Penalties are a big part of hockey. When you go to a game you will always see players sitting in the penalty box, but never the goalie. Why not? It seems like goalies do as much rough stuff as any other player.
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What happens when a goalie gets a penalty? When a goalie gets a penalty in ice hockey, the goalie does not serve the penalty. Instead a player of the coach’s choosing will serve the penalty in his place. The penalized goalie stays in his net, even though the penalty has been credited to him.
Let’s take a closer look at goalies and penalties!
Can a goalie get a penalty?
Yes, a goalie can get a penalty in hockey, and it happens all the time. The goalie can pretty much be called for a penalty on anything a player can be called for: slashing, high-sticking, tripping, roughing, fighting, delay of game etc. They even have a few penalties that are specific to themselves, such as: intentionally freezing the puck outside of the crease and playing the puck in the non-trapezoid area behind the goal line.
And, as you will see in the charts below (of the goalie penalty-minute leaders in a season and of all-time), they in fact get a lot of penalties!
When a goalie gets a penalty, they do not have to go to the penalty box to serve the penalty. Instead a player from their own team will go and serve the penalty for them in their place. The goalie is still credited for the penalty against his own stats, and not the player in the box, but the goaltender does not have to actually go and sit in the box.
Who goes into the penalty box for a goalie?
The coach gets to choose which player goes into the penalty box. The player chosen does not have to be on the ice when the penalty was called, similar to the too many men on the ice infraction. Instead, the coach can choose anyone from the full roster.
The coach will usually choose a player who does not play on the penalty kill. The thinking behind this goes: the player would not be playing those two minutes of hockey anyway, so they can sit in the box on behalf of the goalie. Often, the coach will also choose a player that has some offensive flair because when a penalty comes to an end and a player comes out of the penalty box, they can often use that transition to create a scoring opportunity. The team on the power play is often thinking offence, so a player coming out of the box can get a quick chance as the other teams are sometimes caught off guard.
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There is a backup goalie — can’t he play while the other goalie is serving in the penalty box?
A fair question is, why don’t goalies have to go to the penalty box? There are two goalies on each team, so couldn’t the backup goalie come and play net while the goalie with the infraction serves the penalty?
This could logically happen, but there are a few reasons why it probably does not. The goalie is such a special position in hockey — probably the hardest of them all. During the course of a game, if the backup goalie has to come in to replace a goalie that has been suddenly hurt, it is a BIG task for the backup goalie. He has been sitting on the bench for countless minutes, not being warmed up; he’s essentially coming in ‘cold’. There is no way around this but to say it would be tough, tough, tough!
If a backup goalie had to come in every time a goalie took a penalty, it would seem like it was an extra form of a penalty against the team who was penalized. Not only do you have to kill a penalty, but the team taking the penalty now has a cold goaltender and the other team will get high-end scoring chances against this goaltender. That is just too much in favour of the team with the power play.
Furthermore, what happens when a penalty comes to an end? Is the goalie supposed to skate out and act like a player out? Well, this wouldn’t work because, for one thing, a goalie is not allowed to carry the puck over the redline into the opposition end. Additionally, a goalie with all his pads could not compete like a normal player out. Again, this seems like it would give too much advantage to the team that had a power play.
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The one exception where a goalie serves his penalty: Match Penalty
The one exception where a goalie does have to serve his penalty is if the goalie gets what is called a match penalty. The match penalty is the most egregious of all penalties given to a player who deliberately tries to injure another player or does deliberately injure a player.
When a player receives a match penalty they are immediately suspended for the rest of the game and have to leave the ice and go to their respective dressing room.
Although the player is suspended from the game, the team does receive a five minute penalty where they have to send a player to the box in place of the suspended player. So in this case the goalie will again not have to sit in the penalty box; they will serve their match penalty by being suspended for the rest of the game, plus another player on the team will be in the penalty box for 5 mins. The backup goalie will come and replace the goaltender who has received a match penalty.
Have the goalies ever served penalties?
When the NHL first formed in 1917, the goalies did serve their own penalties. Much of the game in the early days of hockey would be unrecognizable to the fan of today — there were no lines on the ice and no forward passing of the puck.
At that time, when a goalie took a penalty, they had to serve it themselves. A teammate would cover the net in place of the goaltender, until the three (not two) minute penalty was served. The rule officials probably did not think a goalie serving a penalty was that dramatic, given the fact that goalies 1) had way less padding, 2) could not freeze the puck, and 3) were prohibited from falling onto the ice to make a save.
List of most penalized goalies
By Year, Most Penalized Goalie
| Name | Team | Year | Games Played | PIM (Penalty Minutes) | |
| 1 | Ron Hextall | Philadelphia Flyers | 1988‑89 | 64 | 113 |
| 2 | Ron Hextall | Philadelphia Flyers | 1986‑87 | 66 | 104 |
| 3 | Ron Hextall | Philadelphia Flyers | 1987‑88 | 62 | 104 |
| 4 | Tom Barrasso | Buffalo Sabres | 1988‑89 | 54 | 70 |
| 5 | Gerry Cheevers | Boston Bruins | 1979‑80 | 42 | 62 |
| 6 | Ed Belfour | Chicago Blackhawks | 1993‑94 | 70 | 61 |
| 7 | Andy Brown | Pittsburgh Penguins | 1973‑74 | 36 | 60 |
| 8 | Ron Hextall | Philadelphia Flyers | 1992‑93 | 54 | 56 |
| 9 | Bob Froese | Flyers/ Rangers | 1986‑87 | 31 | 56 |
| 10 | Sean Burke | New Jersey Devils | 1988‑89 | 62 | 54 |
All-Time Goalie Penalty Leaders
| Name | Games Played | PIM | |
| 1 | Ron Hextall | 608 | 584 |
| 2 | Billy Smith | 679 | 490 |
| 3 | Tom Barrasso | 777 | 437 |
| 4 | Ed Belfour | 963 | 380 |
| 5 | John Vanbiesbrouck | 882 | 310 |
| 6 | Sean Burke | 820 | 310 |
| 7 | Don Beaupre | 666 | 283 |
| 8 | Mike Vernon | 782 | 271 |
| 9 | Patrick Roy | 1029 | 262 |
| 10 | Dan Bouchard | 656 | 255 |
Photo of the most penalized goalie of all time, Ron Hextall!
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