Cap League Goalie Rankings – May 2021

Alexander MacLean

2021-05-26

Here are the top 62 goalies to own in your salary cap league – May 26th, 2021 edition.

We made it through the 2021 season! This ranking system is still younger than the skater version, so it's not quite as refined yet – a constant work in progress. That being said, a some heavy work on it over the last month and a few additional features, and it seems to be in very good shape now. The next step is to up the keeper value a bit for guys like Spencer Knight and Yaroslav Askarov. Though their production value may not be great in the next couple of years, their potential and their trade value is extremely high.

In the meantime, we have a new number one goalie in the rankings, but it is heavily based on a few assumptions. Jack Campbell should be the Maple Leafs' starter next season, and with David Rittich backing up, they can use the savings to load up on a few extra skaters with some cap flexibility that the team hasn't seen in years. If Frederik Andersen returns, or if a better backup/platoon option is brought in, then Campbell's value will fall back down to earth a little, though it will still be exceptional at a $1.65 million cap hit.

Carter Hart has fallen off from his reign at the top, and a lot of other risers are making pushes for recognition. The numbers will change through the offseason as the goalie carousel settles out, the Seattle draft is completed, and new contracts are signed. Workloads are assumed at the moment, and the future salaries for the UFAs/RFAs are estimated through my model, and goalies are currently rated based on their expected next contracts. Signing a bargain or an overpriced deal will greatly affect a goalie's rankings.

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 (my preference is usually to lean towards the more cap efficient options because of how variable goalies can be).

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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, though the scale of the ratings has changed a little since the last update.

All salary info is courtesy of capfriendly. Without further ado, the rankings:

RankNameAgeCap HitYrsRatingTierPrev Rnk
1Jack Campbell29$1,650,0001257.48124
2Calvin Petersen26$858,3331218.9235
3Jake Oettinger22$925,0001188.51310
4Vitek Vanecek25$716,6671175.9944
5Tristan Jarry26$3,500,0002174.77214
6Andrei Vasilevskiy26$9,500,0007174.44112
7Connor Hellebuyck28$6,166,6663166.18115
8Semyon Varlamov33$5,000,0002161.64117
9Kevin Lankinen26$800,0001153.9353
10Mackenzie Blackwood24$2,800,0002147.69320
11Cam Talbot33$3,666,6662143.67329
12Carter Hart22 0142.9942
13Darcy Kuemper31$4,500,0001142.67222
14Philipp Grubauer29 0140.7027
15Jordan Binnington27$6,000,0006140.67319
16Juuse Saros26 0138.83213
17Jacob Markstrom31$6,000,0005138.67327
18Linus Ullmark27 0137.00543
19Joonas Korpisalo27$2,800,0001133.71316
20Frederik Andersen31 0130.64528
21Alex Nedeljkovic25 0128.12421
22Igor Shesterkin25 0127.6131
23Robin Lehner29$5,000,0004127.17342
24Ilya Samsonov24 0125.84311
25Marc-Andre Fleury36$7,000,0001124.59344
26Elvis Merzlikins27$4,000,0001123.80336
27Tuukka Rask34 0123.18433
28Jeremy Swayman22$925,0002121.313NR
29Casey DeSmith29$1,250,0001118.5449
30Pavel Francouz30$2,000,0001118.50334
31Ilya Sorokin25 0118.07423
32John Gibson27$6,400,0006118.05335
33Kaapo Kahkonen24$725,0001117.6846
34Jonathan Bernier32 0117.26531
35Thatcher Demko25$5,000,0005116.9848
36Petr Mrazek29 0110.00438
37Antti Raanta32 0107.99554
38David Rittich28 0107.91652
39Chris Driedger27 0105.00418
40Jaroslav Halak36 0100.32526
41Mike Smith39 0100.24458
42Anton Khudobin35$3,333,3332100.21537
43James Reimer33 090.89532
44Brian Elliott36 086.93750
45Collin Delia26$1,000,000183.975NR
46Jake Allen30$2,875,000283.81555
47Thomas Greiss35$3,600,000183.776NR
48Adin Hill25 083.72659
49Malcolm Subban27$850,000182.53639
50Mikko Koskinen32$4,500,000180.54547
51Devan Dubnyk35 080.14645
52Sergei Bobrovsky32$10,000,000579.93351
53Alexandar Georgiev25$2,425,000178.22548
54Ville Husso26$750,000175.38530
55Laurent Brossoit28 075.296NR
56Matt Murray26$6,250,000373.32449
57Spencer Knight20$925,000273.284NR
58Martin Jones31$5,750,000368.46557
59Pekka Rinne38 066.36661
60Carey Price33$10,500,000566.16353
61Braden Holtby31$4,300,000165.95541
62Jonathan Quick35$5,800,000262.856NR

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Nov 21 - 19:11 WSH vs COL
Nov 21 - 19:11 CBJ vs T.B
Nov 21 - 19:11 OTT vs VGK
Nov 21 - 19:11 DET vs NYI
Nov 21 - 19:11 BOS vs UTA
Nov 21 - 19:11 N.J vs CAR
Nov 21 - 20:11 STL vs S.J
Nov 21 - 20:11 CHI vs FLA
Nov 21 - 21:11 CGY vs NYR
Nov 21 - 21:11 EDM vs MIN

Starting Goalies

Top Skater Views

  Players Team
JASON ROBERTSON DAL
WYATT JOHNSTON DAL
DECLAN CHISHOLM MIN
JAKE WALMAN S.J
KIEFER SHERWOOD VAN

Top Goalie Profile Views

  Players Team
DUSTIN WOLF CGY
SEBASTIAN COSSA DET
MACKENZIE BLACKWOOD S.J
IVAN FEDOTOV PHI
YAROSLAV ASKAROV S.J

LINE COMBOS

  Frequency PHI Players
16.6 MATVEI MICHKOV JOEL FARABEE NOAH CATES
16.3 OWEN TIPPETT TRAVIS KONECNY SEAN COUTURIER
14.7 RYAN POEHLING GARNET HATHAWAY TYSON FOERSTER

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