It’s never easy determining when to select your first goaltender in a draft. Is it worth risking not having an elite goal-scorer on your squad to lock up one of the best goalies? Do you wait until the middle rounds to take your first goalkeeper and hope to get lucky with a high-risk, high-reward guy like Jimmy Howard? You’ll be faced with plenty of questions come draft day, but deciding on when to take your goalie is always one of the toughest.
Not only are there several questions you have to face about your personal fantasy team, but how about the debates facing the goalies themselves. Can Tim Thomas compete at the same level as he did last season, when he won the Vezina Trophy? Will Roberto Luongo be affected by his playoff struggles? Are the Rangers good enough to put Henrik Lundqvist into the upper echelon? Will Pekka Rinne take the next step to stardom after earning a Vezina nomination?
We believe the last question is the most likely scenario of all the question marks surrounding this year’s crop of elite goaltenders. With the end of Martin Brodeur’s reign as the top-ranked goalie heading into the season, we welcome Nashville’s Rinne as our new No. 1. After posting a 33-win season with an outstanding 2.12 goals against average, .930 save percentage and six shutouts, expectations are extremely high for the 28 year-old.