Joshua Ravensbergen
2025 NHL Draft Eligible
Position: G, Catches: R
H/W: 6’5”, 192 lbs
Date of Birth: 2006-11-27
Joshua Ravensbergen is one of the most tantalizing goalie prospects coming into the NHL draft in a while. There has been little to no talk about a potential first-round goalie since 2021 when Sebastian Cossa and Jesper Wallstedt joined the rare club. That buzz has not escaped Ravensbergen, as many people think of him as not only by far the best goalie in the draft, but also someone worth drafting somewhere in the early 20s. While Ravensbergen’s innate raw talent is evident, you’d be remiss not to also consider the downsides he brings.
There’s no question that Ravensbergen is a top goalie prospect this year. His combination of natural speed, athletic ability, and great footwork for such a big frame is as rare as it comes. But some glaring issues can’t be overlooked. Ravensbergen has major consistency issues and can be very erratic, a hallmark of primarily athletic goalies. On many occasions, you can find Ravensbergen well outside of his crease after making explosive movements. Other times, you can find him scrambling to rectify a bad rebound he let out. On occasion, he allows weak goals that can be brutal to watch. However, even when watching a “bad” game of Joshua Ravensbergen, one can’t help but notice the immense talent that doesn’t just disappear when he’s in a rut.
From a raw skill standpoint, Ravensbergen ranks highly in nearly all critical skills that are difficult to develop and are of the utmost importance for a goalie prospect. Skills such as innate athleticism, footwork, positioning, and flashes of a high-level cerebral game are all in his toolbox, and these are things you can’t quite develop as easily as lesser skills. One of the most desirable qualities in a goalie, on the other hand, is consistency, and Ravensbergen lacks it in abundance. His relatively pedestrian numbers compared to the upper ends of the WHL, given his visible prominent skills and the great team in Prince George, are potentially owing to his lack of consistency. It’s not something uncommon, especially in 18-year-old goalies, but it is important to be wary of it. What it likely means is that it will take time for Ravensbergen to develop fully. He draws comparisons to Yaroslav Askarov stylistically, who, despite being an 11th overall pick and immensely talented, has yet to break out in the NHL full-time at 22 and could take another couple of years to reach his potential. Jordan Binnington is likely what the final product of Ravensvergen looks like. He checks all the boxes that you see in Ravensbergen: high athleticism and primary style of play, flashy highlight-reel saves, shows up in big games, great skating, decent cerebral game, but severely lacks in the consistency department and allows weak goals. Binnington was 25 before he broke out in the NHL and was 26 when he became a legit starter in the NHL.
Goalies like Ravensbergen don’t become NHL starters overnight. The development process can be a long one, but the potential payoff can be of great magnitude.
Athleticism
As previously mentioned, athleticism is what makes Ravensbergen who he is. His lateral quickness is near the top of the class, and he also boasts some of the best displays of flexibility and lightning-fast reactions. Ravensbergen is effective along the ice in in-tight situations. He can cleanly slide with explosive pushes but has the agility to change direction on a dime and explode the opposite way. He’s able to cover a lot of ground in such a short time, which can virtually give him a chance to save any kind of shot.
This clip is a good example of how quick his reactions are and how he’s able to recover so quickly. An unexpected blocked shot causes Ravensbergen to go down early. As he recognizes the shot is blocked towards his glove side, he immediately regains his feet. What is impressive is that even with his legs so wide and his balance thrown off, he’s able to dig effectively into the ice and push laterally while stretching out to make a nice save. However, the motion was too powerful, and he put himself out of position for the rebound that he didn’t control, allowing a goal.
While Ravensbergen likely had no idea that there was someone backdoor, he reacts to the pass quickly and reflexively can begin a push over to the other side. The key here is that he can get his glove over first and have it projected. It allows him to snag the puck behind his back, which is great eye tracking of the puck and robs the shooter, which requires incredible flexibility.
This is the type of clip that encapsulates Ravensbergen’s potential. As the shooter drives the net, Ravensbergen respects the shot and removes any net on the short side, which would be the likely shot. After the puck moves to the backhand, a far-side shot is off the table, but Ravensbergen recognizes the possibility of a sharp cut, so he retreats his back leg. When the shooter cuts across the crease, Ravensbergen pushes strongly laterally in a wide stance, something that’s not easy to do. Combining the push with stretching his lead leg far out, he easily beats the shooter to the post while covering the entire bottom half of the net.
On this play he has to spring into action in the process of getting back to the crease after playing the puck behind the net. He makes the save but naturally, there’s a rebound with such a quick play. In a split second, the moment the puck left his pad, he managed to gain his feet from the butterfly and simultaneously explode laterally, making an incredible stretching save with his leg.
