Fantasy goaltenders are an essential part of any winning lineup, so finding a goaltender who starts a vast majority of the team’s games — and wins those games — is a boon. Those goaltenders are rare, however, and you’ll need to expend significant draft capital to acquire them.
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There are plenty of other strategies to deploy, such as waiting until later rounds to find consistent starters on above-average teams or grabbing both goalies in a strong tandem to help lock down a consistent score in the goaltender spot. We’ll go through each of those tiers in this article to help you navigate the goaltender waters and keep a level head when they start flying off draft boards.
Tier 1: Elite fantasy goaltenders
Igor Shesterkin (NYR), Juuse Saros (NAS), Connor Hellebuyck (WPG)
Shesterkin has played at least 53 games in three straight seasons and has answered the call, posting 36-plus wins in each campaign while accruing a .921 save percentage and a 2.39 GAA. While his workload was impressive, Saros started the most games in the league three years ago, and he posted the most saves in the league in each of the last two seasons, registering a .915 save percentage in the process. The Predators bolstered their offensive ranks through free agency, which should help Saros in the win column. Hellebuyck remains a star with three straight seasons of 60-plus starts while recording a .920 save percentage or better in two of those seasons. He’s 31 years old now but hasn’t shown any decline — taking home the Vezina Trophy last season.
Tier 2: The next guys up
Jeremy Swayman (BOS), Jake Oettinger (DAL), Andrei Vasilevskiy (TB)
Swayman is clearly an elite goaltender when he’s in the net, evidenced by a .914 save percentage or better in three straight seasons, but he has consistently split the workload with Linus Ullmark, who has moved on to Ottawa. Can Swayman handle a full workload himself? Or will Joonas Korpisalo split reps evenly? I expect Swayman to approach 55 starts as long as he’s signed by the start of the regular season. Either way, there’s some risk in his profile.
Oettinger is coming off a trip to the conference final, and the young Stars should take another step this season, setting the 25-year-old netminder up to his 35 wins for a third straight year. Vasilevskiy…