Empty-Net Lab
NHL Empty-Net Goals & Goalie Pull Tracker 2023-24
When does each coach pull the goalie, how often does the extra attacker score, and who is on the ice for it at both ends? Every number comes from the NHL shift charts, so a pull is timed to the second and delayed-penalty pulls are left out.
When NHL teams pull the goalie, 2023-24
Share of trailing teams with the goalie pulled, by time left in the 3rd period
When NHL teams pull the goalie, 2023-24. Down 1: half pulled by 1:56 remaining, 46% pulled with 2:00 left (757 trailing spells); Down 2: half pulled by 2:59 remaining, 88% pulled with 2:00 left (719 trailing spells).
Goalie pulls and empty-net goals by team, 2023-24
| Team | Median pull, down 1 | Pulled by 2:00 | Median pull, down 2 | 6v5 time | GF pulled | ENG against | ENG for | GA vs extra attacker |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Florida Panthers | 2:29 (22) | 87% | 3:02 (20) | 41:09 | 5 | 12 | 21 | 5 |
| Dallas Stars | 2:23 (20) | 50% | 3:11 (15) | 39:07 | 5 | 7 | 13 | 6 |
| Philadelphia Flyers | 2:14 (31) | 69% | 3:34 (24) | 44:33 | 8 | 12 | 9 | 6 |
| Carolina Hurricanes | 2:11 (22) | 80% | 3:03 (18) | 39:57 | 5 | 12 | 20 | 4 |
| Boston Bruins | 2:10 (22) | 61% | 4:29 (12) | 27:42 | 2 | 10 | 13 | 10 |
| Los Angeles Kings | 2:10 (19) | 73% | 3:13 (21) | 46:12 | 6 | 8 | 13 | 4 |
| San Jose Sharks | 2:07 (27) | 61% | 2:59 (31) | 44:39 | 5 | 18 | 4 | 8 |
| Columbus Blue Jackets | 2:06 (31) | 67% | 3:07 (36) | 53:50 | 4 | 19 | 11 | 9 |
| New Jersey Devils | 2:06 (25) | 55% | 2:59 (33) | 54:38 | 7 | 27 | 14 | 6 |
| New York Rangers | 2:04 (22) | 56% | 2:57 (18) | 43:29 | 9 | 15 | 19 | 2 |
| Toronto Maple Leafs | 2:02 (29) | 56% | 3:27 (24) | 46:46 | 8 | 13 | 12 | 8 |
| Vancouver Canucks | 2:01 (17) | 57% | 2:50 (19) | 31:44 | 6 | 8 | 14 | 4 |
| Chicago Blackhawks | 2:00 (28) | 59% | 1:58 (30) | 46:14 | 4 | 15 | 6 | 2 |
| Detroit Red Wings | 2:00 (36) | 51% | 3:32 (23) | 49:21 | 9 | 13 | 13 | 2 |
| Arizona Coyotes | 1:57 (26) | 39% | 2:37 (23) | 39:56 | 2 | 19 | 12 | 2 |
| Calgary Flames | 1:56 (28) | 40% | 2:42 (32) | 43:51 | 2 | 18 | 19 | 4 |
| Nashville Predators | 1:56 (23) | 39% | 3:30 (20) | 44:34 | 3 | 17 | 18 | 3 |
| Anaheim Ducks | 1:53 (33) | 36% | 2:38 (32) | 56:29 | 7 | 13 | 7 | 5 |
| Edmonton Oilers | 1:53 (21) | 47% | 4:15 (21) | 32:46 | 5 | 16 | 12 | 2 |
| Tampa Bay Lightning | 1:51 (21) | 49% | 3:42 (22) | 53:52 | 6 | 16 | 23 | 7 |
| Colorado Avalanche | 1:48 (21) | 35% | 3:10 (12) | 30:14 | 2 | 13 | 19 | 2 |
| Minnesota Wild | 1:47 (22) | 22% | 2:56 (20) | 33:56 | 2 | 10 | 14 | 3 |
| Pittsburgh Penguins | 1:47 (29) | 38% | 2:53 (19) | 39:09 | 5 | 7 | 20 | 2 |
| New York Islanders | 1:46 (17) | 0% | 3:21 (21) | 33:47 | 6 | 19 | 5 | 7 |
| St. Louis Blues | 1:45 (17) | 29% | 3:58 (24) | 49:11 | 5 | 20 | 14 | 3 |
| Montreal Canadiens | 1:43 (22) | 42% | 2:20 (20) | 36:45 | 5 | 14 | 7 | 10 |
| Vegas Golden Knights | 1:43 (24) | 27% | 2:36 (22) | 35:48 | 2 | 14 | 17 | 7 |
| Seattle Kraken | 1:41 (23) | 8% | 2:39 (26) | 37:55 | 3 | 16 | 9 | 5 |
| Buffalo Sabres | 1:38 (25) | 29% | 3:10 (19) | 52:47 | 5 | 12 | 17 | 3 |
| Winnipeg Jets | 1:32 (20) | 29% | 2:32 (17) | 23:23 | 0 | 11 | 24 | 6 |
| Ottawa Senators | 1:21 (25) | 8% | 2:45 (26) | 36:09 | 4 | 10 | 13 | 3 |
| Not ranked: fewer than 10 late one-goal deficits (team), most deficits first | ||||||||
| Washington Capitals | 1:33 (9) | 33% | 2:47 (19) | 19:33 | 6 | 9 | 11 | 3 |
Sorted by median pull time, earliest first, for teams with 10+ late one-goal deficits; smaller samples follow, unranked. In brackets: late deficits behind the median (trailing by one or two in the last 10:00); team-season samples are small (split-half r = 0.30), so treat gaps of 15-20 seconds as noise. "Pulled by 2:00" is the share of late one-goal deficits with the goalie out with 2:00 or more left. GF / ENG against: goals for and empty-net goals against while this team had its goalie pulled. ENG for / GA vs extra attacker: the same when the opponent pulled.
