Stategy advice

[marsid6687]

For the first time our league is now counting goalie losses as a category--not sure why but I didn't vote for it. Should I even consider drafting a poor goalie who will lose a lot only to hurt the other peripherals? The categories now will be: W, L, GAA, SV% & SO in a 12 team H2H one year league.

Thanks!

[gainerama]

Just draft a good goalie and let fate decide the losses cat. Don't intentionally sabotage the other 4 cats just for this. Draft a good goalie early on and you can draft a riskier goalie in the later rounds that will meet your criteria. Maybe someone like Corey Schneider would be dynamite as a loser goalie in this example.

[PenguinHunter]

Is the Loss category considered a win if you have more losses? Or is it if you have the least number of losses?

It all depends on how the losses are accounted for in the scoring for you to decide which goalies to consider.

If it is the most losses win the category this makes Schneider a very exciting goalie pick, cause he will have great peripherals, just NJ will not get him many wins. Another one to consider would be Mason.

[horrorfan]

I figure that losses will count as a negative (less is better). I can't see any reason why they would count it as a positive.

[metaldude26]

Can't say I'm a fan of this stat at all. Gives very little incentive to playing your goalies much, especially in a H2H. Hit the minimum requirements with a couple of good starts and that leaves you laughing with wins in GAA, Sv% and Losses and a chance at Wins and Shutouts depending on the spread. Meanwhile, your opponent could dig a huge hole with one bad start.

I much prefer a counting stat like Saves instead of Losses to create incentive to keep starting goalies even after you've got good numbers at the minimum.

The overall draft strategy shouldn't change much though. Maybe great goalies on bad teams (Luongo, Schneider, Rask, Varlamov) take a hit but ultimately you want to snag guys who both win and put up good numbers anyhow.

[davemoosehead]

We do Win% (which is basically the same thing as counting losses) and I've found that good goalies stuck in time shares, or "elite" backups become more valuable than usual. Someone like Allen or Elliott will put up great numbers (besides wins) but won't have many losses.

[Atomic Wedgy]

Its gotta be what horrorfan said. I find it hard to believe that a Losses category would be giving positive points. I've only ever heard of it giving negative points.

[Avalanche_Ambush]

I agree, there can't be a "reward" for getting the most losses

[Pengwin7]

For the first time our league is now counting goalie losses as a category--not sure why but I didn't vote for it. Should I even consider drafting a poor goalie who will lose a lot only to hurt the other peripherals? The categories now will be: W, L, GAA, SV% & SO in a 12 team H2H one year league.

Thanks!

You could technically go 3-0-1 each week by rostering a spot back-up with a decent nightly start.
Even in a loss, a goalie surrounding just 2goals on 30shots will give you a .933sv%, 2.00gaa, 1L.

I'm not fond of this setting at all... and I'd completely exploit it if you only have 1 required weekly start.
If you have 3+ required weekly starts (however), it does place an absolute premium on goalies on good teams.

I would look to "value-draft" the DET duo (Howard/Mrazek) or the STL duo (Elliott/Allen) or the DAL duo (Lehtonen/Niemi).
I don't think any of those goalies are in the Yahoo! top 90.

[duntroon68]

I play with W and L in a couple leagues and really dislike it. Along with GAA and SV% it absolutely encourages sitting your goalies. With a three start minimum, the best case scenario is a couple of good Monday wins and then you can cherry pick your third start. Once you are behind in losses you cannot catch up through your own doing. I don't like any category that encourages sitting players although ratio cats also provide some buffer against someone who just overwhelms with volume (as I have been known to do). It also essentially doubles the value of a W. I try to get goalies from stronger teams.

Unrelated, SO are dumb and random as well. I like the cats in the Dobber leagues W, saves and GAA. They spread the value around.