When it comes to fantasy hockey — and, not coincidentally, real life — goaltenders are the toughest to predict.
Outside of the perennial top 5 or 10, it tends to be a crapshoot from one year to the next. Let’s just say nobody saw Devan Dubnyk as a Vezina finalist at this time last year. And chances are, nobody drafted him either, or at least not until the slim-picking rounds. This year, Dubnyk projects to be a hot commodity. Go figure.
Nevertheless, I’m following up my Top 165 Fantasy Defencemen with this inaugural edition of my Top 75 Fantasy Goaltenders. And, yes, I plan on tackling forwards at some point too, likely for next week — Top 250, 300 or perhaps 350? To be determined.
When ranking the goalies, I used a combination of two categories — wins and save percentage. Most fantasy leagues have wins as a category, which makes goalies on good (winning) teams more valuable. Save percentage helps balance it out a bit because goalies on bad (losing) teams — such as Cory Schneider (presumably) — tend to face a lot of shots and if they stop the majority, regardless of the result, they can still be draft worthy. That said, I’d recommend picking a goalie from a winning team because they can have a bad night and still contribute in fantasy if their teammates bail them out. So this list does reflect that theory to some degree, and isn’t simply a list of the league’s best goalies from a skill standpoint. It is a list of the league’s most valuable goalies from a fantasy perspective. There is a difference.
There may also be some bias or personal preference involved, so I don’t expect everybody to agree with my rankings. Feel free to leave a comment below if you feel certain players are too high or too low and I’ll elaborate on my reasoning.
Without further ado, here are my top 75 goaltenders for the 2015-16 fantasy season:
1) Carey Price, Montreal Canadiens
2) Henrik Lundqvist, New York Rangers
3) Braden Holtby, Washington Capitals
4) Ben Bishop, Tampa Bay Lightning
5) Corey Crawford, Chicago Blackhawks
6) Frederik Andersen, Anaheim Ducks
7) Devan Dubnyk, Minnesota Wild
8) Jonathan Quick, Los Angeles Kings
9) Sergei Bobrovsky, Columbus Blue Jackets
10) Pekka Rinne, Nashville Predators
11) Jaroslav Halak, New York Islanders
12) Marc-Andre Fleury, Pittsburgh Penguins
13) Tuukka Rask, Boston Bruins
14) Cory Schneider, New Jersey Devils
15) Semyon Varlamov, Colorado Avalanche
16) Steve Mason, Philadelphia Flyers
17) Martin Jones, San Jose Sharks
18) Roberto Luongo, Florida Panthers
19) Kari Lehtonen, Dallas Stars
20) Jake Allen, St. Louis Blues
21) Petr Mrazek, Detroit Red Wings
22) Ryan Miller, Vancouver Canucks
23) Craig Anderson, Ottawa Senators
24) Cam Talbot, Edmonton Oilers
25) Robin Lehner, Buffalo Sabres
26) Jonathan Bernier, Toronto Maple Leafs
27) Karri Ramo, Calgary Flames
28) Ondrej Pavelec, Winnipeg Jets
29) Mike Smith, Arizona Coyotes
Once upon a time Cam Ward would have ranked in the top 10 on this list, but he and his Carolina Hurricanes have fallen on hard times in recent seasons. Ward is in a contract year, so he could bounce back and build on the marginal improvements he made last season. Still, Ward’s no longer a guy you should be grabbing in the early rounds.
30) Cam Ward, Carolina Hurricanes
31) Brian Elliott, St. Louis Blues
32) Jimmy Howard, Detroit Red Wings
33) Antti Niemi, Dallas Stars
34) Michael Hutchinson, Winnipeg Jets
35) Anton Khudobin, Anaheim Ducks
36) Jacob Markstrom, Vancouver Canucks
37) Jonas Hiller, Calgary Flames
38) James Reimer, Toronto Maple Leafs
39) Eddie Lack, Carolina Hurricanes
40) Darcy Kuemper, Minnesota Wild
41) Michal Neuvirth, Philadelphia Flyers
42) Scott Darling, Chicago Blackhawks
43) Andrew Hammond, Ottawa Senators
* 44) Andrei Vasilevskiy, Tampa Bay Lightning (blood clots, sidelined 1-2 months)
45) Thomas Greiss, New York Islanders
46) Jhonas Enroth, Los Angeles Kings
47) Anders Nilsson, Edmonton Oilers
48) Jonas Gustavsson, Boston Bruins
49) Al Montoya, Florida Panthers
50) Alex Stalock, San Jose Sharks
51) Joni Ortio, Calgary Flames
52) Curtis McElhinney, Columbus Blue Jackets
53) Anders Lindback, Arizona Coyotes
54) Carter Hutton, Nashville Predators
55) Chad Johnson, Buffalo Sabres
56) Reto Berra, Colorado Avalanche
57) Antti Raanta, New York Rangers
58) Philipp Grubauer, Washington Capitals
59) Keith Kinkaid, New Jersey Devils
60) Jeff Zatkoff, Pittsburgh Penguins
61) Niklas Backstrom, Minnesota Wild
62) Matt O’Connor, Ottawa Senators
63) Mike Condon, Montreal Canadiens
64) Kevin Poulin, Tampa Bay Lightning
Prospect Watch
John Gibson, Anaheim Ducks
Calvin Pickard, Colorado Avalanche
Connor Hellebuyck, Winnipeg Jets
Jeremy Smith/Malcolm Subban/Zane McIntyre, Boston Bruins
Matt Murray, Pittsburgh Penguins
Andrey Makarov, Buffalo Sabres
In Limbo
Ben Scrivens, Edmonton Oilers
Dustin Tokarski, Montreal Canadiens
Justin Peters, Washington Capitals
Ray Emery
Peter Budaj
Larry Fisher is a sports reporter for The Daily Courier in Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada. Follow him on Twitter: @LarryFisher_KDC.