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Welcome to the first ever edition of the Fantasy Hockey Roundtable, the newest development in the fantasy hockey industry to get the questions that you have answered by the best of the best. Each week the Roundtable will be hosted on a different website; you will be able to find a link to each experts post on their respective website each and every Friday. Here's this weeks question: Which goalie are you avoiding in drafts this year? HIT TITLE TO READ MORE Kevin Orris - FantasyPros911.com There are way too many mediocre goalies in the New York Islanders system for me to consider drafting any of them. With Rick DiPietro on his way back from injury and the signing of Martin Biron and Dwayne Roloson, it's going to be very crowded. The Isles front office agreed to one of the worst contracts in the history of the NHL for signing DiPietro to a deal through 2021, which will pay him about $4.5 million each year. While the Anaheim Ducks have two solid goalies in J.S. Giguere and Jonas Hiller, I'm attempting to avoid them at all costs in drafts this year. I always prefer to have goalies that will get consistent starts to rack up counting categories like saves, compared to those who will get 50% of the playing time with good numbers. Hiller was the better of the two last year, but it doesn't appear that he's going to get any more playing time than Giguere at this point. Brent Lemon - DobberHockey.com Pascal Leclaire. New season, new sweater, guaranteed to be the starting goaltender in Ottawa, and last year’s lost-to-injury season will make him a bargain, right? I can see how he might be tempting as a number-two goalie for some folks, especially if they aren’t familiar with his career prior to his memorable breakout campaign in 2007-08. But don’t do it. Reason number one: He gets hurt way too often for way too long. While his 2007-08 campaign was impressive (.919 SV%, 2.25 GA, and 9 SOs), many an infatuated fantasy GM was crushed the following year when Leclaire injured his ankle in November, lost his job to Steve Mason, and ultimately ended up playing only 12 games all season. Was it bad luck? No. This is a guy who has had multiple long-term injuries and bouts of surgery. In the 2006-07 season, he missed 48 games due to knee problems. Even during his breakout year, he still managed to miss 14 games due to injury. Reason number two: Being in Ottawa won’t help him. In 2007-08, Columbus gave up an average of 27.4 shots per game, and coach Ken Hitchcock is notorious for his defensive style of play. Meanwhile, while the dysfunctional Senators are still evolving as a team, they gave up an average of 28.5 shots per game last year, and they traded away one of their best forwards in Antoine Vermette to get Leclaire in the first place. If you are absolutely stuck on Leclaire for some reason, seriously consider taking the Senators up-and-maybe-comer goaltender, Brain Elliot. You’re probably going to need him. Ian Gooding - FantasyHockey.com When asked that question, there are usually some obvious names that come to mind, such as the starting goalies for bad teams (eg. Ilya Bryzgalov, Kari Lehtonen) or the goalies that have posted truly awful numbers over the past few seasons (eg. Andrew Raycroft, Johan Hedberg). But I think that the response that would be more useful to fantasy owners is which frequently drafted goalie should be avoided? I tend to focus on players who I feel are either ranked too high or drafted too high; in other words, fantasy owners won’t receive the kind of numbers that they should expect from someone drafted at that position. One goalie who stands out to me as this year’s example is Miikka Kiprusoff. I understand that Kipper is good for at least 70 games and 40 wins, with an improved D, thanks to the offseason addition of Jay Bouwmeester and new coach Brent Sutter. However, Kipper’s goals-against average has climbed in each of the last four seasons, while his save percentage has fallen during that same time span. To me, this is not the kind of player that should be drafted early in the second round (ranked 14th overall by Yahoo). To boot, Sutter has speculated that he will not play Kipper nearly as often as he has in past seasons, which may not make 40 wins such a lock any more. Kiprusoff is a good option, similar to a Cam Ward or a Ryan Miller, but he is not an elite option in the same category as Martin Brodeur or Roberto Luongo. Because someone else in my league will either disagree with me or just follow the default rankings, they’ll draft Kiprusoff before I would; meaning that he likely won’t be on any of my teams this season. Marcus Schalle - DobberHockey.com I'm avoiding Martin Biron and the goalie triangle in Long Island. A common and successful strategy is to draft starting goalies who will play the majority of the games even if they hit a slump during the season. Last year there were multiple teams that went with the platoon approach and many fantasy GMs went crazy picking players off the waiver wire. Having three goalies that were #1 goalies last season on one team is unheard of. At the moment there is no clear cut #1 in Long Island although it looks like Biron has the edge but he can just as easily be playing in the AHL if he gets off to a bad start and DiPietro returns from injury. Although the reward is enticing you are better off taking Smith/Budaj over any of these three goalies and letting another GM deal with the triangle dilemma. Avoid at all costs. Steven Ovadia - RotoRob.com As always, I'm avoiding Marty Turco of the Dallas Stars. The only thing interesting about his stats is how they've consistently declined over the past few seasons. There are some goalies, like Calgary's Miikka Kiprusoff, who are risky. But there's always the chance they'll have a better season. With Turco, you just never have that ray of hope. His game is slipping and the Stars seem to have appointed him goalie-for-life. I wish I had his job security. But I don't want him on my roster. Trackback(0)
Comments (5)
  written by David Miller, September 20, 2009
I had the #1 pick in our 12 team, 10 keeper league. Most G's were already kept but Rinne, Smith, Emery, the Colorado guy (Anderson?) and Bryzgalov were available. I had LeClaire, Quick and Rask but nobody guaranteed a potload of GP's and Starts. Emery was the guy. He's got a Cup contending team a very god bunch of defensemen in front of him now including Pronger BUT I couldn't pull the trigger. I picked Rinne from a non-playoff bound team although good Dmen and a personal history of good stats but not in nearly the perfect siltuation a Emery. The team 2 picks after me took Emery.
I guess that means my advice is "stay away from Emery.' Others? Lundquist(sp?) goes to high for Rangers' weak defense but I just don't rank him as high as the top 5. Another? Well I staying away from all things Phoenix. last, I don't think Huet is bonafide #1 goalie and will dissappoint. I love the Hawks style of play and hope I'm wrong. On the plus side Steve Mason still has non-believers and is dropping in drafts. Grab him for espeially for shutouts. Don't just judge by Win potential. The Bulin wall can be had in later rounds too and will play 70 games. PS: Tell your leagues about this site. We, as users, NEED to direct traffic her if we expect hockey to succeed. Oh and lemme know if your league needs an owner. KEVIN? Will there be a fantasypros911/hockey/usersleague?
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written by Kevin Orris, September 18, 2009
I fixed the error- we apologize. What do you guys think of the concept?
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Tags: goalies NHL fantasy hockey Martin Biron Rick DiPietro Dwayne Roloson J.S. Giguere Jonas Hiller Pascal Leclaire Antoine Vermette Ilya Bryzgalov Kari Lehtonen Miika Kiprusoff Jay Bouwmeester Cam Ward Ryan Miller Martin Brodeur Roberto Luongo Miikka Kiprusoff
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Jesse Mendelson posted his Netminder Notes column for the week today and he also discusses this topic among all things goalie. It's currently on the main page at FantasyPros911.com and has very important advice.
As far as Huet goes, I'm a diehard Blackhawks fan and I believe that he will get 70% of the starts, but the defense needs to prevent as many shots as possible. His five hole is too slow and he gets killed in shootouts, especially against five hole shooters.
Thanks for commenting and keep coming back every day for more.