Top 10 Goalie Battles

Tom Collins

2020-10-26

One of the concerning trends in fantasy hockey in the past few seasons is the decrease in the quantity of dedicated number one goalies.

Gone are the days of 70-plus starts in the NHL for a netminder. Heck, we may be at a stage where we see only five goaltenders start 60-plus games. It seems as if teams are more willing to rest their starters in hopes for a big playoff push. Which is great if you want your favourite team to win the cup, but not great if you want your fantasy team to win the championship.

This means that instead of rostering two goalies who will get you 130-plus games, you may have to roster three or four, which will take away from other roster spots. It also means that you'll have to be aware of goalies in time-share situations. You're going to want to get a goalie that will start a minimum of 55 games, and those will be harder to find.

Even though the NHL season doesn't begin for another two months, except for maybe a trade, the goalie situations are pretty set for the upcoming season. The best unrestricted free agents left are Craig Anderson, Ryan Miller, Cory Schneider and Jimmy Howard. None of those players will be pushing for a starter's job if they sign anywhere.

Below are 10 teams where the goalie situation is murky for next season, with no clear-cut number one. You may want to drop the netminders on these teams down a little bit in your rankings unless one can guarantee the starter's job.

10. Vegas Golden Knights

At the start of the offseason, it appeared as if Marc-Andre Fleury's career in Vegas was finished. However, the team couldn't find a taker for the three-time Stanley Cup champion. Now the team is in the awkward situation of keeping Fleury for next season after signing Robin Lehner to a five-year contract. While Lehner may be the favourite to be the number one goalie, Fleury is well-loved in Sin City and could easily challenge for 45 per cent of the starts. Especially if the team is hoping to showcase him for a trade.

9. New Jersey Devils

I mentioned this a couple of weeks ago, but Mackenzie Blackwood and Corey Crawford posted pretty similar numbers last season. At 23 years old, Blackwood may seem like he's got the inside track, but New Jersey isn't paying Crawford almost $4 million a year to play 20 games a season. Crawford will be expected to push Blackwood, and could take over the starting job if Blackwood falters at any point.

8. Columbus Blue Jackets

Head coach John Tortorella seems to favour Joonas Korpisalo. However, Elvis Merzlikins was simply the better goalie last season. That begs the question of how long Tortorella will stick with Korpisalo if the same thing happens this year. Merzlikins is also better when he's given the reins as the main guy. When Korpisalo was out with an injury last season, Elvis was 12-5-4 with five shutouts, a 1.97 GAA and a 0.935 SV%. When Korpisalo was playing, Elvis was 1-4-4 with a 3.18 GAA and a .896 SV%.

7. Washington Capitals

Ilya Samsonov is no doubt Washington's goalie of the future. However, will the Capitals trust him to be the goalie of right now? With the window to win it all possibly open for only a couple more years, will Washington allow Samsonov to experience growing pains for a season or two? Especially since he's recovering from neck and back injuries after an ATV accident. Meanwhile, Henrik Lundqvist has the experience, and we know how much coaches love giving experienced players a longer leash. Don't be surprised to see this be a 1A/1B situation.

6. Los Angeles Kings

Jonathan Quick may seem like he's the sure-fire number one goalie in L.A., but youth may rule the day. The Kings are rebuilding, and would be better off going with a young netminder instead of a 34-year-old who has been below average the last two seasons. The 26-year-old Calvin Petersen could be the future number one netminder in L.A., so why not start him on that trek now. Petersen is also at the age when many teams feel most comfortable in finally giving a prospect a crack at the top job. It's a small sample size, but Petersen has been excellent in his 19 games over the last two seasons, and started eight of the Kings' final 15 games this past season.

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5. Vancouver Canucks

In my list from last week, I mentioned that my hope is NHL teams be more willing to give young goalies more opportunities early in their career instead of waiting until the netminder is 26 years old. However, it feels as if many teams decided to go the other route this offseason and sign older netminders. Vancouver is a great example of this. They have Thatcher Demko, a 24-year-old who was dynamite in the postseason. Then Vancouver signed Braden Holtby, who has struggled over the past few seasons but has the pedigree that many coaches/GMs salivate over: A Vezina trophy and a Stanley Cup ring. It wouldn't be surprising to see either of these two become the team's number one this year.

4. Minnesota Wild

The Wild are in the same spot as the Rangers last year, where they have three good netminders who can all be the main guy this season. The Wild signed Cam Talbot, who started every game for the Flames in the postseason, to a three-year deal worth $3.67 million per season. Alex Stalock was surprisingly good for the Wild last year, with a 20-11-4 record to go along with a 2.67 GAA and a .910 SV%. Then there's Kaapo Kahkonen, who had a 3-1-1 record with the Wild and was excellent in the AHL (34 games played, 25-6-3 record, seven shutouts, 2.07 GAA and .927 SV%). Kahkonen will probably start the season in the AHL, but it might not take much until he's stealing starts in the big league. Meanwhile, Stalock and Talbot will be battling all season to be the team's top netminder.

3. Dallas Stars

Recency bias may give the nudge to Anton Khudobin after he led the Stars to the Stanley Cup playoffs, but Ben Bishop is still an excellent goalie only one year removed from a second-place finish for the Vezina trophy. Bishop's biggest issue is he can't stay healthy (he's only played 50 games once in the past four seasons). This situation will be murky all season.

2. Chicago Blackhawks

In January, the Hawks had two potential number one goalies (Corey Crawford and Robin Lehner) battling to be the main guy. Now, both netminders are elsewhere, and no one has any idea who the top goalie is going to be in Chicago for the upcoming season. Malcolm Subban might have the best chance, as he's seen the most NHL action, mostly with Vegas. Collin Delia is the Hawks' top prospect netminder and played some games when Crawford was injured a couple of seasons ago. A long-shot is Kevin Lankinen, who wasn't great in the AHL who led Finland to a gold medal at the 2019 World Championships.

1. San Jose Sharks

Before last year, the Sharks and fantasy general managers could overlook Martin Jones' numbers as he was piling up wins. That changed last season when Jones continued to post poor numbers. The Sharks scored almost one fewer goal per game from the previous season, so Jones went from a netminder who was going to win 30-plus games to one who struggled to reach 20 (he won 17, but was on pace for 20 if he played seven of the team's last 12 games). The Sharks decided to trade for Devan Dubnyk, who is four years older than Jones, and posted worse numbers last year for winning percentage, GAA, SV% and quality starts. It would be tough to have confidence in either of these netminders for this season.

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