Top 10 goalies for next season, Capital playoff sleepers, and more…

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Not a whole lot to discuss with regard to last night's games.

Sergei Bobrovsky notched a shutout but that's not really an accomplishment against the Leafs. More importantly I've talked ad nauseam about my love of Bobrovsky's late-season runs and how I think he's a top 10 goalie going into next year. I guess I'll just repeat myself. Bobrovsky is a top 10 goalie for next year!

That sort of proclamation really begs the question; who else do you have in your top 10? Glad you asked!

Carey Price, Pekka Rinne, Tuukka Rask and Henrik Lundqvist are all no brainers. Braden Holtby (who also recorded a shutout yesterday) is basically a no-brainer too. Corey Crawford, Jonathan Quick and Marc-Andre Fleury are all consistent enough to slide into the top 10 pretty easily, leaving two slots and I've got Bobrovsky with one of those.

Who is the final guy on my list?

Ben Bishop is nice there's enough Andrei Vasilevskiy around to make me shy away.

Devan Dubnyk might have been the single most influential goalie in fantasy hockey and the NHL this season but he doesn't have enough of a track record for my liking.

The situations in St. Louis, Anaheim and Ottawa are so cloudy that I'm not riding with any one goalie. I should mention that Jake Allen is supposed to start tonight with the chance of becoming the go-to guy if he doesn't mess up. Indeed, it seems that Ken Hitchcock is intent on riding the hot hand turning an already complicated situation into complete disarray.

Jaroslav Halak is a top 10 goalie in wins-only leagues but that's not what I'm talking about here. Maybe I should have specified sooner.

Three guys really jump out to me: Semyon Varlamov, Cory Schneider and Roberto Luongo.

Where I finally land probably depends on how the teams of these starters improve over the summer. All are similar to Bobrovsky as entrenched starters with a history of elite production but skating for non-playoff teams. I really believe in the Blue Jackets roster, which is why Bobrovsky has top 10 billing. Right now, the Panthers have easily the most promising roster of the three teams under consideration here, which puts Luongo at the front of the pack, for now.

If you are wondering, yes this does mean shots fired at Steve Mason, Ryan Miller, Jonas Hiller and Jimmy Howard. Please keep in mind that it is only April so a lot will change but that's where I've got goalies ranked in the interim. It should be fun to track how my mind changes over the summer so maybe bookmark these ramblings.

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The Bruins still hold their fate in their own hands as they have the tiebreaker over the Senators but laying an egg last night was not the way to go about testing that fate.

David Krejci still ain't right. He started off on the wing and recorded two assists in his debut but has just one point in six games since as he has migrated back to center. Center is a loose definition though as the Bruins have only one real centerman right now, Patrice Bergeron. Of the 63 faceoffs in the game last night, Bergeron took 31, even while skating just 17:59.

The point is, the Bruins aren't long for this world, even if they make the playoffs. So don't go making Krejci your big sleeper pick.

On the other hand, the Bruins will most likely be universally avoided in playoff pools should they make it in so if you want to go against the grain you can try to mine value here.

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As much as last night was a showcase of why the Bruins are a bad bet for playoff pools it was also a showcase of why the Capitals are a good bet for playoff pools. They have home ice in Round One all but sown up and appear to be peaking at just the right time with Alexander Ovechkin and Braden Holtby really hitting their strides in the second half.

Any goof knows to pick Ovechkin in a playoff pool though so what made last night so appealing was the depth scorers who went off. Both Marcus Johansson and Troy Brouwer had multi-point efforts helping them to surpass or match career highs in points. Both have a history of being playoff flops but both are in the top six and on the top power play unit. If the Capitals win a round then these guys will have value.

It's also worth mentioning Evgeny Kuznetsov recorded an assist to push his scoring run to 13 points in the last 16 games. He's coming in hot with Ovechkin as a linemate. In another year Kuznetsov might be in the Calder conversation with 37 points. This year he isn't even in the top five.

Stanislav Galiev made his NHL debut last night for the Caps with Eric Fehr and Tom Wilson out of the lineup. Galiev skated just 9:56 and doesn't figure to have relevance any time soon but he has some upside as a long term prospect. Read more on Galiev here.

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Erik Cole's injury situation is frightening. I hope only the best for him. I've got to point out the fantasy relevance of this is that it pushes Gustav Nyquist onto the first line with Henrik Zetterberg on a permanent basis, which boosts his playoff sleeper potential. Not that I'm hot for the Red Wings this year.

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