Cap League Goalie Rankings – July 2021
Alexander MacLean
2021-07-26
Here are the top 62 goalies to own in your salary cap league – July 26th, 2021 edition.
We're in the middle of a wild offseason, and right before the free agency storm we bring you the salary cap goalie rankings for July! 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, the only real thing I need to calibrate is to up the keeper value a bit for the top prospects like Spencer Knight and Yaroslav Askarov. Don't sleep on them!
Seattle's selection and subsequent signing of Chris Driedger, along with the Alex Nedeljkovic for Bernier trade changes a few things around. Projections are used for the rest of the unsigned, and if you want to see those numbers, they were last updated in the Ramblings just a few days ago.
Keep an eye out for the September version due out on the 26th (as always), updated just in time for your fantasy drafts.
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).
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:
Rank | Name | Age | Cap Hit | Yrs | Rating | Tier | Prev Rnk |
1 | Jack Campbell | 29 | $1,650,000 | 1 | 257.48 | 1 | 1 |
2 | Calvin Petersen | 26 | $858,333 | 1 | 218.92 | 3 | 2 |
3 | Vitek Vanecek | 25 | $716,667 | 1 | 190.34 | 3 | 4 |
4 | Jake Oettinger | 22 | $925,000 | 1 | 188.51 | 3 | 3 |
5 | Tristan Jarry | 26 | $3,500,000 | 2 | 174.77 | 2 | 5 |
6 | Andrei Vasilevskiy | 26 | $9,500,000 | 7 | 174.44 | 1 | 6 |
7 | Connor Hellebuyck | 28 | $6,166,666 | 3 | 166.18 | 1 | 7 |
8 | Semyon Varlamov | 33 | $5,000,000 | 2 | 161.64 | 1 | 8 |
9 | Kevin Lankinen | 26 | $800,000 | 1 | 153.93 | 5 | 9 |
10 | Mackenzie Blackwood | 24 | $2,800,000 | 2 | 147.69 | 3 | 10 |
11 | Carter Hart | 22 | RFA | 0 | 142.99 | 4 | 12 |
12 | Jordan Binnington | 28 | $6,000,000 | 6 | 142.89 | 3 | 15 |
13 | Darcy Kuemper | 31 | $4,500,000 | 1 | 142.67 | 2 | 13 |
14 | Philipp Grubauer | 29 | UFA | 0 | 139.12 | 2 | 14 |
15 | Juuse Saros | 26 | RFA | 0 | 138.83 | 2 | 16 |
16 | Jacob Markstrom | 31 | $6,000,000 | 5 | 138.67 | 3 | 17 |
17 | Cam Talbot | 34 | $3,666,666 | 2 | 137.50 | 4 | 11 |
18 | Linus Ullmark | 27 | RFA | 0 | 137.00 | 5 | 18 |
19 | Joonas Korpisalo | 27 | $2,800,000 | 1 | 133.71 | 3 | 19 |
20 | Frederik Andersen | 31 | UFA | 0 | 130.64 | 5 | 20 |
21 | Igor Shesterkin | 25 | RFA | 0 | 127.61 | 3 | 22 |
22 | Robin Lehner | 29 | $5,000,000 | 4 | 127.17 | 3 | 23 |
23 | Petr Mrazek | 29 | UFA | 0 | 126.57 | 4 | 36 |
24 | Ilya Samsonov | 24 | RFA | 0 | 125.84 | 3 | 24 |
25 | Marc-Andre Fleury | 36 | $7,000,000 | 1 | 124.59 | 3 | 25 |
26 | Elvis Merzlikins | 27 | $4,000,000 | 1 | 123.80 | 3 | 26 |
27 | Tuukka Rask | 34 | UFA | 0 | 123.18 | 4 | 27 |
28 | Jeremy Swayman | 22 | $925,000 | 2 | 121.31 | 3 | 28 |
29 | John Gibson | 28 | $6,400,000 | 6 | 119.93 | 3 | 32 |
30 | Casey DeSmith | 29 | $1,250,000 | 1 | 118.54 | 4 | 29 |
31 | Ilya Sorokin | 25 | RFA | 0 | 118.07 | 4 | 31 |
32 | Kaapo Kahkonen | 24 | $725,000 | 1 | 117.68 | 4 | 33 |
33 | Jonathan Bernier | 32 | UFA | 0 | 117.26 | 5 | 34 |
34 | Thatcher Demko | 25 | $5,000,000 | 5 | 116.98 | 4 | 35 |
35 | Alex Nedeljkovic | 25 | $3,000,000 | 2 | 116.31 | 4 | 21 |
36 | Adin Hill | 25 | RFA | 0 | 113.84 | 6 | 48 |
37 | Chris Driedger | 27 | $3,500,000 | 3 | 109.15 | 4 | 39 |
38 | Antti Raanta | 32 | UFA | 0 | 107.99 | 5 | 37 |
39 | Pavel Francouz | 31 | $2,000,000 | 1 | 107.19 | 3 | 30 |
40 | Jaroslav Halak | 36 | UFA | 0 | 100.32 | 5 | 40 |
41 | Anton Khudobin | 35 | $3,333,333 | 2 | 100.21 | 5 | 42 |
42 | James Reimer | 33 | UFA | 0 | 90.89 | 5 | 43 |
43 | Brian Elliott | 36 | UFA | 0 | 86.93 | 7 | 44 |
44 | Collin Delia | 27 | $1,000,000 | 1 | 84.58 | 5 | 45 |
45 | Spencer Knight | 20 | $925,000 | 2 | 84.01 | 4 | 57 |
46 | Jake Allen | 30 | $2,875,000 | 2 | 83.81 | 5 | 46 |
47 | Thomas Greiss | 35 | $3,600,000 | 1 | 83.77 | 6 | 47 |
48 | Malcolm Subban | 27 | $850,000 | 1 | 82.38 | 6 | 49 |
49 | Devan Dubnyk | 35 | UFA | 0 | 80.14 | 6 | 51 |
50 | Sergei Bobrovsky | 32 | $10,000,000 | 5 | 79.93 | 3 | 52 |
51 | Mike Smith | 39 | $2,200,000 | 2 | 79.45 | 4 | 41 |
52 | Alexandar Georgiev | 25 | $2,425,000 | 1 | 78.22 | 5 | 53 |
53 | Ville Husso | 26 | $750,000 | 1 | 75.38 | 5 | 54 |
54 | Laurent Brossoit | 28 | UFA | 0 | 75.29 | 6 | 55 |
55 | Matt Murray | 27 | $6,250,000 | 3 | 75.26 | 4 | 56 |
56 | David Rittich | 28 | RFA | 0 | 66.34 | 6 | 38 |
57 | Carey Price | 33 | $10,500,000 | 5 | 66.16 | 3 | 60 |
58 | Braden Holtby | 31 | $4,300,000 | 1 | 65.95 | 5 | 61 |
59 | Jonathan Quick | 35 | $5,800,000 | 2 | 62.85 | 6 | 62 |
60 | Martin Jones | 31 | $5,750,000 | 3 | 61.60 | 5 | 58 |
61 | Jonas Johansson | 25 | $750,000 | 1 | 58.09 | 4 | NR |
62 | Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen | 22 | $778,333 | 1 | 52.94 | 5 | NR |