Goalies are fickle at the best of times. They rarely perform as expected either in the short or long term. Because of this, it is usually a good plan to check in on who is doing what every so often. To that end, we are going to take a bit of a dive into goalies across the western conference. It is an opportunity to evaluate what has been happening over the course of the young season; take stock of who is performing well, who not, and whether or not this is what we expected going into the season.

This week we will be starting in the Central Division.

St. Louis

Jordan Binnington rode his pumpkin carriage to Stanley Cup glory last season backstopping the Blues from the bottom of the league straight through to the finals. Going into 2019-20 it was hard to imagine that he would not hang on to the starter’s job to start the season, the only worry was that he would pull a Matt Murray and struggle to repeat his rookie success. Fortunately for the Blues that has not been the case so far. He has been excellent with 11 wins, a .926 save percentage, a quality start percentage of 68.4% and no poor starts. He shows no signs of slowing either playing seven of the last ten Blues games and a save percentage over .928 in his last three. Jake Allen appears to be no threat with only four games this far on the season.

Dallas Stars

Bishop has a lot to live up to in 2019-20. His incredible 2018-19 season lead to him going much higher than usual at the draft table. He is doing his best to live up to the hype so far. His .926 save percentage and 62.5 quality start percentage certainly attest to that. Dallas has not been providing as much offensive support as usual though so his win total could be a little higher. He does have a bit of a challenger in Khudobin, who like last season is also playing excellent in relief. For the moment though Bishop has the reigns, playing in seven of Dallas’ last ten games. Should he struggle or (more likely) get injured, look for Khudobin to pick up the slack.

Winnipeg Jets

Hellebuyck has had an inconsistent career road thus far. He was slower to break out than expected but put up an impressive 2017-18 year. His 2018-19 season was somewhat of a letdown, dropping from a .924 season save percentage to a .913. 2019-20 has so far been a rebound and owners are likely loving that they took a chance on him. His 19 games, 11 wins, .928 save percentage and 68.4 quality start percentage are providing great fantasy value. Brossoit has not appeared able to hold the fort in his absence leaving the net safely in Hellebuyck’s hands for the moment. Hellebuyck has started seven of Winnipeg’s last ten games as well.

Colorado

Grubauer, like Binnington and Bishop, has some high expectations to meet going into 2019-20. His 2018-19 season started off poorly. He had competition from Semyon Varlamov and was unable to win the starting job. He went on to take Colorado on an incredible late-season run, and with Colorado parting ways with Varlamov, owners rushed to grab the heir apparent to the high flying Avs. Thus far the results had been fine. He has played the majority of the games and been solid just under half the time. He has also spent a bit of time injured, leaving the door open for guys like Bibeau and Werner to get starts. At the moment he is still the man in net as he has returned from injury and started the last three games. That should be the case going forward as Francouz has not mounted any real challenge as of yet.

Nashville

So which Nashville goalie do you want right now? Frankly, not sure. Rinne, the 37-year-old eternal seems to be cracking, and Saros who has been waiting patiently for this opportunity since the dawn of time has not been running with it. Rinne has played in six of Nashville’s last ten games, and has the game advantage on the season, but has one game with a save percentage better than.840 in November (ouch). Saros, by contrast, has seen time in Nashville’s last four games (some in relief) and in his last three starts has save percentages over .920. We finally seem to have the long-awaited battle for the starting gig on hand. Right now slight edge seems to go to Saros, though if history is any indication, Nashville will continue to trot out Rinne long after anyone thinks they should.

Chicago

What a change a season can make. In 2018-19 Chicago was a wasteland in the crease. Crawford was out most of the season, and in his stead, there was a rotating cast of misfits who never quite managed to get the job done. Fast forward a year and they have brought in Lehner fresh of an incredible rebound season on Long Island and Chicago appears to have one of the best tandems in the Central, if not the West altogether. Lehner probably carries the title of 1A at the moment with 13 games overall and the stronger stat lines, but Crawford has also been excellent and his lower save percentage is somewhat accounted for by some bad luck on the penalty kill. Both goalies have seen five of Chicago’s last ten starts and it looks like it is working for both of them. Expect the time share to continue, and both are worth owning as long as start volume is the be-all and end-all of your league.

Minnesota

So going into 2019-20 is was pretty clear that it was Dubnyk’s net and that Minnesota was going to keep trotting him out even if his numbers were not fantastic. As a fantasy owner that was encouraging, especially since Minnesota protects its goalies very well. Unfortunately, Dubnyk has been dreadful or injured. He has currently missed the last three games, though in a touch of optimism was decent in three of the five games he played right before the injury. This is exactly the situation Stalock owners (were there any?) needed. Stalock hasn’t been amazing in relief but hasn’t needed to be to be better than Dubnyk. Currently, it appears to be Stalock’s crease until Dubnyk returns. Expect Dubnyk to get another shot at the starting job, though if his play continues to be this poor, or he gets injured again don’t be surprised if Stalock sees more time, or Minnesota gives one of their minor league goalies a spin.

Wild West Weekly Streamers:

Radek Faksa:

Faksa has nine points in his last nine games, has a reasonable off day schedule, and has been seeing a little power-play time. With the big guns owned on Dallas he may be your best choice there.

Zach Parise:

Parise has 21 shots over his last six games and had eight points in eight games before a two goals cold streak. Like Dallas, Minnesota plays a few off games so there is a higher chance you will be able to get Parise into your lineup. He has been getting massive ice time, playing with Mikko Koivu and Kevin Fiala at even strength, and on the power play.

Last Week’s Streamers

Connor Garland:

Garland started the week off strong with a goal and an assist in his first game. He went quiet after that adding just 10 shots to that count over the four games played.

Joonas Donskoi/Andre Burakovsky:

Donskoi put up two assists and nine shots over his three games. He averaged over 22 minutes of total ice time lining up with Nathan MacKinnon and Burakovsky.

Burakovsky hit it big last week with three goals and two assists for five points and seven shots over his three games. He saw just under 20 minutes a night overall and just under three on the power play.

Thanks for reading.