Grade: 60
Technique:
Ravensbergen’s technique has a broad spectrum. His footwork is top-notch, and he mostly positions himself well to back it up, often aggressively, which can be good in certain instances. He’s got good active hands, especially his glove, which he has made many eye-popping glove saves with over the season. It makes him a much more complete goalie and someone who’s far more interesting than solely an athletic goalie. However, he struggles with his structure. He can open up frequently and can allow weak goals because of losing said structure.
This clip showcases his positioning and footwork. While on the PK, passing options are always available, especially for someone backdoor. Ravensbergen recognizes this and opts to play deeper. This enables him to get across the crease quicker, given a pass. Two successive passes and Ravensbergen follows them with two quick but precise shuffles, maintaining his depth and optimizing travel time and how much net he covers.
Here’s another good example of good positioning and footwork. With the puck on his short side, he retreats far enough to where he can find his post. From this angle, he can cover all the net he requires for a shot, but this position allows him to move efficiently to the center of his crease. As the pass moves through the royal road in the high slot, he first makes a strong t-push to the center of his crease and allows his momentum to carry him to his left, where he’s positioned perfectly for a save.
He does well along the posts with the puck behind the net. As it’s passed to the slot, he grabs ice to move himself forward in the crease without compromising himself down low. He makes the save, but he loses his structure and opens his 5-hole, which allows a goal. The first save was fine, it’s impressive to be able to get up and gain depth so quickly without allowing a goal. But because the shot and corresponding save happened so fast, he opens up his butterfly stance.
Aggressive positioning has a few caveats. While it can be worthwhile, as the goalie takes up more space, it requires precise footwork and quick movements to compensate for the longer travel distance. Luckily for Ravensbergen, he has just those qualities to make an aggressive style work. However, it might not be something to use frequently, as it can put a goalie in rough situations where he has to make a highly athletic save to stay afloat.
Grade: 55
Compete/Temperament
This is an ambiguous category for someone like Ravensbergen, excelling in one area but struggling in the other. When discussing a high compete level, you’d be hard-pressed to find many goalies in this draft who are at the same level as Joshua Ravensbergen. He moves with great intensity and purpose, never surrendering on a play. However, his temperament or physical composure is lacking. Ravensbergen often tends to make grandiose movements, which are a double-edged sword. He makes highlight-reel saves, throwing his body across the ice in a spectacle. But sometimes, more accurately, a lot of times, such movements are not necessary and should be used as a last resort. Ravensbergen struggles to control said movements and it can end up hurting him in the process.
This save is far from pretty as it lacks methodical, calm movement, but not many would be able to recover from being out of position to make a diving save so easily. In some cases, Ravensbergen’s incredible competitive edge can make up for his lack of composure, further development will hopefully enable him to not have major mistakes to correct.
Sometimes strong compete trumps being calm and this is such a case. He moves so quickly and tenaciously getting him from post to post and up to a great position at the top of the crease in no time. If he were to lack urgency and be too calm, he wouldn’t have been able to get to such a good position so quickly and could have been scored on. It’s all about striking a balance.
This clip hits on many key aspects of Ravensbergen that have been mentioned already or will be discussed later. His aggressive nature (mostly seen in highly competitive, low-composure goalies) allows him to challenge the shooter and take away more space. But since he lets out a weak rebound, he now makes a big push to recover and make a save. It’s an impressively athletic stop, but excessive. The initial aggressive positioning combined with an overly elaborate move, places him in no-man’s land with the play ending in a goal. While his competitiveness nets him two saves here, a calm goalie wouldn’t have had to make such an elaborate movement in the first place and there likely wouldn’t have been a goal.
Again, we do see an instance where such a high compete level pays off. He kind of bit early but the way he’s able to recover from that position so quickly to stretch out is impressive. It lacks calmness which we commonly see, but without that competitive edge to never give up on a play, he wouldn’t have been able to make a save from that position.
Grade: 55
Play Reading
Play reading is something that is essential to a goaltender and separates great goalies from the rest. Ravensbergen has shown many flashes of reading the play at a high level, but he’s also shown a lot of mental lapses as well. Something that goes hand in hand with play reading is save or movement selection. Essentially, once the goalie reads the play, they have to choose the best movement required to capitalize on the information gathered. In that area Ravensbergen has shown some questionable decisions as well. Consistency is an issue with Ravensbergen, but hopefully, further development will iron out these issues.
While this save also required athleticism to pull off, he wouldn't have been able to, regardless of athletic ability, without reading the play well. He recognizes the screen and the passing option, so he opts to play deeper. This allows him to be able to get to the pass quicker. After the puck moves, he maintains constant tracking of the puck and cuts deeply through the crease. With such good tracking and anticipation, he’s able to acutely change direction and extend to make a save as needed.
