Cap League Goalie Rankings – May 2023

Alexander MacLean

2023-05-26

The title for top cap goalie moves on again, with Alexandar Georgiev sitting on the throne at the moment (the only Bulgarian born NHL player). Georgiev is right in his prime now, on an excellent team, a reasonable cap hit, no big threat to his workload, and is a great goalie in his own right. He's not going to be cheap to acquire, but he does paint a picture that when a Stanley Cup contender acquires a well-thought-of backup to be their new starter on a cheaper deal, we should probably be paying attention.

The one surprise in tier one – or at least a surprise to some – may be Vitek Vanecek. He doesn't have the name value that fits with the rest of the group, but 34 wins, a sub 2.5 GAA, a contract identical to Georgiev, and an excellent team in front of him, he's worth paying attention to. If you're trying to acquire Georgiev this summer, and can't get the trade over the hump, then try taking that same return to the Vanecek owner (or start a little lower if you want) and see if you can solve your goaltending woes that way.

The two highest ranked players with the NR marking in their rows are Devon Levi and Dustin Wolf, who were both unrated in the last iteration because of their arrival timelines. Well it appears that both goalies are trying to show that those timelines should be accelerated, and they may even make regular starts in the NHL as soon as this fall. However, both do have two goalies on one-way deals in front of them on the depth chart, so it's not a sure thing for this year.

The NHL may be getting younger, but it is tough for goalies to make a real impact before the age of 25. Some do, like Jake Oettinger, and the other top players, which is what Levi and Wolf are. They may be a few years before they're starting more than 40 games in a season, but they should make smaller volume impacts in the short term.

Standard pre-rankings note:

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 entry-level deals. 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 value 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).

📢 advertisement:

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.

Comments help with optimizing the values, because they're not perfect and they never will be.

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.

RankNameAgeCap HitYrsValueTierPrev Rnk
1Alexandar Georgiev27$3,400,0002271.4116
2Igor Shesterkin27$5,666,6672242.3912
3Linus Ullmark29$5,000,0002240.3013
4Ilya Sorokin27$4,000,0001233.4511
5Vitek Vanecek27$3,400,0002226.8517
6Jake Oettinger24$4,000,0002222.7614
7Connor Hellebuyck30$6,166,6661208.66118
8Andrei Vasilevskiy28$9,500,0005182.37110
9Logan Thompson26$766,6672316.76215
10Juuse Saros28$5,000,0002208.4528
11Stuart Skinner24$2,600,0003206.40216
12Frederik Andersen33UFA0169.0429
13Filip Gustavsson24RFA0158.77217
14Karel Vejmelka27$2,725,0002174.63327
15Ville Husso28$4,750,0002165.14321
16Ilya Samsonov26RFA0160.58319
17Carter Hart24$3,979,0001158.44329
18Jeremy Swayman24RFA0149.5935
19Devon Levi21$925,0002139.003NR
20Dustin Wolf22$814,1661137.803NR
21Jack Campbell31$5,000,0004132.40313
22Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen24$837,5001194.69426
23Jordan Binnington29$6,000,0004173.65432
24Tristan Jarry28UFA0163.76420
25Jacob Markstrom33$6,000,0003162.81412
26Darcy Kuemper33$5,250,0004160.97411
27Scott Wedgewood30$1,000,0001157.31438
28Casey DeSmith31$1,800,0001156.93428
29Martin Jones33UFA0156.75446
30Pheonix Copley31$1,500,0001150.02445
31Akira Schmid23$850,8331146.90452
32Sam Montembeault26$1,000,0001144.58430
33Jake Allen32$3,850,0002143.28422
34Pavel Francouz32$2,000,0001141.05442
35Philipp Grubauer31$5,900,0004138.42440
36Thatcher Demko27$5,000,0003136.37424
37Petr Mrazek31$3,800,0001135.90455
38Adin Hill27UFA0135.89431
39John Gibson29$6,400,0004112.99441
40Spencer Knight22$4,500,0003101.56414
41Joseph Woll24$766,667265.944NR
42Charlie Lindgren29$1,100,0002167.16550
43Antti Raanta34UFA0136.53536
44Joonas Korpisalo29UFA0135.19548
45James Reimer35UFA0131.80547
46Anton Forsberg30$2,750,0002128.33535
47Marc-Andre Fleury38$3,500,0001128.16553
48David Rittich30UFA0126.44539
49Laurent Brossoit30UFA0125.845NR
50Connor Ingram26RFA0123.97534
51Mads Sogaard22$925,0001122.47556
52Semyon Varlamov35UFA0119.295NR
53Spencer Martin27$762,5001119.26551
54Sergei Bobrovsky34$10,000,0003118.35525
55Anthony Stolarz29UFA0115.03549
56Pyotr Kochetkov23$2,000,0004114.81523
57Dan Vladar25$2,200,0002114.80533
58Matt Murray29$6,250,0001107.80554
59Joel Hofer22RFA097.81558
60Elvis Merzlikins29$5,400,000497.65543
61Daniil Tarasov24$1,050,000293.98560
62Ivan Prosvetov24RFA089.65562

Leave A Comment

UPCOMING GAMES

Mar 29 - 19:03 BUF vs N.J

Starting Goalies

Top Skater Views

  Players Team
JURAJ SLAFKOVSKY MTL
AUSTON MATTHEWS TOR
NATHAN MACKINNON COL
JACK QUINN BUF
JONATHAN DROUIN COL

Top Goalie Profile Views

  Players Team
IGOR SHESTERKIN NYR
IVAN FEDOTOV PHI
FREDERIK ANDERSEN CAR
LOGAN THOMPSON VGK
ALEKSEI KOLOSOV PHI

LINE COMBOS

  Frequency S.J Players
19.6 FABIAN ZETTERLUND KLIM KOSTIN MIKAEL GRANLUND
18.7 LUKE KUNIN WILLIAM EKLUND JUSTIN BAILEY
14.7 FILIP ZADINA KEVIN LABANC RYAN CARPENTER

DobberHockey Podcasts

FIND US ON FACEBOOK

📢 advertisement: