…there’s an Emily Dickinson poem that goes like this:
I’m Nobody! Who are you?
Are you – Nobody – too?
Then there’s a pair of us!
Don’t tell! they’d advertise – you know!
How dreary – to be – Somebody!
How public – like a Frog –
To tell one’s name – the livelong June –
To an admiring Bog!
…and it came to mind as I was thinking about this piece. Because when it comes to goalies in fantasy hockey, I’m nobody. Who are you?…
Nursin’ Patience (In Isolation)
It wouldn’t be a Fantasy Hockey Professor article without a random musical insert. So here’s one to get things started…(headphones please).
The Discord-ant Hum
In the Apples & Ginos Fantasy Hockey Discord server (and probably other places too), no topic gets discussed as much as goalies. Who to draft, who to roster, who to pick up, who to drop, who to start, and who to sit conversations abound. I should know because I’m the originator and participant in most of these convos (ok, I’ll stop).
One of the challenges in fantasy hockey is the reality that, no matter how much we try to analyze, predict, and speculate, we can never quite get a firm handle on things. It’s ever evolving and can be difficult to accept at times. We want definitives in a land of speculatives.
So one of the things I’ve settled into, and I can assure you that there’s a significant amount of babbling and incoherent vacillation involved, is to accept this reality. It’s the idea that we need to be continually adapting throughout our collective seasons and across our teams and leagues.
This is a large part of fantasy hockey’s appeal to me. Unfortunately, and like most sparkling things, there is generally a cost involved .
Pono (shout out to Steve McGarrett)
…Dang. Professor with the deep cut. Makin’ us work here!
One approach regarding goalies is the Zero-G draft strategy originated by this site’s Yoda-In-Residence, Nate Groot Nibbelink.
In a nutshell, it involves not spending a lot of draft capital on goalies. In other words, dedicate the majority of your draft picks (especially early) on acquiring the best skaters; the thought being that goalies are the most easily replaceable players. By building a formidable core of offensively talented players, you avoid the potential drawback of having to chase points through dropping and adding skaters as the season progresses. But perhaps more importantly, you can minimize the all too real potential of being hamstrung by having to hang on to a too early drafted goalie who inevitably slogs through the machinations inherent in goaltending. In this way, you avoid succumbing to the sunk cost fallacy.
A key concept of the Zero-G Drafting Strategy, and one which I think is often overlooked, is to be found in the word “drafting.” I think too many times fantasy hockey managers think that Zero-G involves either purposely playing “chicken” with other managers on draft day or not drafting goalies at all. This is not the case.
My interpretation is to take a more flexible approach when it comes to utilizing Zero-G.
For example, in my two A&G Listener Leagues, while other managers were “playing chicken” employing a Zero-G approach, I was able to draft Ilya Sorokin (Round 12) and Connor Hellebuyck (Round 7) because they “fell to me” in relatively late rounds. That’s what those two drafts afforded me and it worked out. I went into each of those drafts with the idea of drafting my first goalie somewhere between Rounds 10 or even later depending on availability. However, I wasn’t afraid to adjust my approach and thereby selected these two more “Hero-G”-like goalies because they were too good to pass up.
In my home league (Yahoo Public), which values goalies higher than the Listener Leagues, few managers employed Zero-G which left the pickings rather slim for me and I’ve since been adding and dropping goalies as the situation dictates.
Below is a list of the goalies I drafted in my three leagues this year.
Apples & Ginos Listener League 4 (12 Team HTH Points League):
Ilya Sorokin in Round 12
Darcy Kuemper in Round 14
Sam Montembeault in Round 19
Apples & Ginos Listener League 6 (12 Team HTH Points League):
Connor Hellebuyck in Round 7
Pyotr Kochetkov in Round 16
Anthony Stolarz in Round 19
Yahoo Public League (12 Team HTH Points League):
Darcy Kuemper in Round 12
Sam Montembeault in Round 16
Focusing on my Yahoo Public League above, you can see that I still employed Zero-G, drafting Kuemper and Montembeault in Rounds 12 and 16 respectively. At the time, I was quite happy with my draft because I was able to build a very strong roster of skaters, especially with regard to the defensemen I secured, namely Noah Dobson, Zach Werenski, Roman Josi, and Rasmus Dahlin. (As a side note, I’ve subsequently added Jakob Chychrun and Moritz Seider to go full on Heavy D mode. Hey, that would be a good DJ handle, no?).
It should be pretty clear that I leaned in pretty hard to defense this year, the rationale being that top quality defenders are harder to come by.
One of the common arguments to counter the Zero-G approach is that by doing so, you end up having to spend a lot of time and effort scrambling for goaltending. In at least my home league, this has certainly been an issue especially considering that in that league, goalies are valued more so than in my other leagues.
As a consequence, it’s been challenging to discover goalies that can help my team. Nonetheless, I’ve grown a bit more comfortable taking chances on goalies I wouldn’t normally consider rostering. The upside is that I don’t have to agonize as much on skaters because my core is relatively strong. It’s a shift to be sure, but one I’ve become accustomed to over time and it’s been paying off.
Boards of Canada
So what do we do with this Professor? How will this help me and my team?
…you’re asking the guy who added David Rittich at 10:24 pm on a night where the Kings had a 10:30 puck drop and No Save of Any Kind Dave proceeded to lay the most significant egg in the annals of egg-laying…But I’m not bitter or anything.
Whether or not you use or have used the Zero-G Draft strategy, it’s pretty clear to me that it’s the rare goalie who I’d call “set and forget.” The position has evolved, at least in terms of fantasy hockey, into a year-long battle that must be waged by active fantasy managers.
Here’s the “answer,” which sort of reminds me of the theme of the story/film The Razor’s Edge. In that tale, the main character travels the world in pursuit of the meaning of life. At the end of his journey (spoiler alert!), he approaches the Big Kahuna of Kahunas and poses just that question.
And in true Big Kahuna fashion, the sagemiester’s response is something along the lines of the meaning of life is to live life.
Therefore, we must be constantly on the lookout for goalies and matchups we feel optimize our chances of success on any given night. It can be either exhausting or exhilarating. And it’s that same razor’s edge that is often the difference.
Whatever the case, please keep in mind that you don’t pedal alone and that I wish you all Happy Cycling.
Apples and Ginos 