Meet 2025 NHL Draft’s Joshua Ravensbergen, hockey’s next star goaltender

Credit: Joshua Ravensbergen (James Doyle/Prince George Cougars)

There has been so much talk in recent years about how weak the Canadian goaltending landscape has been.

For a while, Carter Hart looked like the heir apparent to the throne once best-on-best international competition finally returned. His arrest last season squashed any hopes there, and now Canada is entering the 4 Nations Face-Off in a few months without a clear star No. 1 goaltender for the first time since the NHL started sending players to the Olympics 25 years ago.

The last Canadian goalkeeper to get selected in the first round was Detroit’s Sebastian Cossa in 2021. Before that, you have to go all the way back to Chet Pickard in 2008 – he never played a game in the NHL. Fortunately, the 2025 NHL Draft has two high-end options that look primed to go in the first round of the NHL Draft: the Brantford Steelheads’ Jack Ivankovic and Joshua Ravensbergen of the Prince George Cougars.

Of the two, the consensus seems to lean towards Ravensbergen being the first of the two taken. And it’s easy to understand why: he has an outstanding record since stealing the spotlight as a rookie in the WHL last year, and he’s got so many ideal traits that teams want in a goaltender. Size, athleticism, superb puck-tracking, you name it.

“It’s been a while since we’ve seen such a high-profile Canadian goaltender with as much promise and potential as Ravensbergen,” one scout said this past summer.

The 6-foot-5 goaltender made an incredible impact right out of the gate with Prince George last year. He posted a 26-4-1 record with six shutouts in 38 games – including a 28-save shutout in his debut. Four of his six shutouts came in his first nine games, with none of the games being particularly easy, either.

That hot start quickly put Ravensbergen on the map. Most goalies struggle for playing time in their Draft-1 year, but the 16-year-old quickly started to outplay Vancouver Canucks prospect Ty Young. Clearly, the pressure wasn’t getting to him.

“I was just taking a day-by-day,” Ravensbergen said during the World Junior Summer Showcase in August. “I feel like I went in there and just played how I was able to play, and eventually, I got more and more starts. It went great.”

This year has been no different. He’s 12-2-4 on the year, and while his overall stats might not look as great, he’s still playing some strong hockey – enough to cement himself as a first-round pick on most public draft boards.

Ravensbergen is also on Canada’s radar for the World Junior Championship. While he is a bit of a longshot compared to fellow WHLers Scott Ratzlaff and Carson Bjarnason, they did give Ravensbergen two games during the World Junior Summer Showcase. They weren’t exceptional efforts by any means, but it’s rare for a draft-eligible goaltender to get a look at a camp like that.

Next up? The first-ever CHL USA Prospects Challenge is this Tuesday and Wednesday in London and Oshawa, respectively. Ravensbergen will get one of the two starts, sharing the crease with Ivankovic. One game won’t change a player’s draft stock, but standing out against some of the top talent in the draft class definitely wouldn’t hurt it.

“It’s hard for a goalie to shine in a showcase event because we often see wide-open, free-flowing hockey,” one scout said. “But there’s going to be so many eyes on Ravensbergen because he is the top goalie in a draft class with a couple of really solid options.”

From a style perspective, there’s so much to love. Ravensbergen is almost robotic in his movements – he rarely overcommits, he’s always square to the shooter and he’s so calm and relaxed. To beat him, you have to crush him with an extremely quick release because he tracks shots side-to-side so well for his age. And the fact that Ravensbergen doesn’t need to rely on pure size to make stops is crucial – he’s as athletic and mobile as they come for someone his size.

Projecting goalies can be very difficult – it’s not uncommon for one taken in the fifth round to end up stealing the spotlight. But for Ravensbergen, many scouts feel confident in him somewhere in the 20-25 range, making him the projected first goalie taken.

“You just don’t find goalies with his overall makeup this early in their development – size, speed, athleticism, poise. It’s everything you’re hoping for in a goalie prospect,” another scout said.

With the 2025 NHL Draft looking average at best, teams looking to strike big in net long-term could look to snag Ravensbergen early. It’s risky, sure. The last three goalies taken in the first round – Yaroslav Askarov, Jesper Wallstedt and Sebastian Cossa have combined to play seven NHL games since 2020. But most of the scouting community seems to agree that Ravensbergen is the best total package option right now.

SPONSORED BY bet365

Meet 2025 NHL Draft’s Joshua Ravensbergen, hockey’s next star goaltender

Recently by Steven Ellis