Top 100 Keeper Goalie Ramblings

Dobber Hockey and Goalie Post recently dropped their Top 100 Keeper Goalie Rankings, now categorized into helpful “tier” rankings and completely updated for the 2026-27 NHL season ahead. You can find the full list of 100 keepers right here. Now that you’ve checked that out, let’s go ahead and break it down ramblings style:

Tier 0

Andrei Vasilevskiy TBL, Logan Thompson WAS, Igor Shesterkin NYR

Thompson joins the top of the list and rightfully so. The Capitals keeper has back-to-back 30 plus win campaigns with a greater than .910 SV% and a less than 2.50 GAA in each of them. With Washington loading up via free agent frenzy, fantasy managers are expecting the Caps to contend for a Cup in what may be Ovi’s last season.

Shesterkin may not provide top 3 fantasy goalie stats next season, but these rankings are betting on his elite talent and high floor, even on a struggling Rangers club. Interestingly, the same bet is not being made on Connor Hellebuyck, who’s subpar play last season delegated him to the next tier down.

Vasi is king, that is all.

Tier 1

Jake Oettinger DAL, Jeremy Swayman BOS, Connor Hellebuyck WPG, Karel Vejmelka UTA, Ilya Sorokin NYI, Lukas Dostal ANA, Carter Hart VGK, Mackenzie Blackwood COL, Spencer Knight CHI, Linus Ullmark OTT

Spencer Knight and Lukas Dostal join the proven veterans. Most of these goalies are legitimate volume starters and look primed to surpass the 30 win threshold without tanking your metrics. Out of these ten goalies, though, Dostal seems the most likely to doom said metrics. After the Ducks were a bottom-five team in goals allowed last season (3.51 GA/G), they went out and revamped their blue line: out went Olen Zellweger with veterans John Carlson, Jacob Trouba, and captain Radko Gudas, and in came … well, Nick Jensen and … internal promotions?

Hart could be a risky play at this tier, too. While he was the clear cut starter for Vegas’ run to the Stanley Cup Finals, that was with a different head coach at the helm, not to mention, his crease-mate Adin Hill is not far removed from a similar Stanley Cup run. I use the word similar because Hill’s playoff heroics actually culminated in hoisting the Stanley Cup with Vegas. Hill, also, has the larger contract.

Similarly, Blackwood has the larger contract in Colorado, but holds no such guarantee for the lion’s share of starts there. 48 games may be enough to land 30 wins on a powerhouse team like the Avalanche, though it would be Blackwood’s first time reaching that milestone.

Tier 2

Dan Vladar PHI, Brandon Bussi CAR, Jesper Wallstedt MIN, Jakub Dobes MTL, Filip Gustavsson MIN, Dustin Wolf CGY, Jacob Fowler MTL, Yaroslav Askarov SJS, Juuse Saros NSH, Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen BUF, John Gibson DET

This tier brings us to 24 goalies deep and there is still tons of fantasy value here. There is a very real chance that Montreal’s tandem of Jakub Dobes and Jacob Fowler end up with comparable numbers to what Filip Gustavsson and Jesper Wallstedt pulled off in Minnesota last year.

Having Dan Vladar at the top of this tier and John Gibson at the bottom showcase just how “tier rankings” are meant to be used: the difference on this list between 10 goalie ranks is really just the difference of a couple of wins between middle of the pack clubs. If the Flyers make the playoffs then it could justify taking Vladar earlier in a fantasy draft. But if the Red Wings make the playoffs then you would get the same fantasy value from your goalie position roughly two draft rounds later, allowing you to acquire more quality skaters in the process.

Tier 3

Jet Greaves CBJ, Devon Levi EDM, Scott Wedgewood COL, Joey Daccord SEA, Arturs Silovs PIT, Joel Hofer STL, Sergei Bobrovsky TOR, Jacob Markstrom FLA, Alex Lyon BUF, Joseph Woll TOR, Daniil Tarasov DET, Darcy Kuemper LAK, Frederik Andersen EDM

This group is a mixed bag of bright upsides and fading stars in which Greaves is the pick of the litter.

Wedgewood has the surest floor for the year ahead, but his contract expires at the end of this season and after that his time with the Avs may come to an end, in which case his fantasy value would suffer greatly.

Daccord and Hofer look to be clear cut starters but who knows where Seattle and St. Louis will finish in the standings at the end of the year. Or in three years, for that matter.

Bobrovsky, Markstrom, and Andersen may all have Stanley Cup aspirations, but their age adds uncertainty to their fantasy situations. Father Time spares no fantasy goalie.

Tarasov’s name may appear out of place here, but he has a great chance of being handed the starter’s reigns in Detroit for at least a couple of seasons while Trey Augustine matures. Currently, John Gibson is set to become a unrestricted free agent in 2027.

Tier 4

Nico Daws NJD, Sergei Murashov PIT, Sebastian Cossa UTA, Stuart Skinner WPG, Devin Cooley CGY, Akira Schmid FLA, Jordan Binnington STL, Anton Forsberg LAK, Colten Ellis BUF, Jake Allen NJD, Tristan Jarry EDM, Alex Nedljkovic SJS, Pyotr Kochetkov CAR, Dylan Garand NYR, Kevin Lankinen VAN, Thatcher Demko VAN, Ville Husso ANA, Anthony Stolarz TOR, Elvis Merzlikins CBJ, Adin Hill VGK, Samuel Montembeault MTL, Joonas Korpisalo NYR, Philipp Grubauer SEA

This is where we get to the “Zero G’s” of keeper and dynasty leagues. With just a hint of puck luck any of Schmid, Forsberg, Allen, Kochetkov, Demko, Stolarz, and Hill could be rostered on fantasy teams that end up winning their league’s championship.

I won’t list out the remaining 40 ranked goalies, but be sure to check the full list here if you haven’t already done so.

Next week is “Bubble Keeper” week at Dobber Hockey, so if any readers have specific keeper decisions they would like to see discussed in next week’s article - please drop me a line on X: @garrett_fi51284.

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. Now 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!