Fantasy Hockey Geek makes its return with the top-five ranked goalies from the past season!

Fantasy Hockey Geek is back! And even though it’s still summer (and the fantasy season is still several weeks away), I’ll be here with my trusty Fantasy Hockey Geek tool giving you every possible advantage for your fantasy pool. To kick off the column, I thought it would be cool to take a look at the best performers from last season, analyzing their impact on your team and in the fantasy hockey realm. So this week, I’ll be taking a look at who were the best goalies from last season.

To start, we’ll be basing our judgements on a standard 12-team H2H Yahoo league measuring wins, save percentage, goals against average, and shutouts. From this, there were two goalies who absolutely dominated compared to the rest of the competition, outscoring their peers by a crazy amount of Fantasy Hockey Geek points. And after these two goalies, there were another three goalies that stood above the others, forming a total group of five key goalies that provided a lot of fantasy value throughout the season.

Braden Holtby

Even though he didn’t pile up 48 wins like he did two years ago, Braden Holtby finished the season as the number one most valuable fantasy hockey goalie. Still picking up 42 wins in 63 games (tied for first in the NHL), Holtby put forth another tremendous season, being arguably even better in goal than he was in his previous season. Out of all starting goalies, Holtby’s sparkling .925 save percentage was third in the league while his 2.11 goals-against average was second. Not to mention, he also led the league in shutouts with nine, being only one of six goalies to record more than five. Though he has excellent support from his team, Holtby is one of the best netminders in the league and it showed in fantasy hockey. His FHG value of 129 was off-the-charts good, as he was one of only two goalies (who we’ll get to next) and four skaters that were able to post an FHG value of over 100.

Sergei Bobrovsky

Sergei Bobrovsky seemed to come out of nowhere last year to put up one of the best goalie performances in recent memory, posting the second highest FHG value out of all NHL skaters. Bobrovsky has always been a quality goaltender, but poolies weren’t as high on him as they had been in the past coming into the year. Coming off an injury-riddled season that saw him post a measly .908 save percentage in 37 games, Bobrovsky looked to be in decline and it showed in his lower average draft position. However, those who were lucky enough to draft Bobrovsky were handsomely rewarded. In addition to leading the league in save percentage with a dazzling .931 save percentage, Bobrovsky also collected 41 wins, good for third in the league. Along with being the MVP of the Columbus Blue Jackets, there was a good chance Bobrovsky was the MVP of your fantasy team last year as he was one of the most valuable goalies you could own last season.

Cam Talbot

Cam Talbot’s first season with the Edmonton Oilers two years ago didn’t exactly go well. Showing dreadful inconsistency and even losing the starting job at times throughout the year, Talbot struggled to assume the starting position after being a backup in New York for so long. But there was still loads of potential, as he still managed to end the year with a very respectable .917 save percentage while the entire Oilers team got better over the following offseason. So going into the season last year, Talbot wasn’t expected to be an all-star, but he was expected to get better. And get better he did. Even though he only ended the season with a .919 save percentage, Talbot was a workhorse for the Oilers, starting in 73 games. Collecting 42 wins, Talbot’s league-leading wins total (along with his seven shutouts) helped catapult his fantasy value straight to the top. Talbot was the third-most valuable goalie in fantasy hockey with a FHG value of 92 and the sixth most valuable skater out of all players in the NHL.

Devan Dubnyk

While being the fourth most valuable goalie in fantasy hockey is usually pretty good, it’s hard to rate Devan Dubnyk’s season as a total success. Even though he ended the year with a .923 save percentage and 40 wins (being only one of four goalies to hit the 40-win mark), Dubnyk’s second half of the year was abysmal.

It was great having Dubnyk in the first half of the year, but the wheels came off midway through January. After posting a .940 save percentage in his first 33 games, Dubnyk went on to record a .905 save percentage over his next 32 games. He did wind up tied for the fourth-most fantasy value out of all goalies, but most of that came from the beginning of the season, when he was playing well. Throughout the second half of the season, he was dreadful and actually a detriment to fantasy teams who relied on him. There’s no denying the insane success he had in the beginning of the season, but his terrible play in the second half of the fantasy season hurt Dubnyk’s overall value to fantasy owners last year.

Tuukka Rask

While we probably won’t be seeing anymore .930 save percentage seasons from Tuukka Rask, he’s still a consistently good goalie who’ll get you wins. Even though he ended the season with an average .915 save percentage for the second consecutive year, Rask delivered plenty of fantasy value to his owners with his win totals and shutouts. His 37 wins were tied for the fifth most in the entire league, and his eight shutouts were second, behind only Holtby.