Now that he has had another run as the main starter for Vegas, Logan Thompson has regained his spot as the top fantasy goaltender in cap leagues. He could very well hold that spot for another year and a half until his contract expires, considering the production, the team, and the minimal cost. Even with having to share the crease with Adin Hill, it's tough to minimize just how good Thompson has been this season. It's too late to buy in on him now, but maybe getting your hands on Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, Samuel Ersson, Lukas Dostal, or even David Rittich (for his possible second-half run as the Kings' starter) is still a possibility.

On the flip side of the goalies, Andrei Vasilevskiy has slipped down the rankings a little as a result of his mid-season injury, while Connor Hellebuyck is making the most of his last year before his big extension kicks in. Unfortunately for his owners, Ilya Sorokin hasn't had the same kind of success in his last bargain year, and that's what makes him such a great buy-low for the second half. His owners are likely already looking to next year where his big extension will be kicking in, and that's where you come in with someone like Adin Hill or Ville Husso as the first part in a package to pry out a recent Vezina finalist primed to rebound in the second half. With goalies, we all know that the first half doesn't mean anything towards projecting the second half of the season, so don't rest on your laurels.

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).

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.