Tristan Jarry (PIT), Mike Smith (EDM), John Gibson (ANA), Cal Petersen (LAK), Mackenzie Blackwood (NJ), Alex Nedeljkovic (DET) You could theoretically take both goaltenders in your draft to cover your bases, but then you're limiting potential upside. It's really risky to rely on any of these guys in a league with weekly lineup changes. However, all feature ambiguous goaltending situations at the moment, and in the case of the Islanders, they seem likely to go with a timeshare more often than not. There's a case to be made that the first four teams listed above are among the 10 best teams in the NHL. Islanders ( Semyon Varlamov / Ilya Sorokin ), Hurricanes ( Frederik Andersen / Antti Raanta ), Maple Leafs ( Jack Campbell / Petr Mrazek ), Panthers ( Sergei Bobrovsky / Spencer Knight ), Stars ( Jake Oettinger / Anton Khudobin / Braden Holtby ) 877 save percentage (in 2020-21), but the Flyers have no choice but to run Hart back out there with the hopes he rediscovers his game. As for Hart, NHL goalies rarely get the benefit of the doubt when posting a 9-11-5 record, 3.67 GAA and. The Kraken also have a solid backup in Chris Driedger. Grubauer is going from arguably the best team in the NHL in Colorado to an expansion team in Seattle. I've always been a fan, but I'm sure there are plenty who think his year was a fluke. Talbot was great last season for an overachieving Wild team. Ullmark signed a four-year, $20 million contract to leave Buffalo for Boston in July, and he'll be given the keys to the kingdom despite never playing more than 37 games in a season. Price is a future Hall of Famer, but he's getting up there in years, had offseason surgery, and the Canadiens coaching staff loves backup Jake Allen. Tier 3 – Older, untested, steady, expansion, rebound optionsĬarey Price (MTL), Linus Ullmark (BOS), Cam Talbot (MIN), Philipp Grubauer (STL), Carter Hart (PHI) Samsonov is by far the riskiest, as he barely played a season ago and has the most capable backup ( Vitek Vanecek) behind him. Shesterkin, Demko, and Samsonov are the three young goalies in this tier. Some say the Avalanche are the best team in the NHL, and they gave up a ton in order to bring Kuemper in from Arizona via trade. Fleury, on the other hand, will have a chance to run away with the job for the Blackhawks, but he's already 36 years old. Lehner was supposed to be the starter for Vegas last year before Fleury went off and won the Vezina Trophy. Hellebuyck, Binnington, and Markstrom are a lock to post big numbers because they play a ton, and none of their three respective clubs have a backup threatening to steal many starts. Breaking down the tier a bit further requires figuring out how much risk you want to take with the position. In short, Vasilevskiy is a stud and well worth a mid-first round investment.Ĭonnor Hellebuyck (WPG), Robin Lehner (VGK), Jordan Binnington (STL), Darcy Kuemper (COL), Jacob Markstrom (CGY), Igor Shesterkin (NYR), Thatcher Demko (VAN), Marc-Andre Fleury (CHI), Ilya Samsonov (WSH)Įvery goaltender in this group should be the undisputed starter, all of which feature for teams with legitimate playoff chances. The Russian has won back-to-back Stanley Cups, led the NHL in wins for four straight seasons, and he's still just 27 years old. What's more, he's arguably the only netminder capable of carrying your league to a Fantasy championship. 1 Fantasy skater, and Vasilevskiy is the unquestioned top goaltender. Tier 1 – Best of the best Andrei Vasilevskiy (TB)Ĭonnor McDavid is the unanimous No. In short, decide before your draft how much time you plan to invest in managing your team throughout the season, and keep that in mind when making your draft choices. It also depends on when your opponents start drafting goalies, as well.Īlso, if you pass on all the guys in the first few tiers, it's imperative to work the waiver wire aggressively throughout the season. If the requirement is to start two goaltenders, especially in a format with weekly lineup changes, you want to make the investment earlier than you would in a single goaltender league. The answer to that question usually lies in your league's settings. The tricky part is figuring out how early in your draft you should take the plunge. Like the real-life NHL, it's extremely difficult, if not impossible, to achieve Fantasy success without stable goaltending.

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