How to properly value goalies in your league

Ed. Note: This is the third and final instalment in a series in which we've looked at different aspects of the NHL game and how to value them appropriately in your fantasy league scoring, with the objective of creating scoring systems that reflect real life value as closely as possible. Click here for previous entries: The Power Game; A Case for the Defence.

As fans of the Winnipeg Jets know all too well, goaltending is the most important position in hockey. A lights-out stopper can make a bad team competitive, a good team great and a great team unbeatable. A leaky tender, well… at the risk of dredging up painful memories for Vancouver Canucks fans, let's just say it's tough to win when your goalie's had the air let out of his tires.

In the world of fantasy hockey, placing just the right value on the masked men requires as much finesse as it takes to slip one past Henrik Lundqvist. Choose your categories unwisely, and you risk throwing off the balance of your league. I recall my first season as a commissioner of a points-based league, when seven of the top ten fantasy players at year's end were goalies. Oops!

But have no fear – my lesson was learned, and I'm ready to share some guidelines for effectively valuing goalies in your fantasy league.

Roto Categories

The first step in a roto (category-based) league is to decide how many goaltending categories you want. You must walk a fine line as you seek to reward the critical contribution of the elite goalie, without going overboard and over-inflating the value of the masked men. On a typical fantasy roster, goalies only account for about 10-20% of the roster slots, so you don't want 50% of your team's fantasy value tied up in 10-20% of your players.