Drop M.Smith or C.Anderson for Montoya

[echoboomer]

Which one would you go with? Or neither?

Scoring in sig.

[Slaxys]

I have a same question for my league, though my point scoring is a bit different.

[Veritas0Aequitas]

I would drop Mike Smith for Montoya.

[Soco]

I'd also drop Smith for Montoya.

[dmvincent]

I agree with the others, drop Smith for Montoya. Here's a great read on Montoya by Justin Goldman.
http://thegoalieguild.com/2011/10/wh...toya-starting/

[Soco]

Great read dmvincent. Thanks for posting that.

[shaun]

Great read. That helps me with my decision on Montoya in my SR league. I'll be hanging onto him for a while. Thank you.

[Briarpatch00]

I hunched on Montoya and was able to stash him before the season started. Was my last pick in my draft, LOL and people even looked at me a little funny.

Fate has worked well for Montoya... drafted by the Rangers 7 YEARS AGO! Sat behind Bryz in PHO, and then ends up behind the biggest band-aid boy of all and a guy whose psyche must be messed coming back from the KHL to no fanfare.

I hope he stays with NYI as their goalie of today and tomorrow...

[bondon]

I will go against the grain and say hold onto Smith and Anderson.

Obviously the very unpopular opinion, but here's the way I look at it.

- Montoya has been great and seems to be their #1 guy, but all bets are off once he has a bad game IMO.
- From all that I've heard + the stats that I've seen, Smith has had two bad periods and four really good ones. Everyone knew going into this season that Smith was going to be a roll-the-dice type pick, and I'd say so far he's actually been exceeding expectations.

Phoenix gave up 52 shots or something in the game that he allowed six goals. First of all, wtf 52 shots. What stands out to me though is that even being down 6-1 going into the third period of that game, he still battled hard and stopped all 14 shots in the third period of that game, allowing them to mount a mini comeback and score two goals to draw it to 3-6 final score.

Then the very next game he comes out and puts up a 26/27 game or something like that, and if not for that goal to tie the game near the end of the third he would have had a 1-0 shutout.

The threat of LaBarbera is very real, but the threat of Nabokov/DiPietro is very real as well. So for all the reasons stated, I'm gonna go with Smith.

[Priceless]

I still don't understand why is there so much love lately for montoya (or even dubynk). There are still way too many question marks before anyone should consider replacing a sure starter.

[Slaxys]

the love is because goalies, especially decent starters are hard to get once the draft is over. I'm going to stick with Smith until I get more news about the NYI goalie situation.

[bondon]

I still don't understand why is there so much love lately for montoya (or even dubynk). There are still way too many question marks before anyone should consider replacing a sure starter.

I agree to an extent.
As lunalunatic mentioned it is very hard to get a good starter once the draft is finished, not only to use as an important role on your fantasy squad, but also to use as trade bait. A lot of the time goalies can be used as trade chips throughout the season, injuries happen and people sometimes need stopgap goalies in order to stay afloat.

Last year I took Neuvirth in the last round of my draft because I had heard that he could seriously contend for the starting job. As the season started, Neuvirth was shining and I managed to turn Neuvirth + Duchene into Nash + Pavelec. I later flipped Pavelec at the peak of his hot streak to get Crawford in a larger deal which also saw D.Sedin coming back my way.

People can really go bonkers when trying to find that 'next big goalie'. I mean, we see it everywhere, even here on the boards. Most teams are two-three games into the season and we have people dropping Anderson based on two (now three) games, we have people who had already given up on Smith after one game where he was pretty much left hung out to dry by his team just to see him post up 26/27 in his next game...etc. etc.

Goldman wrote a kickass piece for nhl.com and I don't think he could have stressed it enough.

Even though we're only five days into the new season, it's never too early to assess your fantasy goalies, so if there's one piece of advice we can give you for this week, it would be to stay patient with your picks. It's easy to overreact after a starter gets shelled in their first game, but it's wise to give these guys a chance to bounce back. Let them shake off the rust, get into a rhythm and get comfortable in their new surroundings.

If things went terribly wrong for you in the shortened fantasy week, don't despair and show no fear. Stay the course you started down and trust your choices. If you drafted Craig Anderson, it's easy to discard him after two rough outings, but your patience could pay off in the long run. If you drafted Jose Theodore, temper your excitement and realize he's not going to pitch a shutout every night. If you drafted Tim Thomas, don't lose sight of the fact that, despite two strong outings to start the season, Tuukka Rask is still being penciled in to play much more this year.

When it comes to goaltending at the NHL level, patience with your picks might be the most important lesson you learn all year. Regardless of whether your goalies are elite or fringe backups, things change quickly. A goalie's confidence can be gained with a single glove save or destroyed with a single missed poke check. Don't do anything drastic this early in the season, and try not to second-guess yourself until you have a good sample-size to work with. One or two games reveals a lot, but not enough to go out and drop true starters or goalies that could have an elevated role or value in the season's second half.

http://www.nhl.com/ice/news.htm?id=595305

[PocketRockets05]

GREAT post B0ndon. +1

I would not do anything yet regarding dropping M.Smith or Anderson for Montoya.

I think M.Smith and Anderson will both get more starts (and wins) than Montoya this year. SV% I'd give the edge to Anderson. GAA I'd give the edge to M.Smith. I think Montoya will be somewhere in between. His GAA will be better than Anderson's but not as good as M.Smith's. His SV% will be better than Smith's but as good as Anderson's.

Individual player breakdowns:

Anderson - was great since coming over in the trade from Colorado. He has a proven track record of performing well on a not so great team so the potential is there as well as the motivation. Ottawa went out on the limb to pay this guy a lot of money until 2015. He's going to want to show them they made the right choice.

M.Smith - Dave Tippett system here. The way Phoenix (and Nashville) play bodes well for good goalie numbers. Other than Bryz and Jovo Phoenix pretty much has the same team as last year.


Personally, I'd stay the course for now and hold on to Anderson/M.Smith. If I had to drop one I'd choose M.Smith as his band-aid boy status scares the crap out of me.

[echoboomer]

Thanks a lot for keeping me rational guys. I plan to hold onto Smith and Anderson for at least a couple more weeks.

I need to see what happens to Montoya after he takes some bad losses... which he will eventually. If someone picks him up in the meantime... then I will move on and be content.

Anderson got me the win last night. Can't complain.