How To Choose A Fantasy Hockey Goalie

Now that hockey season is upon us, it means that fantasy hockey leagues are in full swing and everyone is looking for fantasy hockey tips,  scouring statistics and prognosticating how players will perform for the upcoming season.

In many fantasy hockey leagues, particularly the popular Yahoo! leagues, the importance and weighting on goaltender statistics can be quite skewed vs. the importance of player statistics.

For instance, you may only have three goaltenders on your team, but there may be up to six categories of goaltender statistics scored. In head-to-head fantasy leagues, there may be eight categories of player statistics and six categories of Goaltender statistics – you can easily see the importance of goaltenders in this scenario!

The most popular goaltender statistics scored in fantasy leagues are:

1. Games Played (GP)
2. Wins (W)
3. Goals Against Average (GAA)
4. Save percentage (Save %)
5. Saves (Saves)
6. Shutouts (SO)

Let’s Take a Look at the Goaltenders who have excelled in these categories in the past.

Games Played

Under the games played category, we want to find a goaltender who doesn’t have a threatening backup and who typically plays the majority of his teams games. And, of course, one who is expected to do so in the upcoming season. Here is a look at the top five goaltenders from last season in the games played category.  Of note, all of these goalies, with the possible exception of Marty Turco, should play the vast majority of games for their respective team this coming season.

Wins

Of course, a goalie who plays the majority of his teams games will have a better chance at putting up a larger number of wins based on sheer odds. Therefore, we expect to see a few of the same names under the Wins category as we saw in the previous category for Games Played.

Here are the top five goaltenders in the Wins category from last season:

Goals Against Average

This statistic is a widely kept and scored statistic in fantasy leagues. Not to discredit goaltenders, but very defensive minded teams often have goaltenders with low Goals Against Averages.

On another note, a goaltender can have a very low goals against average and not play very many games.  Of course, if they are not playing, they are not going to help you in your fantasy league!

Here are the five best Goals Against Averages from goalies who played at least 50 games last season in the National Hockey League.

Save Percentage

Among NHL goalies who played at least 50 games last season, here are the top five leaders in the save percentage category.

Saves

Among goalies who played at least 50 NHL games last season, here are the top five leaders in saves. Of course, one also expect sthe save leaders to be among the top in the Games Played category as well.

Shutouts

The shutout category is a wildcard in most years and just like the Goals Against Average, one expects that the most defensive minded teams would give their respective goaltenders a better chance to achieve more shutouts during a season.Again, the more games played, the better the odds of earning a shutout.

Here are the top five leaders in the shutout category from last season.

Now, after doing all of this research, it certainly doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see that the Minnesota Wild’s Niklas Backstrom shows up in the top five of every category. Regardless if you believe that the Wild’s new coach, Todd Richards, is going to play a more offensive style this season I really don’t think you can go wrong by selecting Backstrom high in the draft.

An additional strategy would be to pick up the relatively under-appreciated Pekka Rinne later in the draft. His numbers were spectacular (Almost Calder trophy worthy) last season after winning the job from Dan Ellis and it is expected that he will see more time between the pipes in Nashville this season.

What The Number Don’t Tell Us

Martin Brodeur is back after missing most of last season due to injury.  And, even at his advanced age he cannot be discounted as one of odds on favorites to lead in many of these categories. What is uncertain is just how many games his aging body can play.  However, what is certain is that the Devils will be a defensive minded team with Jacques Lemaire back behind the bench!

In addition, Nikolai Khabibulin posted some impressive numbers last season after taking over from Cristobal Huet part way through the year in Chicago. There is some question as to his age, but Edmonton has hung their hat on him for the upcoming year and he is expected to carry the bulk of the workload for the Oilers.

Now that you have your goaltending strategy down, you need to find the most consistent points producers to fill out your fantasy team. I suggest taking a look at this article by Joe Pelletier where he breaks down the most consistent hockey pool performers over the past three seasons.

Best of luck to you this season! – unless you’re in a fantasy league competing with me