The most important part of any hockey team is the goalie. It doesn't matter how many goals you can score, if you can't keep the puck out of your net, you're going to have a hard time winning. As it relates to fantasy hockey, depending on your league setup, goalies can be just as critical to your success as in real life. In head to head leagues where you compete for categories, these 2-4 players on your team control 4 out of 10 categories. If just a few players control almost half of the scoring categories, you're going to want to make sure you have guys you can count on. There's a lot of different ways you can go about doing this. You could use 2 of your first 3 picks on goaltenders, making you a virtual lock for those 4 categories and then draft guys that get lots of assists and/or PIM. You could also think offense first, draft the best scorers and then down the line pick a goalie that plays on a good defensive team or pick a tandem that plays for a good defensive team (ex: Osgood / Hasek). Of course, you could always get lucky too, pick scorers in the beginning, then find a hot goaltender during the season. A risky strategy, but one that I've used many times when dominating my league. Here are the Fantasy Factor's top 15 goalies for 2008:
1. Evgeni Nabokov - This one was a tough one to pick, but I have to give the edge to the Vladislav Tretiak disciple, Evgeni Nabokov. Nabby had a career year for the Sharks in 07-08 with a 2.14 GAA, 46 wins and 6 shutouts. Not that he needs it, but Nabokov has a lot of help in front of him too. The Sharks boast one of the best shot blocking defenses in the NHL and in this past off season this defensive unit got even better with the additions of Rob Blake and Dan Boyle.
2. Jean-Sebastien Giguere - Assuming the NHL doesn't shrink down the equipment this season, Giggy should have another outstanding season for the Ducks. Since Scott Niedermayer and Chris Pronger joined the team, Giggy has won 35+ games in just 56-58 games. His GAA has been in the low 2's and his save percentage is consistently near 92%. Like Nabokov, his production has a lot to do with the team in front of him. As long as Anaheim continues to be a defense first (sucker punch second) team, Giguere will always benefit.
3. Martin Brodeur - Marty is a lock for the hall of fame and you could make a good case for him as the greatest goalie in the history of the NHL. But here's the thing, he's 36 years old and he's played in over 70 games every year since the 97-98 season. 75 or more in 3 of the last 4 seasons. Quite frankly, I'm surprised he's been able to keep it going for this long. Fatigue is bound to start setting in at some point and he doesn't have the Stevens', Niedermayers' and Daneykos' that he used to. Brodeur is a solid option at goal, but the two guys above have a lot more help and are more likely to succeed than Marty.
4. Henrik Lundqvist - Before writing this post, I gave some serious consideration to ranking King Henry number one. Then I remembered he was a Ranger and every year I have the tendency to overrate the blue shirts. Lindros, Bure, Jagr, Gomez, Drury, just to name a few, were all high on my list in years past. There's a lot to be optimistic about for Ranger fans and Lundqvist owners. The Rangers are taking a page out of the Red Wings playbook and putting together a solid puck moving/defensive responsible unit to play in front of him. The addition of Wade Redden is a big one. It gives the Rangers a solid number one defenseman that can log a lot of minutes, which they haven't had since the Brian Leetch years. Lundqvist has been knocking on the Vezina door for several years now and this could very well be the year he breaks that door down.
5. Marc-Andre Fleury - This past off season the Penguins were raided by the NHL and lost a lot of key components to their playoff run. However, they didn't lose their most important part, goaltender, Marc-Andre Fleury. As impressive as Ty Conklin was while Fleury was injured, MAF was even better. A 1.44 GAA in Dec and March, a 1.51 GAA in April and lost just two games in the final three months of the season. Fleury lead the Pens to the Finals and finished with a 1.97 GAA and .933 save percentage. This is why he was taken first overall and why he deserves serious consideration as your top goalie on your fantasy team. It doesn't matter that the Pens lost scoring in the off season. The Pens' success had more to do with preventing goals, than scoring them.
6. Miikka Kiprusoff - Since winning the Vezina in 2006, Kipper's numbers have steadily gotten worse and worse while the number of games played has increased. This could be a cause of concern for his owners. Calgary doesn't have a reliable backup goalie and will once again rely on Kiprusoff to carry the load and as he has proven over the past couple years, fatigue is a problem for him. Because of this downward trend, making Kiprusoff your number one goalie is a little risky, but if he can make any kind of a rebound, he could steal the Vezina this season.