Goalie pull timing by coach, 2023-24
| Coach | Team | Median pull, down 1 | Pulled by 2:00 | Median pull, down 2 | Tied it, down 1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Paul Maurice | Florida Panthers | 2:29 (22) | 87% | 3:02 (20) | 2 / 15 |
| Peter DeBoer | Dallas Stars | 2:23 (20) | 50% | 3:11 (15) | 1 / 11 |
| John Tortorella | Philadelphia Flyers | 2:14 (31) | 69% | 3:34 (24) | 2 / 15 |
| Rod Brind'Amour | Carolina Hurricanes | 2:11 (22) | 80% | 3:03 (18) | 3 / 16 |
| Jim Montgomery | Boston Bruins | 2:10 (22) | 61% | 4:29 (12) | 2 / 11 |
| Todd McLellan | Los Angeles Kings | 2:10 (10) | 83% | 3:19 (11) | 3 / 8 |
| Lindy Ruff | New Jersey Devils | 2:08 (17) | 77% | 2:54 (22) | 1 / 14 |
| David Quinn | San Jose Sharks | 2:07 (27) | 61% | 2:59 (31) | 3 / 22 |
| Pascal Vincent | Columbus Blue Jackets | 2:06 (31) | 67% | 3:07 (36) | 0 / 18 |
| Kris Knoblauch | Edmonton Oilers | 2:05 (16) | 51% | 4:30 (17) | 2 / 10 |
| Peter Laviolette | New York Rangers | 2:04 (22) | 56% | 2:57 (18) | 3 / 10 |
| Sheldon Keefe | Toronto Maple Leafs | 2:02 (29) | 56% | 3:27 (24) | 4 / 18 |
| Rick Tocchet | Vancouver Canucks | 2:01 (17) | 57% | 2:50 (19) | 2 / 13 |
| Derek Lalonde | Detroit Red Wings | 2:00 (36) | 51% | 3:32 (23) | 3 / 21 |
| Luke Richardson | Chicago Blackhawks | 2:00 (28) | 59% | 1:58 (30) | 3 / 21 |
| André Tourigny | Arizona Coyotes | 1:57 (26) | 39% | 2:37 (23) | 2 / 20 |
| Andrew Brunette | Nashville Predators | 1:56 (23) | 39% | 3:30 (20) | 1 / 13 |
| Ryan Huska | Calgary Flames | 1:56 (28) | 40% | 2:42 (32) | 1 / 19 |
| Greg Cronin | Anaheim Ducks | 1:53 (33) | 36% | 2:38 (32) | 2 / 22 |
| Jon Cooper | Tampa Bay Lightning | 1:51 (21) | 49% | 3:42 (22) | 3 / 12 |
| Jared Bednar | Colorado Avalanche | 1:48 (21) | 35% | 3:10 (12) | 2 / 11 |
| Mike Sullivan | Pittsburgh Penguins | 1:47 (29) | 38% | 2:53 (19) | 5 / 19 |
| Drew Bannister | St. Louis Blues | 1:45 (14) | 36% | 3:45 (15) | 1 / 10 |
| Lane Lambert | New York Islanders | 1:44 (11) | 0% | 2:30 (12) | 1 / 7 |
| Bruce Cassidy | Vegas Golden Knights | 1:43 (24) | 27% | 2:36 (22) | 2 / 11 |
| Martin St. Louis | Montreal Canadiens | 1:43 (22) | 42% | 2:20 (20) | 0 / 12 |
| Dave Hakstol | Seattle Kraken | 1:41 (23) | 8% | 2:39 (26) | 2 / 14 |
| Don Granato | Buffalo Sabres | 1:38 (25) | 29% | 3:10 (19) | 1 / 17 |
| Jacques Martin | Ottawa Senators | 1:36 (18) | 11% | 3:15 (16) | 1 / 11 |
| John Hynes | Minnesota Wild | 1:36 (15) | 0% | 2:56 (10) | 1 / 11 |
| Rick Bowness | Winnipeg Jets | 1:32 (20) | 29% | 2:32 (17) | 0 / 9 |
