Weekend Outlook: Short and long-term options in net

Happy Friday everyone! We made it, end of the week and to reward us the NHL has given us one game. NHL scheduling.... Buddy. Pal. However, there are some spots this weekend that could get us ahead for the long and short term, let’s dive in!

Filip Gustavsson, G, Minnesota Wild (Rostered in 2% of ESPN leagues, 31% Fantrax, 17% Yahoo)
5 starts, 1 win, 1 OTL, 3.21 GA/G, .901Sv%, 0 SO

I write about season long fantasy hockey over at Dobber Hockey, and on Friday’s I focus on Looking Ahead at the schedule and how it can benefit your fantasy team(s). Today I wrote up Filip Gustavsson and want to share that piece of that blog, not only because I think it can help you here, but also because Gustavsson might be a very beneficial addition to a fantasy lineup.

We got some tough news out of the Wild’s practice earlier this week concerning starting goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury, which is disappointing for those who roster him in fantasy but replacing him could make for an interesting pivot.

I can’t say I follow Minnesota Wild morning skate or optional skates too closely, but when Wild head coach Dean Evason spoke with the media on Wednesday he informed us that Marc-Andre Fleury is dealing with an upper-body injury and that he doesn’t know at this time just how long Fleury will be sidelined for. This is troubling news for the 37-year-old netminder, but it does give us an opportunity in fantasy to potentially get some starts in net with a lower rostered option in now-starter Filip Gustavsson.

The numbers so far on the year are not horrible for a backup goaltender with a 1-3-1 record, 2.82 GAA and .914Sv% prior to Thursday's game. Fleury got off to a slow start at the beginning of this season, but both him and the Wild were starting to turn it around some here in the past week or so. I think Gustavsson might be a slight step down but with the fantasy goalie landscape being as it is this season, being able to plug and play a goaltender is a big relief with not needing to worry about if someone is starting or not on a given night. Gustavsson will be tested here coming up with Carolina, Winnipeg, and Toronto on the schedule, but Minnesota will be on home ice where the past couple of seasons they have been significantly better than on the road. With no timetable set for Fleury, I think Gustavsson could help your fantasy squads going ahead.

Jordan Binnington, St. Louis Blues (Rostered in 78% of ESPN leagues, 91% Fantrax, 91% Yahoo) 12 starts, 7 wins, 0 OTL, 2.98 GA/G, .905Sv%, 1 SO

Can this backfire quickly recommending you start Binnington in fantasy or DFS? Yes, absolutely given his track record. The thing is though, Binnington has been very good as of late, allowing two goals in each of his past three games, winning all of them. The Blues will see the Ducks on home ice Saturday, and stop me if you’ve heard this before, St. Louis should have no trouble beating them in regulation.

Binnington was one of the goalies two weeks ago I considered writing up as a write off for fantasy, but I'll give it to him, he’s looked great the past few starts and is in a good spot to earn a victory Saturday. For DFS the Blues forward lines either correlate perfect in DFS or it’s taking pieces of all three lines but one way to get different is to add Binnington to your lineup. I know this is a blog about goalies, but I would avoid correlating a defenseman from St. Louis because I’m sorry DraftKings/FanDuel I’m not paying $7,500 for Justin Faulk to skate around for 25 minutes and give me one shot on goal.

St. Louis has started to find their skates lately and I really do think it has to do with their light schedule to start the season combined with Binnington’s improved play between the pipes. I think he makes a strong case to start this weekend.

Keep an eye on Florida-

Florida has begun to start Spencer Knight a fair bit here, with Sergei Bobrovsky’s start last night being only his second since Nov. 5th, and he was pulled after allowing four goals on just 11 shots. Knight looked good replacing Bobrovsky from the second period on allowing only one goal on 17 shots and that’s against a Dallas club that has led the NHL in scoring over the past two weeks. Florida will play back-to-back games this weekend both on home ice versus Calgary and Columbus. Usually for a weekend back-to-back we can assume that either the “backup” will get the start on Sunday, or we just go off of who started the previous and go from there, but in this situation yesterday with Florida using both goaltenders it gets a little interesting. We may have a solution. My guess is that Knight will be the probable starter tomorrow versus Calgary, just off of rotation and how well he’s playing and let’s just be honest here, Calgary is a much better team than Columbus. Florida should skate tomorrow morning and even if it’s an optional skate, we’ll still have confirmation as to who is in the starter’s net and go from there. If it’s Knight, that means Bobrovsky on Sunday, and vice versa.