Goalie Ramblings - Entering the 2025-26 Season

The season is upon us at last! And once again your success or failure is riding on goaltending. Sure, you're league commissioner has done everything possible to adjust the categories and category weights to help mitigate that. But it's futile. If your goalies all stink this year, you're probably toast unless you somehow have all of Connor McDavid, Nikita Kucherov, Brady Tkachuk and Cale Makar. Which you don't.

Even the top goalies in the world, the ones you can "rely" on, have let us down. Aside from Hellebuyck, who has been great for three straight years now. But the other two guys who I deem "elite" has let us down. Andrei Vasilevskiy had a "so-so" season two years ago, followed by one that started late due to injury - and went downhill from there when he returned. He redeemed himself last season and put himself back on the elite list. But it goes to show - even the most reliable goalies can let you down. Igor Shesterkin, who I still feel is a top goalie in the world, had a terrible year. Will he bounce back? It's way too uncertain for me to put him in the elite category, placing him in my Tier 0. (If you're unfamiliar, my goalies are broken into tiers and you can see them via the Rankings link at the bottom).

The safest bet after Vasilevskiy and Hellebuyck is probably Filip Gustavsson of Minnesota. He's a lock to play at least 55 games and he'll probably put up great numbers just from the system the Wild play. Cup Champ Sergei Bobrovsky is another safe one. Jake Oettinger is a safe pick for wins, but his peripherals haven't been great for two years now. He'll get his 35 wins because Dallas will keep winning, but his GAA and SV% might be "meh". After that, the question marks start to arise: Mackenzie Blackwood, though unproven, should be a safe bet on the Avs. Darcy Kuemper was "too" good last year. It should be safe to take him this year, but don't expect quite that good. He was a couple of saves shy of posting a sub 2.00 GAA!

Logan Thompson can't stop winning, but the Caps were playing above their heads last season - the metrics across the board scream decline! And that's if Thompson can stay healthy, which I'm not yet convinced he can do.

Can Ilya Sorokin bounce back? The Islanders should score a few more goals in front of him now with a revamped team, but the defensemen aren't exactly amazing. Can Thatcher Demko stay healthy? To me - it's not a question of if he is still good. I still think he's a great goaltender and whenever a goalie returns from long-term injury he stumbles for a few months (see Vasilevskiy, Andrei). My question is can Demko stay healthy? If you pick him and he does, then you got yourself a pretty good goalie.

Who will come out of the Toronto situation? I like Anthony Stolarz better than Joseph Woll - always have, even when the Leafs first signed him. But injuries keep bouncing the goalie job back and forth. Frustrating to say the least.

Next question - how much longer with Stuart Skinner suck? I mean, he was soundly outplayed by Calvin Pickard. Does Pickard make a great sleeper or what? He might be worth a stash with your final draft pick. Just in case. But I warn you - the Oilers will ride Skinner for at least a month before making any big switch like that. So any decision on a Pickard stash needs to factor that in. If you have no patience and an itch trigger finger - lay off.

In keeper leagues I'm really loving Dustin Wolf (uh, who doesn't?) and Karel Vejmelka. Calgary will eventually get going, and Wolf will be spearheading that. Utah looks like they're ready to take off right now, and if so - Vejmelka makes for a nice pick.

Anyway, good luck in your drafts. Don't forget to add Goalie Post to your bookmarks and make sure you rate and review our app!