Ducks' Lukas Dostal Leads NHL Stars of the Week

The other two stars were Ottawa Senators right wing Drake Batherson and San Jose Sharks center Philipp Kurashev.

Nobody’s Getting Anything Past Dostal

Dostal has been with the Ducks for his entire NHL career, but he has never looked as dominant as he has to start this season. That was especially true this past week, when he started every game Anaheim played and was a major reason the team came away with victories in all three.

Over the course of those three games, Dostal stopped a league-high 91 shots for an impressive .948 save percentage. His 1.63 goals-against average (GAA) was also tops in the NHL.

Against the reigning champion Florida Panthers on Oct. 28, Dostal stopped 31 of 33 shots and bested some of the league’s top scorers in a 3-2 shootout victory.

On Halloween, Dostal was the scariest thing the Detroit Red Wings had seen that day, as they could not get anything by him. He stopped 28 of 30 shots thrown his way as the Ducks went on to win 5-2 for their second straight victory.

All that culminated in his best performance of the week yesterday, when he shut down a New Jersey Devils squad that had been scoring goals left and right to start the campaign. Dostal made hard saves look easy, allowing only one goal on 33 shots. His 32 saves against the Devils were a season high. The Ducks went on to win 4-1—their third consecutive triumph—and are now alone atop the Pacific Division standings.

The Best He’s Ever Played

While it is still early and definitive conclusions can be tough to draw, Dostal’s early performances point toward this season being one for the record books for the 25-year-old from the Czech Republic. He is on pace to finish the campaign with career bests in GAA, save percentage, and wins.

What is also noteworthy is that Dostal has improved as the season has gone along. In the team’s opening loss to the Seattle Kraken, he managed a .903 save percentage. That number dipped to .880 and .875 in the team’s next two games, respectively. From that moment on, however, Dostal steadily improved his performance, culminating in yesterday’s fantastic effort against the Devils.

Of course, the team playing well in front of him helps, but without Dostal’s excellent work in the crease, the Ducks certainly would not be one of the best stories in the NHL to start 2025-26.

Being named the First Star of the Week is the inaugural step in Dostal’s journey toward becoming one of the premier goalies in hockey. If early indications are to be believed, he is closer to reaching that goal than previously thought.