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Over the course of the 2018-2019 NHL season, RotoBaller will be breaking down our fantasy hockey player rankings by position.
These positional rankings will be updated and posted on a weekly basis, starting with forwards every Sunday, defensemen on Monday, and goaltenders each Tuesday.
Note: Rankings are determined considering a standard Yahoo league format (wins, goals against average, save percentage, and shutouts for goalies).
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Top 25 Goaltenders - Fantasy Rankings for Week 1
- Andrei Vasilevskiy (TBL - G)
- Sergei Bobrovsky (CLB - G)
- Connor Hellebuyck (WPG - G)
- Pekka Rinne (NSH - G)
- John Gibson (ANA - G)
- Braden Holtby (WAS - G)
- Martin Jones (SJS - G)
- Tuuka Rask (BOS - G)
- Marc-Andre Fleury (VGK - G)
- Jonathan Quick (LAK - G) *INJ
- Frederik Andersen (TOR - G)
- Devan Dubnyk (MIN - G)
- Ben Bishop (DAL - G)
- Carey Price (MTL - G)
- Cam Talbot (EDM - G)
- Antii Raanta (ARI - G)
- Carter Hutton (BUF - G)
- Matt Murray (PIT - G) *INJ
- Corey Crawford (CHI - G) *INJ
- Roberto Luongo (FLA - G) * INJ
- Henrik Lundqvist (NYR - G)
- Mike Smith (CGY - G)
- Jake Allen (STL - G)
- Cory Schneider (NJD - G)*INJ
- Semyon Varlamov (COL - G)
Stock Report
Fantasy Hockey Risers
Carter Hutton (BUF - G) - 23 --> 17
After landing in Buffalo on a three-year, $8.25 million deal this past offseason, many analysts were skeptical on how Hutton would respond to being handed the keys to the starting role for the first time in his career. Through three starts, Hutton has passed the test with flying colors, earning two wins, a 2.06 goals against average while stopping 100 of 106 shots faced (.943 save percentage). Hutton has seemed to pick up where he left off in 2017-2018, a season in which he sat near the top of the league leaderboard with his 2.09 GAA and a .931 SV%. As we know, it's still early and the sample size is considerably small, but the Ontario native seems poised to retain his position in the top-20 moving forward.
Fantasy Hockey Fallers
Matt Murray (PIT - G) - 13 --> 18
Murray checks in as the biggest faller of the week after it was announced that he will be out indefinitely due to a concussion. As we've seen with goalies in the past (i.e. Fleury and Crawford in 2017-2018), everyone has their own unique timetable to recovery as head injuries seem to have a different effect on each individual. Combine that with the fact that this concussion is his third in just four NHL seasons (and his eighth injury overall), one would be inclined to believe the 24-year-old might be on the shelf for quite some time. There's no doubt that two-time Stanley Cup winner is immensely talented when he's healthy but his inability to consistently draw into the lineup significantly affects his fantasy value.
Jonathan Quick (LAK - G) - 8 --> 10
Quick is another goaltender to slide a few spots down the rankings due to injury. The Connecticut native was placed on injured reserve as a result of a lower-body injury suffered in practice on October 6th. The LBI is his second injury of the young season after he suffered a groin injury in the team's season opener. There's some uncertainty regarding his timeframe for recovery but there is a belief that Quick can be considered out on a week-to-week basis.
