Cap League Goalie Rankings – January 2021
Alexander MacLean
2021-01-26
The Salary Cap League Rankings are here! All of the top 62 goalies.
****
Here are the top 62 goalies to own in your salary cap league – January 26, 2021 edition. The list made it through 2020! This ranking system is a lot younger than the skater version, so it's not quite as refined yet – a constant work in progress.
Despite strong starts from Anton Khudobin and Mackenzie Blackwood, Carter Hart is again the number one goalie on the list, but the gap is closing. Some shaky games from Ilya Sorokin and Igor Shesterkin haven't damped the numbers too much in the system, but the two still do have something to prove before moving up into the tier one set. Jarry is narrowly hanging on to his tier one designation, but if his slump lasts any longer then we can no longer consider it an aberration. In part though, the fault lies on the general manager's shoulders, as the team in front of him is again, and the defense core just doesn't stack up well against the rest of their division.
Standard pre-rankings note:
This isn't meant to be a be-all and end-all rating system for you to use without thinking and just trade your players for anyone above them on the list that you can find, but used with some foresight for managing salaries, I'm hoping that the list can help you mine value in trades, and at the draft table.
Cap hit is used for the player cost, so if your league uses salary or AAV, please account for that, as it can greatly change the impact of rookies. The rankings are set up so as to provide the most value in the current season, while providing some value in future years, based on modeling for predicted salary increases and production growth.
The stats used for the goaltenders attempt to balance both ratio stats as well as volume. For those of you with variations towards either end of the spectrum, leaning more towards volume or rate stats, you will want to account for that change in value. Same thing goes for setting variations such as: number of teams, salary space, or roster positions. This list is made to be a baseline guide for player evaluation, and to promote discussion and understanding of how to optimize rosters in a cap league setting.
The goalie list comes not only with a rankings system, but with value tiers. The tiers (also computed by a formula of mine) represent a more general view on a goalie's value taking into account a few overarching factors. Cheap backups can have higher ratings but show up lower down the tier rankings. The high ranking is due to their low cap hits coupled with an established floor with some possible upside. The lower tier is a result of them having uncertain volume, and the lower likelihood of hitting their upside in any given year. In general, aim to have the highest rated players if you are looking to be most cap efficient, but use the tiers if you just want to focus on having the best goalies and you are comfortable paying a little more for that security.
If you note a mistake, or have any further questions about the ranking system, please let me know. You can find me on Twitter here @alexdmaclean.
I'm not perfect, and the rankings won't be either. Comments help with optimizing the values.
We're sticking with the +/- 5.0 rating that Dobber uses on all of his rating schemes as the range for approximately equivalent value. The skater and goalie rankings are synched so that the value of a skater against a goalie can be compared.
