NHL STARTING GOALIES

Ultimate guide to starting goalies

The goalie is the most important position in Daily Fantasy Hockey. Goalies are usually going to be the most expensive AND highest scoring position that you will roster. A goalie who manages to land a shutout is going to massively juice your chances of cashing, while a bad night can translate to negative fantasy points and game over for your lineup.

When are starting goalies announced?

Occasionally teams will confirm their goalies the night before, but most of the time the announcements will trickle in throughout the day. Check back often to see the latest on who's starting tonight and tomorrow.

How do teams decide on their starting goalie?

Most nights it will often be the usual starter that is playing, but there will be times that a back up plays due to injury, to shake up losing streaks, or to rest the primary goalie so they avoid playing back-to-back nights. Most teams will play their starter 50-55 games per season, with backups starting in net 20 - 25 times on average.

Strategy for picking a starting DFS Goalie

There are 3 key things to consider when deciding on a starting goalie:

• Make sure you pick a goalie that is starting: Use our tool to find goalies that are confirmed as starting. We're constantly updating our list of starting goalies throughout the day, so check back often. Picking a goalie that isn't starting in net is a painful mistake to make, and will almost always result in you losing your contest.
• Find goalies likely to win: Both Draftkings and Fanduel heavily weight Fantasy Points for winning. In fact if your goalie doesn't win, it will be very hard to make up those missing points with your skaters. Our starting goalie tool makes it easy by listing the "WIN ODDS" for each goalie and matchup. These odds are calculated based on the Moneyline, Puck Line, and Over / Under, to give you an accurate sense of how likely that goalie is to win.
• Look for value: Now that you've found Goalies with a high % of winning, look closely at their salaries. You are usually going to have to pay up for a top tier goalie that is facing off against a team that is bottom of their division and playing the last leg of a road trip. You might want to lock in that expensive goalie when playing cash games on a night with only 3 or 4 matchups, but in a large field tournament with 10+ matchups, having that extra bit of room left in your budget lets you pick up another premium skater.
  
  When trying to find value, look for goalies priced $1000 or $2000 below the top goalie of the night, that are listed with a solid 60%+ chance of winning. Extra factors that add to your decision are if the other team's goalie is playing back to back, or if there is a key player injured on the other team. Both will work in your favor.