The Tampa Bay Lightning announced that forwards Yanni Gourde and Dominic James are going to miss some time, the former with a hip surgery and the latter with a broken hand. Gourde is expected out until December and James will miss a couple of weeks of the regular season.

Both Gourde and James are centres who sometimes play the wing, but it leaves a couple holes in the bottom 6. It is a good chance for Conor Geekie to break camp with the team and establish himself as a full-time NHLer.

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Jason Zucker had sports hernia surgery and will not be ready for the start of the season:

GMJK said Jason Zucker (sports hernia) is not going to be ready for the regular season. Louis Crevier (shoulder surgery) is coming back from that. Status uncertain. #Sabres

— Mike Harrington (@ByMHarrington) September 16, 2026

That isn't great for Zucker, but it is for the Buffalo Sabres' young wingers like Jack Quinn, Josh Doan, and Zach Benson. It frees up some ice time both at 5-on-5 and on the power play, giving those guys an early-season boost.

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Vancouver Canucks goalie Thatcher Demko will not be a full participant in training camp. He has been battling injuries for years and it seems they'll be very patient with getting him back to 100%, or as close as he can get.

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Over the last couple of weeks we have seen a slew of younger players sign medium-to-long-term contracts across the league including Cutter Gauthier, Zachary Bolduc, Noah Ostlund, Ryan Leonard, Zeev Buium, and Fraser Minten. Alex covered a bunch of those in his Ramblings yesterday.

One guy who was signed early Wednesday morning (at least in my time zone) was Luke Evangelista. The New Jersey Devils signed him for five years at $7.25-million per season. He is in the final year of his two-year bridge contract, so he now has six seasons signed with the Devils, carrying him to his age-30 season.

For cap league managers, this seems like one of the more reasonable deals. With the expected rise in the salary cap to roughly $113.5-million next year, that would be about 6.4% of the cap. That is the cap hit of a top 150 skater, which is what makes it palatable. He needs more goals (and likely a top PP role) to really be worth the rise in price for fantasy managers, but he has the skill and now the teammates to do it.

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Be sure to pick up a copy of the 2026-27 Dobber Hockey Fantasy Guide available now in the Dobber Shop! It has articles covering the new schedule, sleepers, players to avoid, category-specific targets, and a whole lot more. It is also updated right until the start of the regular season, and has a draft list with all of Dobber's projections.

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In Tuesday's Ramblings, I went over individual teams that fantasy hockey managers will want to target if they're looking to stack a handful of players from the same franchise. It was a continuation of my Ramblings covering good fantasy draft values this season. Included in that article are links to a bunch of write-ups covering individual players, so go check that out for a lot more fantasy draft coverage.

Today, we'll get to my least favourite subject, and that's fantasy goalies. Nothing against the position, it's just that goalies are the most important players on a fantasy roster and simple randomness can bring a potential championship team to its knees – just ask the Edmonton Oilers.

For projections, we are using total wins, saves, and goals against.

As with prior Ramblings, we are using a 'Z-Score' measurement, which is a value that tells us how far above or below a specific goalie's projection in a particular stat is to a replacement-level goalie in that stat. So, if a replacement-level goalie has 15 wins, and Jake Oettinger is projected for 35 wins, he gets a big Z-Score value for that category. We do that for each goalie in each stat, add up all their separate values, and it gives us an overall rating. Then we compare where goalies are ranked in my projections, where they rank by Fantrax ADP, and the difference between the two gives us our draft values.

In the graphs below, the red horizontal line is the cut-off for being a positive or negative draft value based on Fantrax ADP and the goalie's rank in my projections, and the vertical line is the cut-off for the projected fantasy value of a top 25 goalie. So, the goalies furthest to the right are expected to be the top fantasy performers overall, and the goalies towards the top are the draft values based on that performance.

Scott Wedgewood (Colorado Avalanche)

Last season, Wedgewood was a league-winning goalie, especially considering his performance after the Olympics with 11 wins, 293 saves, and just 17 goals against in 12 starts. It will depend on format, but he finished anywhere from the top fantasy goalie to a top 5 netminder. It is curious to see him with such a low Fantrax ADP and that makes him arguably the best goalie value on the board:

This is an aberration. He is seventh by Yahoo's ADP while ESPN has him fourth. In my projections, he comes out as the eighth overall goalie. So, a great value on Fantrax, a fine option on Yahoo, and being taken too high on ESPN. Act accordingly.

Fantasy managers in leagues that count ratios (SV%, GAA) rather than total saves/goals against should rate Wedgewood a bit higher. If Colorado's goalie tandem stays healthy, it's hard to see him reaching 50 starts. He was probably the best goalie in the league last year and he finished 27^th in total saves. League settings matter, and a good chunk of Wedgewood's value is derived from having very good ratios, not necessarily having a lot of volume.

