In this week's installment of Capped we're going to be talking about goalies who are trending in the right direction. That could mean they're playing well currently, it could mean that their overall team situation has improved, but in the end, it means that they carry some sort of fantasy relevance.

These are just a few goalies that I believe should start to see an uptick in their respective roster percentages across the three major fantasy sport platforms.

The reason we're going to be discussing goalies today is because where we're swiftly approaching the trade deadline, now is the time to try and lock-up your netminders. Goalies are what I like to call the 'x-factors' in fantasy hockey, and all that means is that goalies can make or break your matchups.

Remember, before pursuing anything within your league please make sure that you understand the rules, scoring, features that your league uses.


#1) Ville Husso – G – St. Louis Blues

Contract: $750K – 1 Year remaining (expires this summer)
Roster Percentages: 34.4% ESPN, 64% Yahoo, 63% Fantrax

Ville Husso is an interesting goaltender; he was once pegged as someone who could have ended up being the next big goalie for the Blues. While he got drafted in 2014, it's only the last two seasons that he's played games in the NHL with a total of 32 across that stretch. With 15 games played this year (started in 14 of them) and a 9-3-1 record overall, a goals-against-average (GAA) of 1.90 (league leading for players with 6 or more games played) and a save percentage (SV%) of 0.941 (league leading for players with 6 or more games played). He has been one of the better goalies with a somewhat smaller sample size. There is reason to believe that Binnington has lost a grip on the starting job in St. Louis, while I don't think that will stay that way by the end of the season as we all expect Binnington to improve upon his current numbers which are, 11-9-3, GAA of 3.27, and a SV% of 0.901. In the meantime, Husso is an excellent option to grab in your league, he has a cheap contract, plays on a solid team, the guy who usually starts is struggling currently, and Husso has played in almost as many games as Binnington at this point. While St. Louis is battling to keep their playoff hopes alive leading into the trade deadline, expect them to split the crease between Husso and Binnington more than what you would of before the season started.

#2) Mike Smith – G – Edmonton Oilers

Contract: $2.2M – 2 Years remaining
Roster Percentages: 60.5% ESPN, 47% Yahoo, 70% Fantrax

Mike Smith has battled his fair share of injury woes this season, as he has a total of 7 games played on the year so far with a record of 2-3-1. For a goalie of his age and how long he has played in the NHL, you don't want to see those players go down with an injury for an extended period as it begins to become harder to fully rebound from the injuries. Through his limited action this season, his numbers are definitely not we all imagined them being, with a GAA of 3.80 and SV% of 0.893. Those aren't ideal numbers for any goalie in the NHL, let alone a player who was brought into Edmonton to help solidify their goaltending issues. He is their guy, they trust him a whole lot more than Koskinen, he is going to get starts over the next few weeks and heading into the fantasy playoffs. Edmonton hasn't been the best this year as they struggled at the end of 2021 and into 2022. Connor McDavid currently only has 7 points in his last 10 games (4 goals, 3 assists), while that's good for most players, for a player like McDavid that isn't impressive. With Evander Kane's season getting underway finally, expect there to be a bit of a jump in the step of that Edmonton roster. For a team that truly does have the potential to score 4 goals a game, being able to have a goalie who can get wins is important, and I believe Edmonton has gotten their bad stretch out of the way and they're about to turn the corner. How long can the Oilers be painfully average with McDavid and Draisaitl be? For a team that is looking to make the playoffs, expect them to start turning the corner very soon.

#3) Jeremy Swayman – G – Boston Bruins

Contract: $950K – 2 Years remaining
Roster Percentages: 12.3% ESPN, 35% Yahoo, 62% Fantrax

As much as we all loved seeing Tuukka Rask try and make a comeback after having major hip-surgery, it's time to try and work Swayman onto your roster. To begin the year, he and Linus Ullmark were caught in a timeshare deployment on the Bruins, that should still be the case assuming Rask does end up calling it a career. Swayman provides a cheap contract, playing for a good hockey team in the Boston Bruins, and he oozes with potential so worst case if you don't plan on using him or if you can't keep him going into next year, this is a player who possesses a lot of trade value. While his numbers are not that great at the moment, the Bruins weren't that great to start off the season with 17 wins and 13 losses in their first 30 games of the year, for a team with the roster that they have, they didn't envision a 56.66% win percentage across that stretch to begin the season. Swayman currently has an 8-7-2 record, with a GAA of 2.35 and SV% of 0.914. The 2.35 GAA ranks Swayman 12^th in the NHL for goalies with at least 6 games played, his overall record doesn't show how impressive he has been as an individual asset. If Ullmark starts slipping a little bit in the coming weeks, expect the timeshare to start favoring Swayman. While he likely won't be the Bruins starter for the rest of the season, expect him to get some games in down the stretch. Boston currently sits in the bottom half of the league for games played with 23^rd, tied with 4 other teams. This ultimately means that there is more potential for Swayman to play more games later in the season which can give you a favorable matchup in the fantasy playoffs.



#4) Cam Talbot – G – Minnesota Wild

Contract: $3,666,667M – 2 Years Remaining
Roster Percentages: 89.2% ESPN, 92% Yahoo, 93% Fantrax

Given how Talbot's season has been going thus far, it is no surprise that he is rostered in almost every league across all of the three major fantasy sports platforms. With 27 games started and a record of 18-8-1, a GAA of 2.81 and a SV% of 0.913 he has been playing fairly well. Talbot has had a couple of underwhelming moments this year, so his numbers are a dragged down from them, but as of late the Minnesota Wild have been one of the better teams in the NHL. They currently sit in fourth across the entire NHL in GF (goals for) with 161 total, which is good for a 3.83 GF/G (goals for per game). Not only have they been one of the best offensive teams in the league, they've also not been slouches defensively with keeping the puck out of the net either, they've only allowed 122 goals all season long which is good for being the sixth best in the NHL. While the Wild do have a very capable goalie in Kahkonen as their future, and they do like to split their deployment, expect Talbot to get a few extra starts as the season goes on. This team doesn't just have playoff aspirations, they have a legitimate chance at making a deep playoff run with how talented this roster is from top to bottom. With the Central Division being so close with three points separating the second-place team and the fourth-place team (Nashville is in second place with 60 points in 46 games, Minnesota is in third place with 59 points in 42 games, and St. Louis is in fourth place with 57 points in 44 games), expect Talbot to be given a few extra starts to help keep the race tight. Like Boston having more games later in the season, Minnesota currently only has 42 games played, which has them tied for second last in across the league in this stat with the Flames and the Senators, with only the Islanders having less games played with 39.


While these aren't the only goalies that have a prime opportunity in the back-half of the season, these are some of the ones that I believe have the best shot at making a larger impact in the later stages of the year.

For more discussion, please feel free to interact on the forums and in the comments here on DobberHockey or follow me on Twitter (@JamieMolloy_DH) to engage with me with any questions or comments that you may have!