Josh Hutchinson (@JustJoshin41)
I hope you all got your Martin Jones adds in last week because he is our most recent #ZeroG power rankings graduate. He’s now 59% rostered in Yahoo leagues. Who would have thought Martin Jones, who hasn’t had a season save percentage above .900 since the 2017-18 season, would be sitting pretty going into Sunday of week 5 as Seattle’s starter with 7 wins and a .910 save percentage. He’s the 13th ranked goalie in the league at the moment using KKUPFL settings. That’s why we go #ZeroG everybody! Isn’t it beautiful?
Don’t look now but Joonas Korpisalo has started 3 straight games for the injury plagued and overall brutal Columbus Blue Jackets. Elvis Merzlikins has had a horrific start to the year. I don’t think it’s a surprise that Korpisalo, who used to share the net evenly with Merzlikins, would at least be given a shot now that he’s healthy again. He’s performed admirably in those 3 games, posting a .912 save percentage despite facing an average of just under 42 shots/game. If you’re looking for save volume, Korpisalo may be your guy this week. Columbus has 4 games and I would guess that Korpisalo will get at least 2 if not 3 of those starts.
Eric Comrie has been a #ZeroG to Victory regular. His performance has unfortunately taken a nosedive along with the entire Sabres team. The Sabres have lost 5 straight and Comrie has posted a save percentage of .870 or worse in 6 of his last 7 games. Craig Anderson got the start against Boston on Saturday. We’re about to find out how committed the Sabres are to Comrie as their starter. They have 3 games this week with no back-to-backs. If I was the coach and I was trying to win, I would likely be leaning towards starting Anderson for two of those games. Unfortunately for my wallet I’m not the Sabres’ coach, but this is a situation to watch this week. If Anderson gets two of three starts, I would be dropping Comrie for an option with more potential for volume.
Now for our weekly look at the Oilers’ goaltending situation. Campbell and Skinner each started two games and they each had a strong start and a poor start. Recency bias is important here. Campbell’s most recent start against Carolina was particularly bad and he looked clearly shaken. Skinner got the start on Saturday and looked very strong in a 4-2 win against an inexplicably snakebitten Panthers team. Edmonton only has two games this week. I think there’s potential for Skinner to start both as I think he currently has the edge in terms of favor with the team but the more likely scenario is that he and Campbell split those games. Adding Skinner this week won’t be as beneficial for this current week as it may be in the future. I wouldn’t blame you for dropping him for someone with more volume this week, but at 40% rostered and with his stock rising he may not be there if you try to pick him up again.
Week 6 Power Rankings:
- Antti Raanta (46% Rostered) – Carolina
- Akira Schmid (4%) – New Jersey
- Matt Murray(48%)/Erik Källgren (33%) – Toronto
- Jake Allen (38%) – Montreal
- Joonas Korpisalo (6%) – Columbus
- John Gibson (45%) – Anaheim
- Petr Mrazek (5%)/Arvid Soderblom (7%) – Chicago
- James Reimer (37%) – San Jose
- Stuart Skinner (40%) – Edmonton
- Eric Comrie (25%) – Buffalo
Antti Raanta
Freddy Andersen made his annual appearance on the Injured Reserve last week with an undisclosed injury. He is eligible to return on Monday but that doesn’t necessarily mean he will. Antti Raanta is a very solid backup option for Carolina and if Andersen can’t go this week he’ll likely get three starts. This is a risky choice and I wouldn’t be setting your alarms to add him at 3am EST on Monday morning, but watch the injury reports and the quotes from the morning skate on Monday. Raanta will have the highest potential upside this week if he gets the opportunity.
Matt Murray/Erik Källgren
Erik Källgren had a week of ups and downs. The Leafs controlled the majority of play in all three games but could only muster 1 win. He stopped 27 of 29 shots against the Canucks on Saturday in that win but the night prior he allowed a very stoppable goal which ended up being the game winner against Pittsburgh. According to Sheldon Keefe, they had targeted a return for Matt Murray this weekend but he wasn’t quite ready despite feeling good in practice this week. I imagine they’re giving him a little extra time and there’s a distinct possibility that he’ll start this week as early as Tuesday against Pittsburgh.
Is Matt Murray really a good fantasy option? Isn’t he bad? He had one tough game to start the year but if you look at last years stats, on a Senators team that as I discussed in a previous article was very poor defensively, he actually performed pretty well albeit in a small sample size of 20 games. He had a positive GSAx (+3.2) according to moneypuck.com and .906 save percentage. If you eliminate his last game (an 8-5 loss to Arizona in which he got injured) last year, he would have had a .915 save percentage. The Leafs are a considerably better team defensively than people give them credit for (8th in the NHL in 5v5 xGA/60 currently) so it’s not as if he’ll be given a difficult workload. If he returns this week, I think he’ll get a run until Samsonov comes back. If not, it’s clear they’ll stick with Källgren. As with the Carolina situation, check the injury reports early in the week. If you have a spare add to finish out week 5, you may even consider using it to add and stash Murray on the IR. It may be worth your while no matter when he returns.
Akira Schmid
Are we really doing this again New Jersey? The Devils used 7 different goaltenders last year due to injury issues and had the second worst team save percentage in the NHL. Once again, Mackenzie Blackwood is out long term with a MCL sprain and Vitek Vanecek is on the shelf with an undisclosed injury. Vanecek has been skating but was apparently not well enough to dress on Saturday against the Coyotes. Akira Schmid stopped 16 of 18 shots for the win and looks to be the Devils preferred option if Vanecek can’t play this week.
But wait! Wasn’t Schmid one of those 7 goaltenders that sank the Devils season last year? Yes, but this is a very different Devils team. They are an absolute #wagon. They’re first in the league in xGF% by a large margin and also allow the least xGA/60. They’ve only allowed an average of 24 shots per game through 15 games. Needless to say, playing goal for the Devils is the easiest goalie gig in the league this year. Schmid will be in a position to succeed. As with the other #ZeroG options I’ve previously mentioned this week, there is some risk. We don’t know the details of Vanecek’s injury so there’s a lot of hypotheticals involved here. If the injury is worse than it seems and Vanecek can’t play, Schmid could be your guy this week.
If you have any questions or concerns about my power ranking choices, hit me up on Twitter @justjoshin41 or in the Apples & Ginos Discord Server. Happy streaming everyone!
Stats and player information gathered from:
- moneypuck.com
- hockey-reference.com
- naturalstattrick.com
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