| Not ranked: fewer than 10 late one-goal deficits (coach), most deficits first | |||||
| Jim Hiller | Los Angeles Kings | 2:18 (9) | 60% | 3:11 (10) | 2 / 5 |
| Spencer Carbery | Washington Capitals | 1:33 (9) | 33% | 2:47 (19) | 3 / 8 |
| Travis Green | New Jersey Devils | 1:43 (8) | 14% | 3:09 (11) | 0 / 8 |
| D.J. Smith | Ottawa Senators | 0:42 (7) | 0% | 2:11 (10) | 0 / 5 |
| Dean Evason | Minnesota Wild | 2:45 (7) | 78% | 3:04 (10) | 0 / 4 |
| Patrick Roy | New York Islanders | 1:46 (6) | 0% | 4:02 (9) | 2 / 5 |
| Jay Woodcroft | Edmonton Oilers | 1:53 (5) | 33% | 4:06 (4) | 0 / 3 |
| Craig Berube | St. Louis Blues | 1:58 (3) | 0% | 4:00 (9) | 0 / 2 |
Head coach behind the bench in each game, from the NHL game center. Interim coaches get their own row. Coaches with fewer than 10 late one-goal deficits are listed after the ranked ones.
Who is on the ice: extra attacker and empty-net defense, 2023-24
Empty-net goals
- 1Nikita KucherovTBL7 G, 7 A
- 2Sidney CrosbyPIT7 G, 3 A
- 3Blake ColemanCGY7 G, 0 A
- 4Jonathan MarchessaultVGK6 G, 0 A
- 5Jake GuentzelPIT/CAR5 G, 7 A
- 6Brandon HagelTBL5 G, 4 A
- 7Mark ScheifeleWPG5 G, 4 A
- 8Artemi PanarinNYR5 G, 2 A
- 9Gustav NyquistNSH5 G, 2 A
- 10Sam ReinhartFLA4 G, 5 A
Goals and assists into an empty net while the other team had really pulled its goalie.
Most 6-on-5 ice time
- 1Nikita KucherovTBL49:42 · 94%
- 2Jesper BrattNJD48:50 · 89%
- 3Brayden PointTBL48:25 · 90%
- 4Victor HedmanTBL47:06 · 89%
- 5Steven StamkosTBL45:13 · 89%
- 6Auston MatthewsTOR44:58 · 96%
- 7William NylanderTOR44:38 · 95%
- 8John TavaresTOR44:22 · 95%
- 9Pavel BuchnevichSTL43:33 · 89%
- 10Rasmus DahlinBUF43:31 · 82%
Time on the ice as the extra-attacker unit; % = share of his team's pulled time in games he dressed.
Most empty-net defense time
- 1John CarlsonWSH43:14 · 86%
- 2J.T. MillerVAN32:05 · 59%
- 3Esa LindellDAL31:17 · 67%
- 4Gustav ForslingFLA31:15 · 66%
- 5Brenden DillonWPG30:37 · 55%
- 6Adam LarssonSEA30:20 · 80%
- 7Adam LowryWPG30:20 · 50%
- 8Kris LetangPIT30:17 · 78%
- 9Charlie CoyleBOS30:14 · 55%
- 10Jamie OleksiakSEA29:42 · 76%
Time on the ice protecting a lead against an empty net: the players a coach trusts to close, and who get the empty-net chances.
Extra-attacker points
- 1Auston MatthewsTOR5 G, 1 A
- 2John TavaresTOR2 G, 4 A
- 3Troy TerryANA3 G, 2 A
- 4Alexis LafrenièreNYR2 G, 3 A
- 5J.T. MillerVAN1 G, 4 A
- 6Mike MathesonMTL1 G, 4 A
- 7Mathew BarzalNYI0 G, 5 A
- 8Shayne GostisbehereDET0 G, 5 A
- 9Travis KonecnyPHI0 G, 5 A
- 10Sebastian AhoCAR4 G, 0 A
Goals and assists with his own goalie pulled.
