Carey Price, who was drafted fifth overall in 2005 and started 40 games as a rookie in 2007-08.

The British Columbia native swept the league's primary goaltending awards—the Vezina and Jennings trophies—along with its MVP honors and the Ted Lindsay Award in 2014-15 after going 44-16-6 with a stingy 1.96 goals-against average and a .933 save percentage.

He backstopped the Canadiens to an unlikely berth in the Stanley Cup Final with 13 playoff victories in 2021 and earned the Masterton Trophy a season later for perseverance, sportsmanship and dedication to hockey after returning to the ice following a knee injury and a stint in the league's player assistance program.

8. Jonathan Quick

Teams: Los Angeles, Vegas, New York Rangers

Years Active: 2007-08 to present

It's been a career of multiple chapters for the Connecticut-born Jonathan Quick, who was a third-round pick of the Kings in 2005, debuted in 2007-08 and was hoisting both the Stanley Cup and the Conn Smythe Trophy by the end of the 2011-12 season.

Quick stayed in Los Angeles—and won another Cup with the Kings—through the 2023 trade deadline, when two deals in two days got him to Vegas, where he backed up Adin Hill on the way to a third championship with the Golden Knights that spring.

A free-agent deal with the New York Rangers provided something of a rebirth for the now-38-year-old, who started 26 games alongside Igor Shesterkin and went 18-6-2 last season while posting a 2.62 goals-against average and a .911 save percentage.

7. Connor Hellebuyck

Team: Winnipeg

Years Active: 2015-16 to present

Another middle-round pick who turned into a gem, Connor Hellebuyck was plucked by the Jets at No. 130 overall in 2012 and reached the NHL in time to become a full-time starter and a 26-game winner by 2016-17.

He went 44-11-9 and was a second-team All-Star a season later and has since won 30 or more games four times, earning Vezina trophies after both the 2019-20 and 2023-24 seasons and copping a Jennings Trophy last year, too, after 37 wins, a 2.39 goals-against average and five shutouts across 60 starts.

Now 31, Hellebuyck has played in four All-Star Games, been a first-team All-Star twice and been a finalist for the Vezina four times in eight seasons as an NHL regular.

6. Henrik Lundqvist

Team: New York Rangers

Years Active: 2005-06 to 2019-20

You know you've reached a certain level when they call you "King."

A lanky Swede who was picked in the seventh round of the 2000 draft as an 18-year-old, Henrik Lundqvist won 30 games as a rookie with the Rangers in 2005-06 and never looked back.

He won 35 or more times in each subsequent season through 2011-12, which yielded a career-best 39 victories and a Vezina Trophy after he posted a 1.97 goals-against average and a .930 save percentage on the way to a first-team All-Star selection.

His 24 wins in the strike-shortened 2012-13 season was tops in the league and he added 13 playoff wins in 2013-14 during New York's run to the Stanley Cup Final. He retired in 2021 with every significant Rangers goaltending record, including wins, shutouts, playoff wins and games played.

5. Sergei Bobrovsky

Teams: Philadelphia, Columbus, Florida

Years Active: 2010-11 to present

The second of what'll ultimately be five Cup winners on the list, Sergei Bobrovsky holds the distinction of being the most recent starting goalie to hoist the chalice following a springtime run with the Panthers during which he won 16 games and had a 2.32 goals-against average.

The seven-game defeat of Edmonton in the title round followed the best of the 35-year-old's five regular seasons in Florida, including a 36-17-4 record and a .915 save percentage.

But the stay with the league's southernmost franchise is but the latest successful stop for the Russian-born "Bob," who won two Vezina trophies across seven seasons with Columbus after spending his first two NHL seasons in Philadelphia and going 42-23-10.

4. Andrei Vasilevskiy

Team: Tampa Bay

Years Active: 2014-15 to present

The current holder of the league's "best money goalie" title, Andrei Vasilevskiy was a first-round pick of the Lightning in 2012 and was a 44-game winner by 2017-18 for a Tampa Bay team that was first in the Eastern Conference. He was 39-10-4 a season later and won a Vezina Trophy for the record-setting Lightning group on the way to its President's Trophy.

But the legend of No. 88 really began forming the following spring on Florida's Gulf Coast, where Tampa Bay won the first of its two straight Stanley Cups. Vasilevskiy won 34 of 48 starts across those two trophy-hoisting postseasons, registering six shutouts along the way.

Vasilevskiy won a Conn Smythe Trophy after this second Cup run and helped the Lightning back for a third straight title-round appearance in 2022, when they lost to Colorado.

3. Roberto Luongo

Teams: New York Islanders, Florida, Vancouver

Years Active: 1999-2000 to 2018-19

History has been a constant companion for the Montreal-born Roberto Luongo, whose fourth overall draft selection by the Islanders in 1997 was the team's highest-ever for a goalie before Rick DiPietro was taken first overall just three years later.

That created a logjam that resulted in Luongo being sent to Florida, where he won 108 games across five seasons before another deal sent him to Vancouver. He was an instant smash with the Canucks, winning 47 games in his first season with the team and finishing second in voting for both the Vezina and Hart trophies.

He led the league again with 38 wins in 2010-11 and stayed with Vancouver until the 2014 trade deadline, when he was dealt back to the Panthers and ultimately retired with them after the 2018-19 season at No. 4 on the league's all-time goaltending wins list (489).

He was voted into the Hockey Hall of Fame as part of the Class of 2022.

2. Marc-Andre Fleury

Teams: Pittsburgh, Vegas, Chicago, Minnesota

Years Active: 2003-04 to present

And now, we move into the truly historic portion of the list.

A Quebec native, Marc-Andre Fleury became the third goaltender chosen first overall when the Penguins grabbed him in 2003. He stepped onto NHL ice and got into 21 games with Pittsburgh in the 2003-04 season, and was a big part of a youthful infusion that saw the team in the Stanley Cup Final by 2007-08 and hoisting the trophy a year later.

Fleury wound up with three championship rings by the time he was selected by the Golden Knights in the 2017 expansion draft and he was instrumental in that franchise's instant credibility, reaching the final round again in the spring of 2018 and capturing his first Vezina Trophy after going 26-10-0 with a 1.98 goals-against average in 2020-21.

He'll begin his 21st NHL season as a member of the Wild this fall and will celebrate his 40th birthday in November as the league's active goaltending leader in games played, wins, shutouts and time on ice.

1. Martin Brodeur

Teams: New Jersey, St. Louis

Years Active: 1991-92 to 2014-15

When it comes to history, no one compares with Martin Brodeur.

Make no mistake, the first-round pick of the Devils in the 1990 draft had plenty of success before the new century officially arrived—including two Stanley Cups, two Jennings trophies and a rookie of the year selection—but he was plenty prodigious afterward, too.

He won the first of two straight Vezina trophies and snatched a third Cup after the 2002-03 season, and had four nods as the league's best goalie by the close of 2007-08, when he won 44 times in 77 starts with a 2.17 goals-against average and four shutouts.

Brodeur stayed with New Jersey through 2013-14 before spending his final NHL season with the Blues in 2014-15. He hung up his skates with his name strewn across the league's record book, including 691 wins and 125 shutouts in 1,266 games, and was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2018.