Brandon Bussi: The Most Exciting Fantasy Goaltender Heading Into 2026–27.
Twenty-four hours ago, Brandon Bussi was a name that casual hockey fans were still Googling. Today, he is a Stanley Cup champion. And for fantasy hockey managers who are paying attention, really paying attention, he is the most important goaltending acquisition you can make this offseason in fantasy.
Let’s talk about what just happened, and more importantly, what comes next.
Bussi finished the 2025–26 regular season with a 31-6-2 record in 39 starts…numbers so staggering for a first-year starter that they bordered on fiction. He reached ten wins in just eleven games, setting an NHL record. He hit his 20-win plateau in 24 games — another record. He hit 25 wins in 29 games. Another record. He was claimed off waivers by Carolina from Florida in October, inserted into the lineup when Pyotr Kochetkov went down with an injury, and simply never stopped winning. By the end of December he was 13-1-1. By the trade deadline he was riding a nine-game winning streak and the Hurricanes were perched atop the Eastern Conference.
Then the playoffs arrived, and Bussi did something even more remarkable. He stepped in for a struggling Frederik Andersen in the third period of Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Final, the biggest stage in hockey…his first career playoff appearance…and went 3-0 in the final three games to close the series out. He allowed just six goals on 87 shots across four playoff games — a .931 save percentage. He finished it with a 22-save shutout in the clinching Game 6, his parents watching from the stands at T-Mobile Arena as their undrafted son won the Stanley Cup on the grandest possible stage.
Undrafted. Never drafted by a single NHL team. Now a Stanley Cup champion.
Here is the fantasy hockey reality heading into 2026–27: Bussi signed a three-year, $5.7 million contract extension in February, locking him in with Carolina through the 2028–29 season. Frederik Andersen is heading to free agency. The crease in Raleigh belongs to Brandon Bussi, and it is not a timeshare. It’s his.
The structure in front of him is elite. The Carolina Hurricanes were first in the Eastern Conference this season. They went 53-22-7, and operate one of the most defensively responsible systems in the NHL. Bussi’s underlying numbers — a GAA of 1.60 and a .931 SV% in playoff action against an elite Vegas team, tell you this is not a system product. He is legitimately good, and he is backed by legitimately good teammates.
The fantasy case is this simple: you are looking at a 27-year-old starting goaltender, locked in on a three-year deal, on a Stanley Cup champion, in one of the best defensive systems in hockey, coming off one of the most remarkable debut seasons any goaltender has ever produced. The wins will be there. The save percentage will be there. The shutouts…he proved he is capable of delivering those in the biggest moments…will be there.
Get him in your dynasty league. Draft him in your redraft league. Add him off the waiver wire if he is somehow still available. Do whatever you have to do.
Brandon Bussi is a top-five fantasy goaltender in the NHL next season. The hockey world just found out who he is. Make sure your fantasy roster reflects that before everyone else catches up.
Statistics sourced from StatMuse, ESPN, PuckPedia, and Yahoo Sports, June 15, 2026.