How we measure it
- We find every goalie pull in the 3rd period from the NHL shift charts: the stretches in which a trailing team had no goalie on the ice.
- Delayed-penalty pulls are removed. If the play-by-play shows a delayed penalty called on the other team as the goalie left, the time before the whistle does not count; a pull of 90 seconds or less that ends at a penalty on the other team with more than 5:00 left is treated the same way even when the delayed-penalty event is missing.
- Pull timing is measured as a survival curve (Kaplan-Meier). Every stretch in which a team trails by one (or two) enters the curve when it starts, or at 10:00 left if it started earlier, and leaves when the coach pulls the goalie or the score changes. "Median pull" is the time left at which half of teams in that spot have pulled. A deficit that starts with the goalie already out (he stayed on the bench through a goal) is left out of the curve: that pull was decided at the earlier score.
- That matters: averaging pull times only over the games that reached a pull favors late pulls, because a deficit that is erased early never shows one.
- Empty-net goals for and against are counted only while a goalie is really pulled, per 60 minutes of 6-on-5 (or 6-on-4) time. Rates need at least 10 minutes of pulled time before we show them.
- Player shares: a skater’s ice time in his team’s pulls, divided by the team’s total pulled time in the games he dressed. Empty-net defense is the same with the opponent pulling.
- Rankings of teams and coaches by pull time need at least 10 late one-goal deficits; smaller samples are listed after the ranked ones. Team pages cover the whole franchise (the Arizona Coyotes and Utah Hockey Club seasons are on the Utah Mammoth page).
- Coaches come from the NHL game center (head coach behind each bench). Seasons start in 2017-18, the first season of full shift data in our engine. Regular season only on these pages.
What repeats and what does not
- League trend: coaches pull earlier every year. The median pull down one moved from 1:40 left in 2017-18 to 2:00 in 2025-26, and down two from 2:30 to 3:23. Pulling down one ties the game about 14-16% of the time in every season.
- Team pull timing repeats, but only moderately. Splitting each team-season into odd and even games, the two halves’ median pull times correlate at r = 0.30 (284 team-seasons). Season to season it is r = 0.43 when the coach stays and 0.22 after a coaching change, which is why the coach tables matter. Read gaps of 15-20 seconds between teams as noise.
- Player roles are the stable part. A skater’s share of his team’s 6-on-5 time correlates r = 0.88 from one season to the next (same team, 2,683 pairs), and his share of empty-net defense time r = 0.75. Empty-net defense share tracks empty-net points (r = 0.47 within a season).
- Team empty-net goals per game do not repeat well (split-half r = 0.19): they depend on game states nobody controls. So we do not publish a nightly "empty-net goal odds" by team; the player shares are the signal to use.
FAQ
When do NHL coaches pull the goalie when down by one?
In 2023-24, half of NHL teams trailing by one had pulled their goalie with 1:56 left in the 3rd period, and 46% had pulled with 2:00 or more left (757 late one-goal deficits). Down by two, the median pull came with 2:59 left.
How often does pulling the goalie work?
With the goalie pulled, trailing teams scored 7.0 goals per 60 minutes and allowed 20.3 empty-net goals per 60 in 2023-24. Of 481 pulls while down one, 66 (14%) ended with the tying goal before the goalie went back in. An empty-net goal against usually just turns a one-goal loss into a two-goal loss; the tying goal turns a likely loss into at least a point.
Which NHL team pulls its goalie the earliest?
Among teams with at least 10 late one-goal deficits in 2023-24, the FLA pulled earliest (median 2:29 left) and the OTT latest (median 1:21). Samples are small, so the team pages show each team's curve with the number of games behind it.
Who scores the most empty-net goals?
The skaters a coach sends out to protect a late lead: usually the top centers, shutdown forwards and top-pair defensemen. Their share of empty-net defense time is very stable from season to season (r = 0.75) and tracks empty-net points, so the empty-net defense board on this page is the best guide to who gets those goals.
Do empty-net goals count in fantasy hockey?
Yes. An empty-net goal counts as a goal and a point for the scorer and the assists in Yahoo, ESPN and Fantrax, and a goal allowed into an empty net does not count against the goalie’s goals-against average or save percentage. The players a coach trusts to defend a late lead get the empty-net chances, which is why the empty-net defense shares on this page matter for goals and points.
Does an empty-net goal count against the goalie?
No. The goalie was not on the ice, so the goal is charged to the team but not to the goalie: it does not change his save percentage or goals-against average.