Monday Ramblings

Good morning, good afternoon, and good evening fine people.

It’s been a crazy year for goaltending in the NHL. League wide save percentage has continued to follow a trend downwards, staying consistent with what we’ve been seeing since the 2016-2017 season when league average was a .913 save percentage(!). As of today in the current 2024-2025 season we are sitting at .902. This is resulting in a lot of uncertainty around quite a few goalies in fantasy formats. Gone are the days of taking a guy and never having to wonder if he falters. That is if you didn't draft Connor Hellebuyck, Igor Shesterkin and the likes. Most teams are starting to pass up perimeter shots and volume shooting in favor of attempting to make a few extra passes laterally in order to try and fire off a high danger scoring attempt. Powerplays have become more lethal. We have exited the era of nearly every team having a cereal box worthy goaltender. Okay, maybe I just really miss staring at Curtis Joseph in an Edmonton Oilers jersey and getting free video games in my $2.50 box of nutritious compressed breakfast sawdust. Anyways, more and more teams are transitioning away from the big contract guy in favor of rotating out 1A and 1B guys on cheap, short contracts in order to ride the hot hand all year. In turn, this gives them the flexibility to shuffle out guys who aren’t living up to, or surpassing their expectations in the cage. Let's take a look at a few of these tandems and how they’ve been working out to see if you should have interest in one or both parties.

Jonathan Quick & Igor Shesterkin / New York Rangers

Now this tandem is clearly the opposite of what I discussed in the intro and I want to mention them because this is probably one of the, if not the best goaltending situation in the NHL currently. We know what, and who Igor Shesterkin is as a player and he’s been dominant nearly since he entered the league. Jonathan Quick however, has been an unexpected light for them as a backup. Quick sits seventh in the league this year with a 7.19 GSAA. Shesterkin has had a few stumbles in the past seasons for short times but Quick has regularly been there to pick up the slack for a bit. In Quick’s last five games played he is 3-2 with two of those being shutouts against Seattle and Detroit, and in the other win against Anaheim he cashed out with a .970. Even in one of the losses this past Saturday in Edmonton he stopped the first 18 shots before being overwhelmed by Connor Mcdavid, Leon Draisaitl and company. His age may show in games where he faces 40+ shots but he’s still the guy who haunted fans in the Western Conference for many many years in Los Angeles and it shows. Trust Quick in your streaming spots for now but don’t expect a league winner, as there won’t be a large enough volume of starts.

Karel Vejmelka & Connor Ingram / Utah Hockey Club

Connor Ingram had an amazing 20 game stretch last season for Arizona (now Utah). I feel for the guy right now because his GSAA is sitting pretty ugly with a -10.10. That is good for 65th out of 66 goaltenders who have played 200 minutes or more in the NHL this season. That is.. not great. Ingram was sidelined with an upper-body injury on Nov. 20th and Karel Vejmelka has since taken over starting duties. There is a bit of a misnomer going on with these two as Vejmelka has been the far better goalie statistically speaking sporting a .926 save percentage and a 6.70 GSAA which is good for 10th in the league. However, it has only earned Vejmelka a 2-6-0 record. Ingram is completely on the other side of things and has an .871 save percentage which has somehow granted him a 6-4-3 record. Talk about unlucky for Vejmelka who stopped 49 of 50 shots against the steamroller that is the Carolina Hurricanes on November the 13th. Since the Ingram injury Vejmelka has continued the trend putting up a .947 save percentage in three games and going 1-2-0 including starts in a back-to-back on this past Saturday and Sunday.

Joseph Woll & Anthony Stolarz / Toronto Maple Leafs

I would be lying through my teeth if I didn’t say that I'm jealous of at least half of this tandem. Stolarz put up a great performance for Florida throughout last season. He is now doing even better with a larger role in Toronto. Stolarz sits fourth in the entire league with a 9.07 GSAA. That is ridiculous. Only Lukas Dostal, Connor Hellebuyck, and Filip Gustavsson sit higher than him on that specific totem pole. I’m still sort of iffy on who is going to be named 1A and 1B in this pairing. Woll was out for the first chunk of the season and Stolarz took over mightily well. Woll has since returned and just started two in a row. Woll is the franchise's so-called “guy” since he was drafted 62nd overall with a third round pick in 2016 and he is younger than Stolarz by four years at only 26 years old. I would give Woll the edge to take over the heavier side of the 60/40 split I expect to see here, but he has an injury history and I would be more than happy to hold either or both of these guys for the remainder of the season.

As always everybody thank you all for reading and please give me a follow over on Twitter/X @LOGoalz. I am usually quick to respond to people for any advice and/or banter you’d like to throw my way. Have a great week everyone.