The NHL record for the most games played by a goalie in a single season is held by Grant Fuhr, who played 79 games in the 1995-96 season. Fuhr achieved this feat while playing for the St. Louis Blues under coach Mike Keenan. At 33 years old, Fuhr's workload proved to be a double-edged sword, as he provided the Blues with consistent netminding but was eventually injured during the playoffs.

Several other goalies have approached Fuhr's record, but none have surpassed it. Martin Brodeur, widely regarded as one of the greatest goalies in NHL history, played 78 games in the 2006-07 season for the New Jersey Devils. Brodeur also had three other seasons where he played 77 games. These occurred in 1995-96, 2007-08, and 2009-10. In the 2007-08 season, he started all 77 games he played.

Bill Ranford and Artūrs Irbe each played 77 games in the 1995-96 season, while Marc Denis reached the same mark in the 2002-03 season. Evgeni Nabokov also played 77 games in a season. Notably, Denis holds the unique distinction of being the only goalie in NHL history to play more than 75 games in a season without recording a single point. Roberto Luongo reached 76 games in a season.

The high number of games played by goalies like Fuhr and Brodeur in past seasons contrasts with the modern NHL trend of using two-goalie systems. The physical demands of the position and the increased emphasis on preventing fatigue have led most teams to split playing time more evenly between their goaltenders.

Martin Brodeur holds the NHL record for most career regular-season games played by a goaltender with 1,266. Brodeur played for the New Jersey Devils and St. Louis Blues between 1992 and 2015. Patrick Roy, Roberto Luongo, and Marc-Andre Fleury are the only other goalies to have played at least 1,000 games.