In our last column we focused on short-term streaks, players that you want to take a look at for your do or die matchups. This week we are going to take the same sort of approach, but in terms of goalies. We will highlight a few teams that have had some changes, take a look at their goalie deployment, production, and also their upcoming schedule.

The process is pretty straightforward here. We will be using the Teams page to look at the depth chart and status (injury etc.) of each goalie, their Player Profile and game log to look at recent performance, and the Schedule Planner to look at upcoming games.

In no particular order:

(All data as of 3/23 so some updates may have been given with games played Thursday evening)

St. Louis:

Jordan Binnington seems to have lost the net again in St. Louis. It started with his suspension when Joel Hofer was called up to replace Binnington for those two games. He posted a shutout and a .941 save percentage so earned himself a third game where he put up a .933. He is now confirmed for his fourth straight start on Thursday. St. Louis isn't the strongest defensive team, so these numbers could certainly blow up at any time, but St. Louis has a back to back this weekend and then four games next week Hofer seems in line to get a high volume of games over this period and at least has a recent (if very short) track record of good games.

Seattle:

Philipp Grubauer who has been the team's best goalie and volume starter for some time now left last Saturday's game with an undisclosed non-COVID illness and was also not available for Tuesday's game. Martin Jones was not the automatic fill in though, Joey Daccord was called up for Tuesday's win against Dallas, and is also scheduled to start on Thursday against Nashville. Given that Seattle has only five games and only one light day game over the rest of this week and next, and it is unclear when Grubauer will return, this is a situation I would avoid until each game's starter is announced and you know you have space for the goalie that day. If you are desperate it appears that Daccord has the inside edge at the moment, but who knows how long that will last.

Columbus:

Elvis Merzlikins left the team on March 10th but returned on Wednesday. Daniil Tarasov had been up from the minors and he and Michael Hutchinson had been filling in in Merzlikins' absence. Neither had been doing remotely close to well. Before his departure Merzlikins had been doing some strong work as a goalie getting a lot of games, a lot of shots against, with three of his last four games above a .900 save percentage, but not very many wins. He will likely get one of Friday or Saturday, plus Columbus has four games next week. If volume is helpful take a look, though his save percentage is certainly a question mark.

Vegas:

Things are finally turning a corner in the Las Vegas net. Adin Hill is not yet skating, but both Logan Thompson and Laurent Brossoit are traveling with the team. Jonathan Quick has been performing reasonably well in relief duties, but it is not exactly clear what the plan is going to be going forward. As of the time of this writing no starter has been announced for Thursday's game, but my guess is more often than not Vegas will be going with Thompson going forward. Vegas has five busy night games through the end of next week, and Thompson is likely already owned so there probably isn't much actionable here. Watch the starter's crease to see if Quick's performance has earned him an extra start or two while Thompson is getting reaccumulated.

Chicago:

Pert Mrazek went down with an injury on March 14th after a short run of prominence due to an Alex Stalock injury. Mrazek was out for Monday's game but is scheduled to be back with the team Thursday in Washington but Anton Khudobin is the announced starter. Chicago is a bit of a tire fire, but in eight of Mrazek's last night games he has above a .900 save percentage and six of them above a .910. Whoever has been in net has been seeing a lot of pucks against, so like with Columbus if saves help you there might actually be some value here. The situation is a little more clouded with Mrazek's potential return and Khudobin getting Thursday’s start so I would probably steer clear for now, but if you need saves they do have a back to back this weekend.

Buffalo:

What is happening in Buffalo? So ,rostering a Buffalo goalie was a bit of a challenge as they were running three, but Craig Anderson and Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen were not terrible when they played and Buffalo was giving some wins. Then on March 12th Eric Comrie went down with an injury leaving a predictable on off situation between Anderson and Luukkonen which meant some potential value since a manager could predict how many games each would get. Then the wheels fell off. Buffalo has let in 24 goals in their last four games with both goalies seeing sub .800 save percentages. Comrie is making progress and will be back soon and then goalie of the future Devon Levi is with the team and should be available soon (immigration process). Moral of this story? No Buffalo goalie is worth a hold and all of them should be dropped. If you are desperate and want to take a swing once a starter is announced, more power to you.

Arizona:

There is kind of a similar situation in Arizona. They are running too many goalies to be helpful to anyone. Ivan Prosvetov was called up on 3/10 and has been decent in three appearances. Conor Ingram got Wednesday's game against Edmonton though, so it is a little unclear what the plan is for starts. Rostering Prosvetov is hence a bit of a risk, but Arizona is clear that they want to see what they have with him, it is really just a matter of how many starts that means for him. There are two more games this week, and then three next with some off days and two back to backs. You can probably count on at least two starts from Prosvetov in that time period, but which ones they are are anyone’s guess.

Ottawa:

With Cam Talbot and Anton Forsberg still sidelined Mads Sogaard has been running with the net. He and the Senators are struggling though. Prior to Tuesday's game he had six straight starts with a sub .900 save percentage. Dylan Ferguson was called up, played in Monday's game and was stellar stopping 48 of 49. Unfortunately he is still out with an illness and Kevin Mandolese was called up to replace him on 3/21. Ottawa has a decent four game schedule next week though so if Ferguson returns he could be in line for another couple of games next week.

Detroit:

Ville Husso has not been playing his best hockey of late, but word is he is now out with a lower body injury. Magnus Hellberg is getting the start on Thursday with Alex Nedeljkovic getting the call up from the minors. It remains to be seen how long he will be out and how Detroit will use Hellberg and Nedeljkovic, but with four games and a back-to-back next week there are some potential streaming options in Detroit.

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