The goaltending position from a fantasy perspective is completely up in the air these days. There are fewer workhorses and more committees than ever before. Backups are getting increased playing time and even the projected best options have been prone to struggling.
Our tiered positional breakdown is below. Vasilevskiy won the Vezina Trophy as the NHL's top goalie for a second time a season ago. He led the league with 39 wins, in addition to posting a 2.31 GAA and .912 save percentage.
His 58 appearances were third-most in the circuit. With his injury concerns from previous years likely behind him, Vasilevskiy is the top option playing behind a Lightning team that should again be amongst the league's best. Igor Shesterkin (NYR), Connor Hellebuyck (WPG), Jake Oettinger (DAL), Logan Thompson (WSH), Ilya Sorokin (NYI), Jeremy Swayman (BOS) Shesterkin was the Rangers' best player last season despite the fact they finished with one of the worst records in the league.
They completely revamped their defensive group this offseason and I'm expecting a significant rebound in that area. Hellebuyck followed up his MVP year with the worst season of his career (23-23-11, 2.86 GAA, .895 save percentage). He's a tricky evaluation because Hellebuyck could seemingly be traded at any moment.
Oettinger won 35-plus games last season (35) for a fourth straight year, but his save percentage was under .900 (.899). Thompson won 31 games last season for a second year in a row, while his supporting stats (2.44 GAA, .912 save percentage) were solid. I'm heavily targeting him given Washington's excellent offseason additions.
Sorokin is an easy top five goalie talent, but I have zero faith in the Islanders to rise above mediocrity. Swayman is a regression candidate for no other reason than the fact Boston is likely to take a step backwards. Jacob Markstrom (FLA), Sergei Bobrovsky (TOR), Juuse Saros (NSH) Markstrom is going to be over-drafted as the unquestioned starter for a loaded Florida team.
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