7. Roberto Luongo - Most experts have ranked Luongo in the top 3, but I just don't see it this year. The Canucks don't look all that impressive this year and he's starting to get that Florida Panther feeling again... 40-50 shots a night. Roberto put up some great numbers despite playing on some very average / very bad teams his whole career. Unless he gets traded, he'll continue to fight for those good numbers.
8. Marty Turco - One of the most underrated goalies in the NHL. Turco has been very solid and very consistent for the Stars since taking over for Eddie Belfour 5 years ago. The only knock against him was that he wasn't a good playoff goalie. I think he finally put those "gargoyles" to rest after leading the Stars to the Western Conference Finals this past May. He probably won't win any awards this year, but he will win a lot of games and put up All Star numbers once again.
9. Chris Osgood / Ty Conklin - For those of you that know me, you're probably surprised I lasted this long before placing a Red Wing goalie into these rankings. Ozzie may not "look" like one of the greatest goalies of all time, but his stats say differently and this is due mostly to the Wings suffocating defense. Nobody plays team defense better than the Red Wings and this makes life very easy for whomever plays between the pipes. At age 36, Osgood probably won't play more than 55 games, meaning that Ty Conklin will play around 30 games and giving him good fantasy value. If decide to go with Osgood, make sure you pick up Conklin as well. If you decide to go with this two headed monster, it may hurt you in wins if you're only allowed to start two goalies per day, but they should give you great numbers in every other category.
(Photo by Paul Sancya / AP)
10. Niklas Backstrom - The Fin with the Swedish last name. Backstrom has been great in his first two years for the Wild. Statistically, he's one of the best, if not the best goalie in the league. Plus, the Wild have one of the best defenses in the game. Why so low then? Because he's only playing in 50 some games. Like the situation in Detroit, if you own Backstrom, you should probably pick up Josh Harding as well.
11. Tomas Vokoun - As it stands right now, Vokoun will be playing behind one of the best defensive corps in the NHL. Jay Bouwmeester, Keith Ballard, Bryan McCabe, and Nick Boyton, just to name a few names. Don't be fooled by Vokoun's stats from last year. He faced more shots than any other goalie in the league and only played in 69 games. Nobody could've played behind that team and been successful. With a rebuilt defense, Vokoun will once again, look like an elite goaltender.
12. Cristobal Huet - The Blackhawks made a couple big splashes this past off season and one of them was kind of odd. Despite already having a $6 million goalie (Nikolai Khabibulin) on the roster, the Hawks went out and grabbed Cristobal Huet for another $5 mil. Now this obviously shows that the Hawks are eager move on and will most likely deal Khabibulin, but until then, there may well be a platoon between these two. My guess is that Huet will get most of the games and will put up great numbers behind the Blackhawks rebuilt defense.
13. Pascal Leclaire - The 07-08 season was a breakout year for the French Canadian goalie. He finished second in the NHL with 9 shutouts and finished with the 7th best GAA (2.25). Playing behind coach Ken Hitchcock's "defense first" system, Leclaire will have every opportunity to do it again. Of course, playing for the Blue Jackets, his wins will be limited, but then again... they have to start winning sooner or later, right?
14. Carey Price - This is a bit of a gamble pick on my part considering how badly Price got knocked around in the playoffs. But I think he'll rebound into the goalie that knocked Cristobel Huet out of the starting position in Montreal. Price finished the regular season very strong, winning 15 of his last 20 games. With the Habs strong defense in front of him, he should put together another solid season... assuming the pressure of the Canadian media and the pressure of being the Canadiens goalie on their 100th year anniversary doesn't get to him.
15. Martin Biron - Yeah I know, "Boooooo Flyers". But when you play any fantasy sport, you have to put your team allegiances aside and pick guys that you can win with. Biron finished the regular season very strong last year and looked really good in the playoffs until a certain local Pittsburgh hockey team slapped him around. The Flyers didn't make any big moves this past off season, but they will get Simon Gagne back and they looked like a team that could win the division until they hit that 10 game losing streak (which was my second favorite part of the 2008 hockey season). The Flyers should once again be contending for the division and Biron will be the man leading the way.
Posted
Sep 17 2008, 11:19 AM
by
Nick Fruscello