Coffee in the Crease: Goaltender tandems and lower rostered options

It’s mid-November, which means we’re right in the swing of things and there’s a couple goaltending situations we have to dive into to start the week.

Tandem #1 – Edmonton

I feel like no matter who Edmonton has on the roster in net there is always some sort of goalie start/sit controversy. Last season we had the Stuart Skinner, Mike Smith, and even Mikko Koskinen to watch on who was going to start night-to-night. That leads us to this season with the teeter totter Stuart Skinner / Jack Campbell balancing act.

Those who roster either goalie have probably been somewhat upset with the results that Campbell has given them, but pleasantly surprised with the output from Skinner. Campbell has posted a 6-4-0 record but coming off a seven goals against loss to Carolina last Thursday hasn’t inspired much confidence. Skinner on the other hand has looked much better with a 3-3-0 record and is fresh off a win versus Florida, where he got peppered by 40 shots on goal, only allowing two.

What I think happens here, at least in the short term, is that Edmonton continues to give Campbell starts in net but for those with him on their roster, if you have the space it might not be a bad idea to roster both him and Skinner. For those out there in cap leagues, I didn’t understand Edmonton signing Campbell to that contract by playing one good month in Toronto and hardly any playoff experience, so in situations like that it may be well worth rostering the Edmonton tandem. With the Oilers primarily playing their games out west, well past lock, it may be beneficial to do so because in most cases we won’t get starter confirmation until potentially later on in the day. This will be a situation to watch going forward and I'm interested to see how it plays out. Edmonton doesn’t have the most stellar blue line defensively and their forwards defensive ability is less than ideal, so these two may make or break things moving forward.

Tandem #2 - Florida

We have another situation on our hands, and this one has higher roster numbers across all sites between Sergei Bobrovsky and Spencer Knight. The numbers haven’t matched up to last seasons and the one issue here that I’m seeing is that Bobrovsky hasn’t started a game for Florida in over a week with his last start coming on November 5th in a game where he allowed five goals versus the Kings in LA. Since then it’s been all Spencer Knight who has gone 2-1-0 and that includes an impressive shutout win versus Carolina.

What to do here? Florida plays three times this week with a back-to-back Saturday and Sunday, so my guess is they either split time two starts and two starts, or we see Knight start three games with Bobrovsky getting the nod on the second game of the back-to-back. We’ll know the roadmap here once we get confirmation tomorrow when the Panthers take on Washington at home.

Oettinger returns to action

Stars fans and those who roster Jake Oettinger can take a big sigh of relief as the Stars primary netminder is back from injury and looks to be making regular starts in net. Oettinger went down with a lower body injury on Oct 29th in a game against the Rangers and was playing fantastic when he got hurt posting a 5-1-0 record on the season. We were pretty quick on this recommending to add Scott Wedgewood to your fantasy club and he did a good job filling in, going 3-1-0 and allowing only two goals in all of his wins along the way.

Oettinger looked, we’ll go shaky, in his first start back in a surprisingly entertaining game versus San Jose last Friday, I say that because it was both fun to watch and the only game that was on past a certain point Friday night. He did seem to look more to form though last night, only allowing only one goal in a 37 save win versus the Flyers. Oettinger will have his work cut out for him this week with the club on the road in Florida to take on the Bolts and Panthers, then will return home to face the Islanders.

For those who added Scott Wedgewood to the mix, first off it was a good run, and second my guess here is that Oettinger will see all three starts this week. We’ll get to some lower rostered options for the week, but my bet is Dallas is going to turn to Oettinger here this week.

Goalies to target this week

Jake Allen, Montreal Canadiens (Rostered in 12% of ESPN leagues, 58% Fantrax, 38% Yahoo) 10 starts, 5 wins, 0 OTL, 3.19 GA/G, .902 SV%, 0 SO

Word’s gotten out a bit on Allen as a lower rostered option but I think for this week he still makes a good addition. The Habs will play tomorrow at home versus the Devils who if anything means one thing, Allen will see volume and in fantasy and DFS (especially over on DK), volume is king. Montreal will also travel to Columbus on Thursday and will host the Flyers on Saturday, and it’s reasonable to think that Allen starts in all three of these games.

Martin Jones, Seattle Kraken (Rostered in 38% of ESPN leagues, 64% Fantrax, 68% Yahoo) 12 starts, 7 wins, 2 OTL, 2.38 GA/G, .909 SV%, 1 SO

This may not be as lower rostered as we’d like but for those on platforms in smaller leagues or leagues where you only start one goaltender, there’s a good chance that Jones is available. I never thought I’d be recommending anything from Seattle, especially Martin Jones but here we are. Philip Grubauer looks to still be shelved with a lower body injury so Jones should get the nod in both of Seattle’s games this week versus the Rangers on Thursday and Kings on Saturday, both on home ice. Now, this is Martin Jones we’re talking about, so I feel like when adding they need some sort of “viewer discretion” notice when you make the addition but if you need starts in net, he’s going to get them and for now he’s actually looked suitable. He could make for a sneaky good addition this week. Hopefully.

For continued fantasy news and notes throughout the season, follow me on Twitter @ndySanz