What to do when the goalie pool is literally EMPTY

[Turbo_Supremo]

Hey All,

I took over this team in a 16 team Dynasty. The team needs work, goaltending being one of the areas minus Varlamov.

Long story short though, the goalie pool in this league is EMPTY.

When looking at waivers/free agent pool [Eligible in upcoming draft]; Vladar, Rittich, Raanta, Dell, Forsberg are the cream of the crop. Even all of the top up and comer goalies like Gustavsson, Primeau, Luukkonen are all called for.

What would you do in this situation? Take a deep dive in the prospect pool for Logan Thompson (who I believe I will try to target), or maybe someone like Daniil Tarasov?
Or should I use whatever players I have that have value as trade pieces?

Players I can figure out, but this goalie situation is haunting me.

Advice welcome!
Cheers!

[Pengwin7]

Use the no-goalies as a great reason to tank for two season.
2022 and 2023 both have great prospects at the top end.

In those two years, use that time to scour for value goalie prospects.
They do (guys like Binnington or Lankinen) come out of nowhere at times.

[Russian Rocket 10]

Not only should you look to upcoming prospects like Pengwin suggests, but I would also trade, trade, trade to shore up a couple of good goalies. During the season, I would pounce on whatever injuries and cold streaks that provide opportunity to trading in your favour, thus further cementing your tank strategy. Trade with the contenders and help build for your future.

Good luck!

[pmorrow]

Tough call. Not sure if this fits into your strategy but looking at that group, I might take a flyer on Raanta as he should play well in Carolina and get his stock up - if, and this is a big if - he can stay healthy.

[tweetdrivr]

Tough call. Not sure if this fits into your strategy but looking at that group, I might take a flyer on Raanta as he should play well in Carolina and get his stock up - if, and this is a big if - he can stay healthy.

Yes - luckily for you he also plays behind Andersen. Who also has his significant injury history.

[joeb323]

I agree with Pengwin. Looking at your roster, to me it doesn’t look strong enough to compete for a championship and you have some aging players that you’ll have to make some decisions on moving forward. The time might have come to rebuild around the younger core you have and focus on re-stocking the shelves for the next couple seasons.

[Turbo_Supremo]

I agree with Pengwin. Looking at your roster, to me it doesn’t look strong enough to compete for a championship and you have some aging players that you’ll have to make some decisions on moving forward. The time might have come to rebuild around the younger core you have and focus on re-stocking the shelves for the next couple seasons.

Oh, I am already on board that train. Shipped out Mark Stone for a 1st and 2nd round pick in the upcoming draft. Will try to move anyone of value during the season to competitive teams. For that I know I will try to do.

Just with respects to the goalie situation; the prospect pool is very VERY shallow for goalies, so it is more of a; being that I know I am rebuilding... do I scourer the deep prospect pool to see if I can find something that might become something in 2-3 years, or do I trade what value I have for semi-proven goalies with upside potential?

[random-d]

I would stick with at least "semi-proven" assets. That way you're not sitting on an asset for 4 or 5 years before you can find out what the real value is. Getting value is obviously going to be the name of the game for you, and you'd be hard pressed to convince anyone to give you value for a 6th round goalie prospect in the Swiss league.

[YzermansLegacy]

The fact that Tarasov is available suggests there's still some quality prospect tendies to mine.

Realizing you're in a rebuild, the advice already given is appropriate.

BUT - for anyone who is reading this looking for yet another strategy/option...

Take a quick look through cap friendly and see which goalies are no longer waiver exempt. Once you get past the career minor leaguers (L.Domingue's, T.Grosenick's, etc.) you can often find a couple of decent prospects that teams will not want to lose to waivers.

A couple of years ago, it was T.Jarry in that spot. Last year, a guy like A.Nedeljkovic fit the bill. E.Comrie too.

Haven't done my own 'deep dive' yet - but C.Ingram in NSH stands out as I guy I 'starred' earlier for this exact reason.

Does NSH really waive D.Rittich over him? Likely not imo. Likely they don't keep 3 goalies (as CAR did last year) either. So the chances are good that C.Ingram does gets 'waived'.

So that means a BUF, ARZ, etc. might put in a waiver claim on him (or potentially a team that has a pre-season injury to a goalie).

Obviously that's not a huge selling point to get a goalie on BUF/ARZ this year lol - but the actual process of looking at this is sound.

2 years ago, everybody had C.DeSmith backing up M.Murray in PIT. Then T.Jarry made the roster (so they didn't lose him to waivers) and C.DeSmith was dropped to the minors.

So just another strategy for a team scraping the goalie bin barrel to find a guy with a bit more potential upside that likely no one else is considering for this year.

[Turbo_Supremo]

BUT - for anyone who is reading this looking for yet another strategy/option...

Take a quick look through cap friendly and see which goalies are no longer waiver exempt. Once you get past the career minor leaguers (L.Domingue's, T.Grosenick's, etc.) you can often find a couple of decent prospects that teams will not want to lose to waivers.

...

Haven't done my own 'deep dive' yet - but C.Ingram in NSH stands out as I guy I 'starred' earlier for this exact reason.

Does NSH really waive D.Rittich over him? Likely not imo. Likely they don't keep 3 goalies (as CAR did last year) either. So the chances are good that C.Ingram does gets 'waived'.

After a quick glance, it appears along with Connor Ingram (ranked 92 on Dobbers top 100 keeper goalies); Sam Montembeault (ranked 80 on Dobbers top 100 keeper goalies) is another goalie of potential who is no longer waiver exempt as well. The fact that Florida has Knight and Bob, he could be picked up by another team as well.

[Feenom]

Tarasov is a must get. Also taking chances on Vladar and Raanta isn’t the end of the world. You never know what happens. I also agree to trade owned assets to try and acquire a starter. If you own Varly then his value will increase as the season goes on, so those contenders might loosen their grips on younger goalies. Good luck.

[stevegamer]

I was pretty much in your situation in a dynasty that I took over where the goalie wire was pretty barren. However, your goalie roster is wonderful compared to what I had, while my prospects were ok.

If you're going to tank, you need to deal Varlamov & Smith away - they are too old and likely to be decent to good. Depending on the categories, Murray can help you tank with his brutal ratios or be trade bait if you can get anything for him.

1. Vladar, Rittich, and Raanta are good grabs. They are backups on decent or better teams, and should have utility, just not too much utility, unless they get a job to run with due to injury or poor play in front of them.

2. Tarasov could be a good grab, but he's a bit far away. That said, if you're aiming a couple years out, that can work.

[notch4077]

Vladar, Gustavsson and Thompson are as good as any current prospect goalies out there. Add them and roll the dice just like everyone else in your league is with the goalie they have. Don’t sweat it.