Goalie Predictions for the Season Ahead

Welcome to our last offseason Goalie Post rambling! Come next Thursday, we will be back to Goalie Start ‘Em, Sit ‘Em, where we dive into the pivotal, and often loaded, Thursday night slate and decide which goalies you need to start, need to sit, and need to grab off the wire out of desperation. Ah… Thursday’s during fantasy hockey season, what a delight! We will, also, be having plenty of ramblings this season from new writers and old writers alike. For now though, hang on to your butts because we are transporting ourselves to the future! That’s right, the flux capacitor of our time machine has been fully charged and it’s now time to travel to Sunday, April 11, of the year 2027. Let’s see what nuggets of truth we can dig up at the end of the NHL’s 84-game regular season!

Jesper Wallstedt started 50 games for the Wild and looked pretty dang good. His 27 wins weren’t enough to get him into Vezina talks, but his 2.62 GAA and .909 SV% had him finishing in the top 10 of many fantasy league formats. Creasemate Filip Gustavsson finished with similar metrics, but he got off to a slow start after returning from injury in November and ended up yielding starts to Wallstedt early on. His 18 wins would end up as his lowest win total since joining the Wild in 2022.

Looks like there were a handful of goalies that clipped the 30-win mark for the first time in their careers. Jet Greaves of the Blue Jackets, Joel Hofer of The Blues, and Jakub Dobes of the Montreal Canadiens all eclipsed the plateau, while veteran Anton Forsberg fell a little short, but still amassed 24 wins, setting a new career high. Forsberg would end up with six more wins than his post patrol partner, Darcy Kuemper, who missed time with injuries once again.

Pittsburgh Penguins goalie Sergei Murashov would edge out fellow rookies Jacob Fowler (MTL), Joel Blomqvist (PIT), and Sebastian Cossa (UTA) for the most wins by a first-year tendie. Despite the Penguins finishing toward the bottom of the standings, the 22-year-old Russian churned out a solid fantasy performance, posting up 23 wins alongside an unsightly 3.16 GAA, but decent .901 SV%. He was good for saves and starts and has a bright fantasy future ahead of him.

It would be Lukas Dostal, however, who ended the season at the top of the Saves list. The Czech Duck turned aside nearly 1,700 pucks over the 84-game schedule.

It’s great to see that Thatcher Demko recovered from his ailments and took to the ice for 44 contests this season, a number that surpassed his total starts from the past two seasons combined. Of course, the Canucks were circling the drain for most of the year and there was very little that a healthy Demko could do to stave off the inevitable. Once again, Vancouver has been given the best odds in the lottery ahead of the 2027 NHL draft.

Looks like the ones who had Wedgewood ranked ahead of Blackwood were right all along. The 34-year-old’s 26 wins were indeed better than Blackwood’s 25, though his .903 SV% was matched by Blackwood’s own .906 SV%. Colorado, by the way, finished second in the Central and second in the overall standings, just behind the President’s Trophy winning Dallas Stars.

Speaking of the Stars, Jake Oettinger led the league in wins, finishing the season with 39, a new career high. It’s, also, the fifth straight season that Jake the Snake has recorded 35 or more wins. His 2.73 GAA and .903 SV% didn’t top the fantasy goalie rankings, but his wins and overall great play locked him in as a top-3 Vezina candidate.

Logan Thompson and Andrei Vasilevskiy round out the top of the Vezina ballot. Thompson set a new career high with 35 wins, while starting 56 games for the Caps. Meanwhile newcomer Denis Hildeby ate into Vasi’s workload slightly, but it allowed the 32-year-old enough rest to stay sharp throughout the season and the Russian netminder would finish at the top of most category leagues by the end of it with his 2.47 GAA and .916 SV%.

Ilya Sorokin amassed a league-leading seven shutouts. Though the Russian twine-tender only mustered 29 wins despite the 84-game campaign, leading to pretty much the exact same stat line that he put up last season.

Frederik Andersen provided fantasy managers with three shutouts, but was unable to crack even 20 wins. The three-headed monster of Andersen, Jarry, and Levi rotated starts all season long. The Oilers made the playoffs, but nary an Edmonton netminder was able to reach the 20 win threshold.

In Winnipeg, the Jets would, also, finish without a 20 win goalie, though they had two different goalies collect 19. Stuart Skinner and Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen shared crease duties and had the Jets within two points of a playoff berth. Unfortunately, each goalie would go on to lose their last two starts and the Jets wound up tumbling out of the playoff picture on the last game of the season, as Skinner picked up a haunting loss to an Oilers club that was already resting McDavid and Draisaitl. That loss, however, would help Connor Hellebuyck feel justified for abandoning the Jets, as would the playoff berth his new team, the Buffalo Sabres, secured a few days prior.

The goalie that nobody expected to lead their team in wins was Pyotr Kochetkov.

The goalie that nobody expected to fall so far from grace was John Gibson.

Joey Daccord scored the lone goalie goal, while Jake Allen led all goalies with three assists.

Jacob Markstrom compiled 13 penalty minutes, capped off by his goalie fight versus Sergei Bobrovsky in Toronto on March 15. Even fans of other teams should tune in for that bout. Speaking of which, we need to get back so we can watch that match! Better turn the dial back to the end of September and start up the Delorean, it’s almost time for the puck to drop on the NHL’s regular season.

That’s all for this week, thanks for reading! My name is Garrett Finlay and you can follow me on X @garrett_fi51284 and on Bluesky @garrettfinlay.bsky.social where I am often talking goalies and fantasy hockey. You can, also, find me at DobberHockey.com providing injury news and updates every Wednesday throughout the season. Happy Hockeying and good luck out there!