Fantasy Impact: Carolina Changes Up Goaltending – Andersen and Raanta the New Duo

Dobber

2021-07-28

The Carolina Hurricanes have signed Frederik Andersen to a two-year deal worth $9M and Antti Raanta to a two-year deal worth $4M.

The Hurricanes Get: two proven goaltenders, both with a good track record and at times great. But both have struggled with injuries. Raanta in particular has trouble stringing together any meaningful length of healthy games.

Fantasy Players Impacted: With Alex Nedeljkovic traded despite being a Calder Trophy contender, and Petr Mrazek and James Reimer not re-signed, the Hurricanes were looking to start fresh. You knew that Carolina didn't think much of Nedeljkovic when they placed him on waivers in January. For some unknown reason, they still didn't like him even after his 15-5-3 run to end the season (0.932 SV%) and a 4-3-2 playoff record (0.920 SV%). That's a 19-8-2 record during crunch time…and they didn't believe in him.

Meanwhile, Raanta has played 12, 33, 12, 47, 30 and 25 games in his last six seasons. Many of those he was expected to be the starter, but just couldn't stay healthy. His injuries later on caused his team to scramble for a No.3 goalie to come in and get starts. Expect the same to happen with Carolina. In fact, I went to list here all of Raanta's injuries over the last few years and it was taking too long and taking up too much space. So I ditched that idea. But trust me – it was a long list. LONG!

Andersen was a former top goalie in this league but, for whatever reason, his play had fallen off. In his last 68 games he has the following numbers:

36-21-8, 2.84 GAA and 0.906 SV% with 45.6% Quality Starts. His Goals Saved Above Average (GSAA) was -7.204 (positive is good, negative is bad).

Behind a Rod Brind-Amour-coached team, Andersen will be much better. This style of play works for goaltenders. But will his numbers be good enough? And can he stay healthy? Last year he missed 27 games with a knee injury. The season prior he missed a few games with a neck injury and the year before that he had  knee and groin issues.

Fantasy owners should take a long look at Carolina's goalie prospects – they could be called into duty. Namely Dylan Wells, since Pyotr Kochetkov is in the KHL and Jack Lafontaine is stuck in the NCAA. Wells has been a mediocre ECHLer/AHLer so far as a pro, but he's still only 23.

Fantasy Players This Helps, In Order:

  1. Frederik Andersen
  2. Whoever the No.3 goalie will be (for now it's Dylan Wells)

Fantasy Players this Hurts, In Order:

None

Leave A Comment

Starting Goalies

TD Garden | Loading local time...
Little Caesars Arena | Loading local time...
Bridgestone Arena | Loading local time...
UBS Arena | Loading local time...
Crypto.com Arena | Loading local time...

Top Skater Views

  Players Team
CHARLE-EDOUARD D'ASTOUS T.B
VIKTOR ARVIDSSON DET
BERKLY CATTON SEA
EMMITT FINNIE DET
JOEL FARABEE CGY

Top Goalie Profile Views

  Players Team
CONNOR HELLEBUYCK N.J
STUART SKINNER WPG
JACOB FOWLER MTL
DEVIN COOLEY CGY
TRISTAN JARRY EDM

LINE COMBOS

  Frequency BUF Players
25.5 TAGE THOMPSON PEYTON KREBS ZACH BENSON
21.2 JACK QUINN NOAH OSTLUND JOSH DOAN
14.9 JASON ZUCKER JOSH NORRIS RYAN MCLEOD

DobberHockey Podcasts

Keeping Karlsson: Down Across the Helle-ware

On this episode of the Keeping Karlsson Fantasy Hockey Podcast, Elan and Brian dissect the implications of the Connor Hellebuyck trade, injury returns in Carolina and Washington, hot streaks in Philadelphia and Seattle, crease contenders in Calgary and San Jose, a must-add in Tampa Bay and a sell-high in Colorado for your fantasy hockey league.

Fantasy Hockey Life: Ep 506 Prospects with Plenty to Prove II

Victor and Jesse return to talk about more fantasy hockey prospects in critical seasons. Covered are David Reinbacher, Cayden Lindstrom, Dalibor Dvorsky, Bradly Nadeau, Ilya Protas, Charlie Stramel, Otto Stenberg, Emil Hemming, Trey Augustine, Sebastian Cossa, Jacob Fowler, Easton Cowan, Matthew Wood, Gabe Perreault, and Victor Eklund. Thanks to Mason Black @NHLRankKing for his polls. […]

FIND US ON FACEBOOK