Goalie Sleeper

[Stencil]

Forsberg - could have great value since Crawford gets hurt all the time

"Crawford gets hurt all the time" is completely wrong and thrown out of any stat to back it up. Since 2010: 57 gp, 57 gp, 30 gp (lock out year), 59 gp, 57 gp, 58 gp, 55 gp.

So he is one of the easiest goalie to predict a number of game played. Forsberg has good value with the salary, as any other backup goalie in a good team, in the event of an injury to the number one. But saying Crawford is injury prone is just wrong info.

To answer the original post, my opinion is that Niemi and Budaj are the best bet, but they are gamble like any other one. The most talented backup goalie and not on anybody's radar is Pickard but we can't hope for any good upside in Las Vegas.

[junyab]

Saros. Many think he'll be a back-up again this season but I wouldn't be surprised of he gets 40% of the starts.

[captaincrunch32]

Budaj could be sneaky good if Vasilevsky struggles which is totally possible considering what we saw last season.

I don't trust Budaj. A career back-up that succeeded where most mediocre goalies succeed, behind the Kings. The Kings sacrificed their offense to play defense last season as they dreaded having him in net. There are better options out there. Look at the back of Budaj's card and not last seasons aberration.

[Poutine]

Niemi i know has not been good but Murray is injury prone.... thoughts on him as his cap is 800k.

I would target Tristan Jarry instead of Niemi. If Murray goes down with an injury, Jarry will be called up and could quickly beat out Niemi. At 800k, Pens will feel no obligation to play Niemi and may prefer to help with Jarry's development. Plus, Jarry is very talented and will either back up Murray by 2018-19 season or get traded into a better position.

Feel free to disagree, though. I see others already have advised to take Niemi.

[Pengwin7]

I would target Tristan Jarry instead of Niemi. If Murray goes down with an injury, Jarry will be called up and could quickly beat out Niemi. At 800k, Pens will feel no obligation to play Niemi and may prefer to help with Jarry's development. Plus, Jarry is very talented and will either back up Murray by 2018-19 season or get traded into a better position.

Feel free to disagree, though. I see others already have advised to take Niemi.

OP states "for next season"... so there is no point forecasting into 2018-2019. (I do agree on 2018-2019, if we are discussing a topic that's not asked about by OP).
I think most NHL GMs believe its better to get a young goalie 50+ starts in the AHL, then 20-25 starts thrown into the fire of the NHL.

Yes - also agree that IF Murray goes down hard, Jarry could get majority of starts in a Niemi/Jarry time-share.
But... if Murray doesn't get injured - you are advising the OP to draft a player that may not get a single start in the NHL this season.
Fantasy hockey isn't won by having zero-point-players on your bench when you can sub them in as a "3rd goalie" - as per OP.

"For next season" is basically one-year advice.
And people aren't going to be drafting Tristan Jarry and holding him on their bench (with zero stats) in hopes that Murray gets injured.

It's not a completely invaluable mention.
It is good to know when a team's #3 (AHL goalie) is possibly better than the back-up in the NHL.
Last year, when Jon Quick went down, I made my LA goalie claim for Budaj, instead of Zatkoff, and that turned out magnifique!

A better post for all of us, is probably:
Niemi, solely for his back-up win ratio... but be prepared to make a quick claim on Tristan Jarry IF Murray goes down at any point.

[Poutine]

Fair enough.