Week 5: Fantasy top 25 goalie rankings for 2016-17

All season long, NHL.com's David Satriano will rank the top 25 goalies for standard Yahoo leagues (wins, goals-against average, save percentage, shutouts). Players with long-term injuries have been removed from this list.
These rankings are based on expectations for the rest of the season. Value is quantified by projected starts, peripheral category coverage, time-share situations, team defenses, past performance and overall upside in standard leagues. It is important to note that our rankings reflect sheer fantasy value, not necessarily the most talented goalies in order.

Before the season, Boston Bruins goalie Tuukka Rask was not seen as an elite fantasy goalie, at least not in the mind of the author of this article, who thought the team in front of him would factor into his decline.
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A little more than a month into the season, that couldn't be farther from the truth.
Rask is 10-1-0 with a 1.54 GAA, .945 SV% and three shutouts. He's allowed three or more goals three times in 11 starts and one goal or fewer seven times. Rask was solid last season -- he won 31 games and had a 2.56 GAA, .915 SV% and four shutouts -- but he's taken it to another level.
He's resembling the goalie who won the Vezina Trophy in 2014, and is a huge reason the Bruins are 10-6-0. How important is he to the Bruins? They are 0-5-0 in the games he hasn't played this season.
Even with Montreal Canadiens goalie Carey Price having a surreal season thus far, Rask is actually the highest-ranked goalie on Yahoo (No. 5 overall). Price (10-0-1, 1.63 GAA, .948 SV%, two shutouts) and Rask have almost identical numbers. Rask is behind forwards Mark Scheifele (Winnipeg Jets), Steven Stamkos (Tampa Bay Lightning) Nikita Kucherov (Lightning) and Jakub Voracek (Philadelphia Flyers) in Yahoo's performance-based rankings.

TRENDING UP

It was a bumpy start to the season for Nashville Predators goalie Pekka Rinne, who allowed at least three goals in four straight starts before giving up two or fewer in his past six. Rinne had a 27-save shutout in his previous start, a 5-0 win against the Anaheim Ducks on Nov. 12, and has looked sharp playing like he did when he was a Vezina Trophy finalist in three of the past six seasons. Rinne is 5-4-3, but has a 2.13 GAA and a .930 SV%. He was listed as day to day with a lower-body injury and didn't play Tuesday, but returned to practice Wednesday and should start against the Ottawa Senators on Thursday.

TRENDING DOWN

After Edmonton Oilers goalie Cam Talbot was named the NHL's First Star for the week ending Oct. 23, he allowed two goals in the next three games but hasn't looked good since. Talbot has given up at least three goals in each of his past seven starts (1-5-1). His save percentage was under .900 in four of his past six starts and his GAA has risen to 2.66. Talbot has started 16 of the Oilers' 17 games, the highest total in the League, and is poised to shatter his NHL career high of 53 starts set last season. But Talbot is struggling and may not be able to revert to his early-season success, especially if he's run into the ground playing in 65-plus games.

WORTH NOTING

• Anthony Stolarz is owned in 2 percent of Yahoo leagues but that number could increase very quickly, very soon. The Flyers rookie was recalled from Lehigh Valley of the American Hockey League on Monday after it was announced that Michal Neuvirth would miss 4-6 weeks with a knee injury. Steve Mason gets the first shot at the No. 1 job but he has a sub-.900 SV% (.884) and a plus-3.00 GAA (3.24), so Stolarz could be given a chance. Stolarz was 6-2-0 with a 2.39 GAA and a .927 SV% in eight AHL games, and Flyers coach Dave Hakstol said he would play at some point during his recall.
  - Mike Smith returned for the Arizona Coyotes on Wednesday after missing 12 games because of a lower-body injury sustained on Oct. 18 and made 22 saves in 2-1 overtime loss to the Calgary Flames. Smith (1-0-1) allowed three goals in each of his two previous starts and is owned in 37 percent of leagues although the Coyotes are 5-9-0, so he doesn't offer much value except that he will start majority of the games when healthy. Louis Domingue (8 percent owned) went 4-8-0 with a 3.42 GAA and .899 SV% in Smith's absence.
  - Flames goalie Chad Johnson (9 percent owned) made 27 saves in 1-0 win against the Minnesota Wild on Tuesday and 20 saves against the Coyotes on Wednesday. Johnson is 4-2-1 with a 2.24 GAA and .915 SV%. The fact that he started each game in the back-to-back set shows you the Flames' confidence level in Brian Elliott (76 percent owned) is not very high. Elliott has started 11 games and is 3-8-0 with a 3.36 GAA and .882 SV%. Elliott is worth adding in deep leagues.

TOP 25 FANTASY GOALIES

These rankings were last updated Nov. 17
1. Carey Price, MTL (SAME)
2. Tuukka Rask, BOS (+2)
3. Braden Holtby, WSH (SAME)
4. Devan Dubnyk, MIN (-2)
5. Cory Schneider, NJD (+2)
6. Henrik Lundqvist, NYR (SAME)
7. Corey Crawford, CHI (-2)
8. Martin Jones, SJS (SAME)
9. Matt Murray, PIT (DTD)
10. Pekka Rinne, NSH (DTD)
11. Roberto Luongo, FLA (SAME)
12. Sergei Bobrovsky, CBJ (+2)
13. Jake Allen, STL (-3)
14. Ben Bishop, TBL (-1)
15. Marc-Andre Fleury, PIT (+1)
16. John Gibson, ANA, (-4)
17. Craig Anderson, OTT (SAME)
18. Semyon Varlamov, COL (NEW)
19. Jimmy Howard, DET (-1)
20. Petr Mrazek, DET (SAME)
21. Cam Talbot, EDM (-2)
22. Frederik Andersen, TOR (+1)
23. Peter Budaj, LAK (-2)
24. Jaroslav Halak, NYI (-2)
25. Andrei Vasilevskiy, TBL (NEW)
Dropped out: Brian Elliott (CGY), Robin Lehner (BUF)
Just missed: Connor Hellebuyck (WPG), Steve Mason (PHI), Cam Ward (CAR), Lehner, Chad Johnson (CGY)
Key injuries: Jonathan Quick (LAK), Michal Neuvirth (PHI), Andrew Hammond (OTT)
READ: Last week's Top 25 goalie rankings