Jet Greaves (Columbus Blue Jackets)

The goalie I was highest on last year, considering his ADP, was Greaves, and that worked out pretty well. Among goalies with at least 75 games played over the last three years, he sits third by save percentage and has won half his starts. With the news that Elvis Merzlikins had shoulder surgery a month ago, leading to Cam Talbot's signing, and Greaves looks primed for a lot of starts early in the season and should clear 50 starts once again. With his talent, workload, and solid team in front of him, he grades out as a good draft value:

Here is another player where the ADPs vary wildly. He is the 11^th goalie on Fantrax, which still makes him a good value because I have him fifth. On Yahoo he's the 17^th goalie off the board and outside the top 20 on ESPN. Regardless of the site, Greaves is a very good fantasy value, it just varies as to how good that value is.

The Eastern Conference looks like it'll be a meat grinder, but that was the case last year and Greaves still finished as roughly a top 10 goalie. After Head Coach Rick Bowness was hired in the middle of the season, Columbus was a top 10 defensive team by shots, expected goals, and goals against per minute. If they can put a full season together playing like they did under Bowness, and Greaves stays healthy, then all the pieces are in place for him to be a top 5 fantasy netminder.

Jesper Wallstedt (Minnesota Wild)

There is no need to go long here because Wallstedt was mentioned as a potential piece fantasy managers should consider as part of a Minnesota team stack in my Ramblings on Tuesday. He graded out as a good value when compared to the top 250 fantasy players overall, and that value holds when looking just among goalies:

Filip Gustavsson appears as if he won't be ready to start the season (we still need a firm update from the team), so Wallstedt will be the go-to starter out of the gate. If Gustavsson takes some time to get his feet under him once the season starts, Wallstedt should hit the 50-start mark. Once the first five goalies are off the board, I have no issue taking Wallstedt whenever a fantasy manager wants to.

Linus Ullmark (Ottawa Senators)

It was no secret that Ullmark had mental health struggles during the 2025-26 campaign, eventually leading to a five-week absence from the team between December and January. After returning, he was a top 10 goalie by save percentage over the rest of the season and was great in the playoffs even if the Sens were swept. The goalie he was after returning from the Player's Assistance Program is the goalie he was for years, and that's why his ADP rank and projection stand out:

What should be noted first is that in my projections, Ullmark represents the end of the 'top' goalies. He is my 10^th projected goalie, and the 11^th projected goalie's fantasy value is 23% lower than Ullmark's. Relatedly, his Fantrax and Yahoo ADP ranks among goalies is 17^th, so fantasy managers looking to grab a top 10 goalie with a much later pick will want to consider Ullmark, but once he's off the board, the next group of goalies is a clear tier below him.

Last year, the Sens were one of the top defensive teams in the league. My official projection has him with roughly 29 wins in the 2026-27 campaign, but if I had to make a bet on a goalie being drafted outside the top 10 who has a very real chance at getting to 35 wins (barring injury to a starter or something of that nature), Ullmark is at-or-near the top of the list.

Pyotr Kochetkov (Carolina Hurricanes)

It was a tough year for Kochetkov who was injured in the preseason, never made a start until November, and made just eight starts before hip surgery ended his season. Prior to 2025-26, Kochetkov had generally been anywhere between average and very good, and now that Frederik Andersen is gone from the organization, Kochetkov will be in a tandem split with Brandon Bussi. That is what makes it interesting to see Bussi being drafted as a top 20 goalie while Kochetkov is outside the top 30, and that makes the latter one of our goalies to target:

Even in a split situation, there are two things making Kochetkov's fantasy value stand out. The first is that Carolina is just a very good defensive team who limits shots against. Limiting shots is a great way to limit goals, which helps Kochetkov's projected goals against.

The second is win percentage. Over the last two years, Kochetkov has put up an .897 save percentage, which is league average. Regardless, he's managed 33 wins in 55 starts, winning 60% of his games against a league average of 50%. That is because of how good Carolina is, but it makes him a real contender for 25 wins even if he doesn't make more than 40 starts. If I had to choose between drafting Bussi as a top 20 goalie or Kochetkov as a top 35 goalie, the choice is easy.

Jake Allen (New Jersey Devils)

It seems as if the hockey world is waiting for New Jersey to make a big trade for a goalie, particularly Connor Hellebuyck, even though Allen has a .906 save percentage over the last two years, which is higher than both Jake Oettinger and Jeremy Swayman. It has been nearly a decade since Allen made 50 starts in a season, but he did make 36 last year, so he can very well get 45+ this year. Until the Devils make a trade for another goalie, Allen is a good value pick:

On both Fantrax and Yahoo, Allen is going somewhere around the 30^th goalie. In my projections, he falls inside the top 25, so while there isn't tremendous value here, he's still a good goalie playing for a potential playoff team and is in line to be the 1A in a tandem situation. That checks a lot of boxes for fantasy managers who like to wait on their netminders.