Hello and welcome to this week's edition of Frozen Tools Forensics. First and foremost, our thoughts and prayers are with those impacted by the tragedy in Washington, DC. It is a terrible thing to have witnessed and I'm hoping the next time I write an article I won't be mentioning another national tragedy. I will be filling in this week again for Chris.

Recently the team here has focused on some low-end options including Marco Rossi, Bryan Rust, and Matt Coronato among others. I want to dig into this more by looking at the goalies, as the under 50 percent owned bin is my favorite place to shop for upside in fantasy. Utilizing the nifty percentage owned tool over on the Frozen Tools page, let us see what we can come up with for goalies.

Jake Allen has looked in vintage form since taking over for the injured Markstrom. 3-1 with two shutouts in his last four outings, Allen has the potential to be a gamechanger for fantasy teams for as long as Markstrom is out. On the season he has a 2.55 GAA in 17 games.

Jakub Dobes has been amazing to start his career. In his seventh start Thursday night, he finally got his first career regulation loss. Compiling a 1.93 GAA and a shutout in your first handful of games is going to get you noticed. There are certainly concerns as he has given up 11 goals over his last three games, but even on Thursday night, we saw that the Canadiens defense was playing a major factor. He had his stick knocked out of his hands by his team for one goal and was basically all alone against the offense for another goal. 

Elvis Merzlikins has reentered the building. The veteran goalie has been up and down for so many years, but with an improving team around him, he's finally starting to round back into form. He has won 11 of his last 15 games and eight of his last nine. He has done this while putting up a 2.95 GAA on the season.

I love Lukas Dostal. He has been one of my favorite players to watch in the NHL this year as he develops into not just the future of the Ducks, but more and more like the now of the Ducks over John Gibson. A 2.96 GAA on the season with 13 wins is solid if not unspectacular, but it is the kind of numbers you expect from someone 70 percent owned and not a 40 percent owned goalie, so that certainly needs to change. He is only going to improve from here especially if the team moves on from Gibson, which seems like a when more than an if these days.

Alex Nedeljkovic might be my second favorite goalie to watch. The guy is so close to unlocking the elite version we saw a few years ago. He's got a middling 3.15 GAA on the year with just 10 wins but he has won three of his last five while allowing more than two goals just once during that time. That is good for the fourth-best goalie in Yahoo points over the last two weeks, so he looks to finally be rounding back into form. With ample net time available to him, Ned makes for an excellent backup goalie for fantasy.

The under 10 percent owned for goalies is a bit grimmer than it is for skaters, but there is still plenty to discuss here.

Casey DeSmith has a 2.42 GAA and two shutouts on the year, which is good. He plays for the Dallas Stars, which is bad. DeSmith is stuck behind the elite of the elite in Jake Oettinger, but he has held his own in his 13 games including a shutout last week. He's firmly establishing himself as one of if not the best goalie handcuffs if you believe in that sort of strategy insulating yourself from a potential Oettinger injury.

Anton Forsberg honestly should be on the other list. I'm very surprised to see him still just four percent rostered with Linus Ullmark out with an injury. Splitting the net with Leevi Merilainen while Ullmark is down with a back injury, Forsberg has posted a 2.81 GAA for the year in 17 games. He has won three of his last four and makes for an excellent short-term option or priority streamer.

Joel Hofer, like Lukas Dostal, is more and more turning into the now of his team in addition to the future. The top prospect has been great in 16 games this season with a 2.74 GAA and a shutout. More importantly in the month of January, he has thoroughly outplayed Jordan Binnington. Hofer could see an increase in starts as the Blues start to fall out of contention in the West.

Arvid Soderblom has been a real surprise to me. I expected this year to talk about a young Blackhawks netminder, but that was Drew Commesso, who hasn't been able to overtake Soderblom at this point. Soderblom has a 2.88 GAA in 20 games but just seven wins. Now obviously on a team as bad as the Hawks we aren't expecting wins, so I'm not going to knock him for the ugly record. That being said, he is a matchup-dependent play that can provide excellent volume, as he is going to get a ton of saves in his outings. Soderblom has 30+ saves in four of his last five outings.

There you have it folks. A nice breakdown of some low ownership goalies, who could provide value to your fantasy rosters the rest of the season. Chris should be back next time but this was a lot of fun to write about a lot of goalies that I enjoy watching.

Thank you again to the Dobber team for inviting me to do this. Check me out on social media @caochadttv on Twitter and for hot takes, insight and news about the new podcast I'm debuting in 2025.