Fantasy Advice Fridays

The Week of the Goalie

Courtesy sbnation.com

By Josh Duncan

After a dismal first week, I think I offered up some pretty good fantasy advice last Friday, with the exception of my weekend picks. So I'm going to focus on what I did right, which was predicting the future, as you hopefully picked up Josh Harding in your pool. Subconsciously I knew Nazem Kadri was going to go on a rampage during Wednesday's game in Minnesota and knock Niklas Backstrom out cold. I just knew Harding's already high fantasy value would skyrocket for some reason. Since I picked the right netminder to highlight a week ago I'm going to highlight some of the many feel good stories involving goalies over the last couple of weeks.

Courtesy o.canada.com

Nazem's elbow, meet Nik's face. Nik's face, Nazem's elbow.

I'd be remiss if I didn't start in Anaheim, where the Ducks continue to spit out new starting goaltenders seemingly every year. Following in the footsteps of Ilya Bryzgalov, Jonas Hiller and Viktor Fasth, Frederik Andersen is the newest sensation to make an conspicuous debut in Orange County. Andersen suffered his first NHL loss in his seventh career start on Tuesday in Florida, going 6-0-0 and only allowing eight goals against in his NHL career before that.

Courtesy bleacherreport.com

The Ducks have come a long way since the days of Goldberg

The 24-year-old rookie was originally drafted by Carolina 187th overall in 2010 before re-entering the draft in 2012 where he was selected 87th overall by the Ducks. With Fasth still coming back from a lower body injury and the Hiller-to-Nashville rumours gaining steam, it seems Andersen may have stolen the starting job in Anaheim. If any of those three goalies is available in your league they'd be a solid pick up.

Anaheim isn't the only team getting great goaltending right now. There are a few other backups making some noise around the league. Craig Anderson's stock is falling faster than Blockbuster's was two years ago. The 32-year-old was widely considered a potential Vezina candidate last year and finds himself riding the pine in Ottawa at the moment. Hope is not lost for the Senators as Robin Lehner has picked the perfect time to round into form, winning his last three starts after starting the season 0-2-2. The 22-year-old Swede has every chance to become the full time starter in the nation's capital.

The story in Ottawa is nothing new as we see young goalies take the torch from veterans all the time, but in New Jersey that story has been flipped the last little while. After being named the full-time starter by head coach Pete DeBoer, Cory Schneider has dealt with injury issues (among other things) and Martin Brodeur has wasted no time grabbing back the net he's minded for two decades. At 41-years-old Brodeur is no longer the elite fantasy option he once was, but with three wins, a 0.67 GAA, .972 save percentage and two shutouts in the last week, he's clearly found his game again and is as good a short term option in net as anyone.

Giroux shoots, Giroux scores! Finally!!

Earlier I referred to the Flyers as "lowly" and while that may be accurate right now, they're starting to show signs of breaking out of their early season funk. After Ray Emery's fighting debacle a couple of weeks ago, he and Steve Mason are finally starting to get talked about for their goaltending. Emery made 30 saves on Wednesday as Philly beat Pittsburgh to win their third straight. Mason won the first two games of the mini-streak, making 48 of 50 saves in wins over Edmonton and Ottawa. Both are decent free agent pick-ups if they're available in your pool, and if you're jumping on the Flyers' bandwagon you may want to look at trading for one of Claude Giroux, Jakub Voracek or Brayden Schenn while their value is low.

STEEN WATCH 2013: It wouldn't be fantasy advice Friday without checking in on our favourite Swede with an American sounding name, Alexander Steen. The versatile Blues forward got some unexpected help in the scoring race from the post that broke Steve Stamkos' leg on Monday. It's almost a moot point now as the Steen is already starting to show signs of falling back to earth. He had a goal and two helpers over the last week, which is no small feat, but he was out-produced by Patrick Kane, Bobby Ryan and many others over that time. Kane or Ryan may no longer be viable trade options for Steen, but a guy like Voracek could be someone to look at if you're shopping Steen at this point. Always be selling high.

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Josh Duncan is Vancouver's most famous Jewish hockey writer. Follow him on Twitter at @Josh10Duncan. L'chaim!