All salary info is courtesy of capfriendly. Without further ado, the rankings:
Rank | Name | Age | Cap Hit | Yrs | Rating | Tier |
1 | Carter Hart | 22 | $730,833 | 1 | 156.16 | 1 |
2 | Pavel Francouz | 30 | $2,000,000 | 2 | 149.59 | 3 |
3 | Igor Shesterkin | 25 | $925,000 | 1 | 142.64 | 2 |
4 | Anton Khudobin | 34 | $3,333,333 | 3 | 135.12 | 4 |
5 | Ilya Samsonov | 23 | $925,000 | 1 | 119.55 | 3 |
6 | Calvin Petersen | 26 | $858,333 | 2 | 115.60 | 5 |
7 | Mackenzie Blackwood | 24 | $2,800,000 | 3 | 113.25 | 3 |
8 | Philipp Grubauer | 29 | $3,333,333 | 1 | 111.81 | 2 |
9 | Connor Hellebuyck | 27 | $6,166,666 | 4 | 111.46 | 1 |
10 | Juuse Saros | 25 | $1,500,000 | 1 | 111.11 | 3 |
11 | Ilya Sorokin | 25 | $2,000,000 | 1 | 109.41 | 3 |
12 | Semyon Varlamov | 32 | $5,000,000 | 3 | 107.76 | 4 |
13 | Joonas Korpisalo | 26 | $2,800,000 | 2 | 105.34 | 3 |
14 | Jordan Binnington | 27 | $4,400,000 | 1 | 101.68 | 1 |
15 | Andrei Vasilevskiy | 26 | $9,500,000 | 8 | 94.76 | 1 |
16 | Petr Mrazek | 28 | $3,125,000 | 1 | 94.36 | 4 |
17 | Jaroslav Halak | 35 | $2,250,000 | 1 | 93.78 | 3 |
18 | Frederik Andersen | 31 | $5,000,000 | 1 | 90.51 | 2 |
19 | Alex Stalock | 33 | $785,000 | 2 | 90.15 | 4 |
20 | Jacob Markstrom | 30 | $6,000,000 | 6 | 89.67 | 3 |
21 | Thatcher Demko | 25 | $1,050,000 | 1 | 89.49 | 4 |
22 | Casey DeSmith | 29 | $1,250,000 | 2 | 89.34 | 4 |
23 | Tristan Jarry | 25 | $3,500,000 | 3 | 89.25 | 1 |
24 | Jonathan Bernier | 32 | $3,000,000 | 1 | 84.60 | 3 |
25 | John Gibson | 27 | $6,400,000 | 7 | 83.85 | 3 |
26 | Tuukka Rask | 33 | $7,000,000 | 1 | 81.41 | 1 |
27 | Vitek Vanecek | 25 | $716,667 | 2 | 81.05 | 4 |
28 | Darcy Kuemper | 30 | $4,500,000 | 2 | 80.27 | 2 |
29 | Mikko Koskinen | 32 | $4,500,000 | 2 | 79.87 | 4 |
30 | Braden Holtby | 31 | $4,300,000 | 2 | 79.85 | 3 |
31 | Collin Delia | 26 | $1,000,000 | 2 | 79.69 | 4 |
32 | David Rittich | 28 | $2,750,000 | 1 | 78.59 | 5 |
33 | Robin Lehner | 29 | $5,000,000 | 5 | 77.12 | 4 |
34 | Elvis Merzlikins | 26 | $4,000,000 | 2 | 75.96 | 3 |
35 | Jack Campbell | 29 | $1,650,000 | 2 | 74.63 | 5 |
36 | James Reimer | 32 | $3,400,000 | 1 | 74.60 | 5 |
37 | Chris Driedger | 26 | $850,000 | 1 | 74.38 | 3 |
38 | Ben Bishop | 34 | $4,916,666 | 3 | 74.17 | 5 |
39 | Malcolm Subban | 27 | $850,000 | 2 | 74.10 | 5 |
40 | Cam Talbot | 33 | $3,666,666 | 3 | 72.63 | 5 |
41 | Adin Hill | 24 | $800,000 | 1 | 68.59 | 5 |
42 | Brian Elliott | 35 | $1,500,000 | 1 | 68.20 | 6 |
43 | Linus Ullmark | 27 | $2,600,000 | 1 | 67.14 | 5 |
44 | Devan Dubnyk | 34 | $4,333,333 | 1 | 65.74 | 6 |
45 | Curtis McElhinney | 37 | $1,300,000 | 1 | 65.69 | 6 |
46 | Antti Raanta | 31 | $4,250,000 | 1 | 65.04 | 5 |
47 | Ville Husso | 25 | $750,000 | 2 | 64.31 | 4 |
48 | Alexandar Georgiev | 24 | $2,425,000 | 2 | 60.48 | 5 |
49 | Matt Murray | 26 | $6,250,000 | 4 | 57.66 | 4 |
50 | Marcus Hogberg | 26 | $700,000 | 1 | 55.45 | 5 |
51 | Laurent Brossoit | 27 | $1,500,000 | 1 | 55.33 | 5 |
52 | Sergei Bobrovsky | 32 | $10,000,000 | 6 | 55.31 | 4 |
53 | Marc-Andre Fleury | 36 | $7,000,000 | 2 | 54.63 | 5 |
54 | Carey Price | 33 | $10,500,000 | 6 | 53.87 | 3 |
55 | Jake Allen | 30 | $4,350,000 | 1 | 53.77 | 4 |
56 | Aaron Dell | 31 | $800,000 | 1 | 53.76 | 5 |
57 | Carter Hutton | 35 | $2,750,000 | 1 | 53.32 | 6 |
58 | Thomas Greiss | 34 | $3,600,000 | 2 | 52.92 | 6 |
59 | Pekka Rinne | 38 | $5,000,000 | 1 | 47.37 | 6 |
60 | Mike Smith | 38 | $2,000,000 | 2 | 47.15 | 6 |
61 | Martin Jones | 31 | $5,750,000 | 4 | 46.82 | 5 |
62 | Scott Wedgewood | 28 | $700,000 | 1 | 41.92 | 4 |