3 Goalie Fights in 10 Weeks. This Is Why The NHL Is Now Better Than The NBA
3 Goalie Fights in 10 Weeks. This Is Why The NHL Is Now Better Than The NBA
Igor Shesterkin and Jacob Markstrom dropped the gloves tonight at Madison Square Garden. The highest-paid goalie in NHL history threw hands with the Devils’ starter in a Rangers-Devils rivalry game. The video is everywhere.
GOALIE FIGHT! SHESTERKIN vs MARKSTROM#NJDevils #NYR #NHL pic.twitter.com/fTh188NQCW
— Devils Joint (@DevilsJointX) April 1, 2026
It was the third goalie fight of the 2025-26 NHL season.
Three. In ten weeks.
Before January 19, 2026, there hadn’t been a single goalie fight in the NHL since February 1, 2020. Six years. Not one. The position had quietly abandoned a tradition that dates back decades. Goalies didn’t fight anymore. Everyone accepted it.
Then Sergei Bobrovsky lost his mind and charged up the ice at a San Jose Shark, and something broke open.
Fight One: Bobrovsky vs. Nedeljkovic (January 19)
The Florida Panthers were playing the San Jose Sharks. In the third period, Panthers forward Evan Rodrigues delivered a hard hit on Sharks defenseman Vincent Desharnais behind the San Jose net. Sharks goalie Alex Nedeljkovic didn’t like it. He came out and shoved Rodrigues.
That’s when Bobrovsky snapped.
The Panthers’ goalie left his crease, sprinted the length of the ice, tore off Nedeljkovic’s mask, and started throwing punches. Both goalies ended up without helmets and gloves, tangled on the ice in front of a crowd that couldn’t believe what it was watching.
It was the first goalie fight in the NHL since Mike Smith and Cam Talbot went at it during the Battle of Alberta on February 1, 2020. That fight happened on a Saturday night on Hockey Night in Canada. Smith landed five straight rights. Talbot took them all. It was a classic.
And then, for six years, nothing. Goalie fights didn’t happen anymore. The major penalties for leaving the crease, the fines, the suspensions, the general evolution of the position away from that kind of thing. The era was over. Or so everyone thought.
Bobrovsky and Nedeljkovic were each assessed five-minute fighting majors and two-minute penalties for leaving the crease. Both stayed in the game. San Jose won 4-1. Hockeyfights.com scored it 7.46 out of 10. Fans voted Nedeljkovic the winner.
Fight Two: Vasilevskiy vs. Swayman (February 1)
Thirteen days later, it happened again.
The Tampa Bay Lightning and Boston Bruins were playing the Stadium Series at Raymond James Stadium. An outdoor game. 64,617 people in attendance. National television.
Midway through the second period, Lightning winger Brandon Hagel poked at a puck between Bruins goalie Jeremy Swayman’s pads after a whistle. Swayman didn’t like it. He went after Hagel, tackled him to the ice, and started throwing punches.
Then Swayman stood up, ditched his gloves and helmet, looked across the ice at Andrei Vasilevskiy, and gestured for him to do the same.
Vasilevskiy obliged.
The two met near center ice. It was the first goalie fight in the history of an NHL outdoor game. Vasilevskiy landed the first punch and drove Swayman to the ice. As the referees separated them, Vasilevskiy tapped Swayman on the head and smiled. Both were assessed five-minute fighting majors and two-minute penalties for leaving the crease.
The fight changed the game. Tampa Bay had been trailing by four goals. After the brawl, the Lightning mounted the largest comeback in franchise history and the largest in the history of NHL outdoor games, winning 6-5 in a shootout.
Two goalie fights in thirteen days after six years of nothing.
Fight Three: Shesterkin vs. Markstrom (March 31)
Tonight, it happened again.
Igor Shesterkin and Jacob Markstrom dropped the gloves during the Rangers-Devils game at Madison Square Garden. The last meeting of the season between the two Hudson River rivals.
Shesterkin is the highest-paid goalie in NHL history. He signed an eight-year, $92 million extension with the Rangers in December 2024, making him the first goalie to earn $11.5 million per year. He won the Vezina Trophy in 2022. He has backstopped the Rangers to the Eastern Conference final twice. He also fought Ottawa’s Brady Tkachuk in January 2025, so throwing punches is not new territory for him.
Markstrom has been the Devils’ starter since arriving from Calgary. The Rangers and Devils have played a heated rivalry all season, with New Jersey winning the first two meetings by a combined 12-6.
The video of tonight’s fight went viral within minutes. “GOALIE FIGHT” was trending nationally on X before the game was even over.
Something Is Happening
Before this season, there had been only about 43 recorded goalie fights in the entire history of the NHL going back to 1954. Three more have now happened in the last ten weeks.
Before this season, there had been roughly seven goalie-on-goalie fights since the 2004-05 lockout. This single season has added three more.
Nobody can explain it. The rules haven’t changed. Goalies who leave the crease to fight still face major penalties. The fines are still there. The position is still one that demands composure above everything else. And yet, three different sets of goalies have decided that composure can wait.
Bobrovsky charged the length of the ice to get to Nedeljkovic. Swayman challenged Vasilevskiy in front of 64,617 people at an outdoor game. And tonight, the highest-paid goalie in the sport threw down at Madison Square Garden.
Whatever it is that stopped goalies from fighting for six years, it’s gone. The position found its edge again. And the NHL is better for it.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
