Fantasy Impact: Carolina Changes Up Goaltending – Andersen and Raanta the New Duo
Dobber
2021-07-28
The Carolina Hurricanes have signed Frederik Andersen to a two-year deal worth $9M and Antti Raanta to a two-year deal worth $4M.
The Hurricanes Get: two proven goaltenders, both with a good track record and at times great. But both have struggled with injuries. Raanta in particular has trouble stringing together any meaningful length of healthy games.
Fantasy Players Impacted: With Alex Nedeljkovic traded despite being a Calder Trophy contender, and Petr Mrazek and James Reimer not re-signed, the Hurricanes were looking to start fresh. You knew that Carolina didn't think much of Nedeljkovic when they placed him on waivers in January. For some unknown reason, they still didn't like him even after his 15-5-3 run to end the season (0.932 SV%) and a 4-3-2 playoff record (0.920 SV%). That's a 19-8-2 record during crunch time…and they didn't believe in him.
Meanwhile, Raanta has played 12, 33, 12, 47, 30 and 25 games in his last six seasons. Many of those he was expected to be the starter, but just couldn't stay healthy. His injuries later on caused his team to scramble for a No.3 goalie to come in and get starts. Expect the same to happen with Carolina. In fact, I went to list here all of Raanta's injuries over the last few years and it was taking too long and taking up too much space. So I ditched that idea. But trust me – it was a long list. LONG!
Andersen was a former top goalie in this league but, for whatever reason, his play had fallen off. In his last 68 games he has the following numbers:
36-21-8, 2.84 GAA and 0.906 SV% with 45.6% Quality Starts. His Goals Saved Above Average (GSAA) was -7.204 (positive is good, negative is bad).
Behind a Rod Brind-Amour-coached team, Andersen will be much better. This style of play works for goaltenders. But will his numbers be good enough? And can he stay healthy? Last year he missed 27 games with a knee injury. The season prior he missed a few games with a neck injury and the year before that he had knee and groin issues.
Fantasy owners should take a long look at Carolina's goalie prospects – they could be called into duty. Namely Dylan Wells, since Pyotr Kochetkov is in the KHL and Jack Lafontaine is stuck in the NCAA. Wells has been a mediocre ECHLer/AHLer so far as a pro, but he's still only 23.
Fantasy Players This Helps, In Order:
- Frederik Andersen
- Whoever the No.3 goalie will be (for now it's Dylan Wells)
Fantasy Players this Hurts, In Order:
None