This article is part of our The Goalie Report series.
With the 2023-24 season starting tomorrow, RotoWire's Goalie Report is back to help you figure out the most fickle position in fantasy hockey.
For most of the cap era, and in all the seasons before then, most teams used a maximum of three goalies: a starter who got the lion's share of the workload, a backup to spell the starter when he got tired, and a third-string minor leaguer who was called up in case of injury.
That has changed.
With the game faster than ever, and scorers better than ever, the need for quality goaltending has never been more dire. The problem: there just aren't that many good goalies. Over the past two seasons, over 100 goalies have made appearances in each of the past two seasons, including 119 in the 2021-22 season alone. Timeshares are more common and goalies don't start nearly as many games as they did 15 years ago, when 70 starts was normal for the likes of Martin Brodeur and Miikka Kiprusoff.
Here's the preseason edition of The Goalie Report and which goalies to watch for in the 2023-24 season.
Trending Up
Justus Annunen, Avalanche (Last season in AHL: 22-10-8, .916 Sv%, 2.55 GAA)
Annunen has been the starter for AHL Colorado in the past two seasons and gets his lucky break with Pavel Francouz sidelined by a groin injury. Annunen has four games of NHL experience under his belt, but he hasn't been particularly effective at stopping pucks despite a winning record of
With the 2023-24 season starting tomorrow, RotoWire's Goalie Report is back to help you figure out the most fickle position in fantasy hockey.
For most of the cap era, and in all the seasons before then, most teams used a maximum of three goalies: a starter who got the lion's share of the workload, a backup to spell the starter when he got tired, and a third-string minor leaguer who was called up in case of injury.
That has changed.
With the game faster than ever, and scorers better than ever, the need for quality goaltending has never been more dire. The problem: there just aren't that many good goalies. Over the past two seasons, over 100 goalies have made appearances in each of the past two seasons, including 119 in the 2021-22 season alone. Timeshares are more common and goalies don't start nearly as many games as they did 15 years ago, when 70 starts was normal for the likes of Martin Brodeur and Miikka Kiprusoff.
Here's the preseason edition of The Goalie Report and which goalies to watch for in the 2023-24 season.
Trending Up
Justus Annunen, Avalanche (Last season in AHL: 22-10-8, .916 Sv%, 2.55 GAA)
Annunen has been the starter for AHL Colorado in the past two seasons and gets his lucky break with Pavel Francouz sidelined by a groin injury. Annunen has four games of NHL experience under his belt, but he hasn't been particularly effective at stopping pucks despite a winning record of 2-1-1, managing a .859 save percentage. Regardless, on a high-scoring team, Annunen will get plenty of goal support and should manage to pick up a few wins this season, making him a viable streaming option.
Jack Campbell, Oilers (Last season: 21-9-4, .888 Sv%, 3.41 GAA)
Campbell's 21 wins ranked 24th in the league last season despite his atrocious performances in his first year with the Oilers. He was usurped by Stuart Skinner, but the Oilers aren't going to give up on Campbell so easily after committing $25 million. Look for Campbell to re-establish some sort of timeshare, and even if his save percentage doesn't pick up, he'll still get his wins.
Joey Daccord, Kraken (Last season in AHL: 26-8-3, .918 Sv%, 2.38 GAA)
We've been hearing Daccord's name ever since the Kraken picked him in the expansion draft, and in his third season, it looks like he's prepared to make his mark. Daccord led AHL Coachella Valley to the Calder Cup final and beat out Chris Driedger, who spent most of last season recovering from a knee injury, for the backup job. Philipp Grubauer is one of the league's worst starters, and on a balanced Kraken squad with an experienced defense, Daccord is worth keeping an eye on in case he starts really challenging for the starting job.
Casey DeSmith, Canucks (Last season: 15-16-4, .905 Sv%, 3.17 GAA)
Traded twice in the off-season, from Pittsburgh to Montreal and then onto Vancouver, DeSmith will enter the season as Thatcher Demko's backup after Spencer Martin was waived and claimed by Columbus. DeSmith started 33 games last season in place of the oft-injured Tristan Jarry and may see a similar role this season behind Demko, who appeared in just 32 games last season due to injury.
Jonas Johansson, Lightning (Career: 11-13-4, .886 Sv%, 3.35 GAA)
As of Sunday evening, the last day teams can place players on waivers before submitting their final rosters on Monday, the Lightning have yet to acquire a goalie to replace the injured Andrei Vasilevskiy, who will miss 8-10 weeks due to back surgery. That pushes Johansson into the forefront, and putting aside his poor career numbers so far, he's now the No. 1 goalie on arguably one of the best teams in the league. Even as a speculative add, Johansson needs to be rostered right now.
Devon Levi, Sabres (Last season: 5-2-0, .905 Sv%, 2.94 GAA)
The Sabres have yet to make the formal announcement, but look for Levi, the sixth-last pick in the 2020 draft, to be their starter. The highly-touted Levi was a two-time winner of the Mike Richter Award for best collegiate goalie in three seasons with Northeastern and turned pro late last season. Despite his smaller stature during a time where teams are obsessed with big goalies, Levi's athleticism, quickness and hockey IQ are elite. He's been the most popular pick for breakout goalie this season.
Akira Schmid, Devils (Last season: 9-5-2, .922 Sv%, 2.13 GAA)
Vitek Vanecek will have to watch his back all season because Schmid is going for the starting job. To say Vanecek faltered in the playoffs would be a huge understatement; he was downright horrible (1-3, .825 Sv%, 4.64 GAA) and, consequently, Schmid has been a very popular sleeper pick. Schmid is worth a stash just in case he takes over as the starter.
Trending Down
Ville Husso, Red Wings (Last season: 26-22-7, .896 Sv%, 3.11 GAA)
Husso's first season with the Wings, and also his first as the starter, was a mixed bag. He started off strong but faded by March, going 3-7-2 with a .862 save percentage to finish the season. The Wings are slated to carry three goalies into opening night; instead of one backup pushing Husso, there will now be two of them, a strong indication the team lacks confidence in their starter. James Reimer and Alex Lyon will both figure into the timeshare, hurting Husso's fantasy value due to a decline in playing time.
Spencer Knight, Panthers (Last season: 9-8-3, .901 Sv%, 3.18 GAA)
Knight left the team late last season and entered the NHL/NHL Assistance Program to seek help with obsessive-compulsive disorder. He was a full participant in training camp, but after two seasons serving as Sergei Bobrovsky's backup, Knight was assigned to the AHL to start the season. This is a minor setback for his promising career, and no doubt he will get called up at some point this season. In the meantime, the Panthers will begin the season with Bobrovsky and Anthony Stolarz in net.
Linus Ullmark, Bruins (Last season: 40-6-1, .938 Sv%, 1.89 GAA)
The puck has yet to drop so this may seem premature, but Ullmark and the Bruins are expected to regress significantly this season. Without the services of possibly the best two-way player in the modern era — Patrice Bergeron, in case anyone had forgotten — and with numbers which were simply just too good to be sustained, Ullmark is highly unlikely to have as much fantasy value this season. Keep in mind, Jeremy Swayman still demands a big role in what may end up being an equal timeshare yet again.