Again, on the PK, Ravensbergen is playing deep because he is aware of all the passing options. When the puck moves below the circle and there is an option right in front of the net, he flattens out his post seal in anticipation of the pass. It allows him to drop right into a butterfly with no extra movement to make the save.
On the contrary, here, he does a poor job anticipating this play. He lowers and widens his stance, locking his feet into place because he wrongly anticipates the play as a shot. What he doesn’t realize is that #18 is ready for a pass behind him. When the pass comes, because his legs are locked, he reacts to the pass much slower than he should have and isn’t able to make a good save attempt because of it.
The thought process here is a bit baffling as he goes for a poke-check while he is nowhere near close enough to make it effective. He must’ve thought that the shooter wasn’t going to be able to control the pass well enough to shoot it before he entered his poke check range. This poor save selection and reading of the play causes quite an egregious-looking goal.
Grade: 52.5
Rebound Control
Rebound control would be considered one of Ravensbergen’s biggest weaknesses. He consistently struggles with rebounds, regardless of the situation. Whether it’s poor technique in making chest saves or an inability to utilize his stick for low shots. His saving grace is that he has the tracking and quick reactions to recover from rebounds. But as alluded to previously, his athletic recoveries can be a double-edged sword. In recovery attempts he can frequently take himself out of position for the next shot and get scored on. He might be able to make the second save a lot, but if there’s a third shot or a change of direction on the second, he’s likely out for the count. Rebound control is also luckily something that can be improved upon relatively easier compared to other skills and something that Ravensbergen could hopefully get up to average with.
On this play, he lets out a rebound that ends up on a shooter’s stick. He quickly tracks the puck off his pad and makes an athletic recovery to stuff a rebound attempt. This particular rebound could be forgivable, given the circumstances of the shot, but it’s still not a great rebound to let out.
On this occasion, there is danger in front of the net. The puck was tipped, but he doesn’t do a great job suppressing the rebound and lets it pop out for what easily could have been a goal.
Here’s an example of Ravensbergen struggling with a) controlling the rebound and b) recovering calmly. He sort of slides in his save motion and drops a chest save, something he should have had with ease. But because he slid, which he shouldn’t have done, he started to panic and move erratically. If there had been a real follow-up, Ravensbergen could have been in a really bad position.
On the first chance, he fights for vision and eventually can get on his feet, at the top of the crease and set for the next shot. When the shot comes, it’s not particularly great. It hits Ravensbergen right in the chest but as we have seen, he cannot control it. This time, however, he doesn’t get so lucky, and the rebound is buried easily when the puck should have never gotten to the shooter in the first place.
Grade: 50
Puck Playing
Puck playing is not something that Ravensbergen excels at, comfortably falling in the average range. He’s very safe when he chooses to leave his crease, typically only leaving for soft dump-ins, and not usually willing to make any aggressive plays. However, he does get the job done and doesn’t make many crucial errors. His passes aren’t especially long but he can make a short pass when need be.
This isn’t flashy, but it’s a really smart play. He recognizes that if left alone, the Vancouver forward will gain possession of the puck without much contest. So Ravensbergen decides to do a backhand behind the net pass to the other side, where he knows it will be, at the very least a puck battle and not a clear possession win for Vancouver.
He does a similar thing here where he makes a pass around the back of the net to evade the forechecker. It's not a good pass, though, as it’s pretty weak and not tape-to-tape. A better pass would perhaps have enabled the defender to make something with the puck instead of turning it over.
Recognizing his D is going behind the red line, Ravensbergen again makes a well-placed bank pass behind the net to evade the forechecker, which allows the D to turn up ice with it. Again, the D didn’t capitalize on the pass and iced it right away.
This is the extent of Ravensbergen’s aggressiveness with the puck, but it’s also probably one of the better plays he has made. He leaves the crease to make a quick outlet pass up to his D. If he didn’t and waited, he probably would have just covered it. But this outlet pass enabled the D to fire the puck up the boards and land the puck in the OZ, where the Cougar forwards had an opportunity to forecheck and fight for the puck.
Grade: 50
OFP: 54.125
A note on the 20-80 scale used above. We look at five attributes (skating, shooting, puck skills, hockey IQ and physicality) for skaters and six for goalies (athleticism/quickness, compete/temperament, vision/play reading, technique/style, rebound control and puck handling). Each individual attribute is graded along the 20-80 scales, which includes half-grades. The idea is that a projection of 50 in a given attribute meant that our observer believed that the player could get to roughly NHL average at that attribute at maturity.